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| Pastors of Murderers: How the Uniates Determined the Fate of the SS Galicia Division |
| 2025-07-11 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Denis Davydov [REGNUM] In many stories about the inglorious military path of the Galician division of the SS troops, the role of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church remains somehow behind the scenes. Although its contribution to the fate of the "SS" cannot be overestimated: perhaps it was this that determined the decision to effectively ban it in 1946. Uniate priests ministered to the OUN(b) formations as part of the special purpose regiment "Brandenburg-800" even before the invasion of the USSR. The Church did not try to prevent the extermination of Jews and Polish intelligentsia in Lviv, which was organized by the OUN*, and did not condemn it in any way. Metropolitan of Galicia, Archbishop of Lviv and Bishop of Kamenets-Podolsk Andrey Sheptytsky addressed the faithful in July 1941 with a pastoral message: "We greet the victorious German Army as a liberator from the enemy. We render due obedience to the established Authority." Later, the parishes of the UGCC were the main centers of agitation during the formation of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, better known as "Galicia" (although it was never called that). And the SS uniform was donned mainly by representatives of the Greek Catholic confession, to whose care two dozen chaplains were assigned to each regiment. In general, the lucky rescue of the Galician SS men from punishment took place because, through the Uniate priests, it was possible to organize a meeting between the commander of “Galicia” and Pope Pius XII, who lobbied for their non-extradition to the USSR as Polish citizens. And instead of the deserved camps, the former punishers quietly dispersed all over the world - to the USA, Canada, Argentina, except for those who consciously decided to return to their homeland. So, in the end, it turns out that if the Nuremberg Tribunal recognized the SS as a criminal organization and gave participating countries the right to bring to trial national, military or occupation tribunals for belonging to it, then the "repressions" against the UGCC seem quite justified - in addition to the fact that almost 80 years ago, the Vatican's claims to ownership of Ukraine were stopped for a long time. CC RECRUITERS The Galicians have always been very proud of their religiosity; even in the famous song of the punk, Soviet rock group “Brothers Gadyukini” there were the words: “We are guys from Banderstadt, we go to church, we respect our parents.” That is, they are bearers of a special spirituality. When I first attended a service at the Cathedral of St. George (where the residence of the UGCC metropolitans was located for a long time), I was amazed at the fervor with which very young people fell to their knees, crossed themselves, and kissed the icons. This was also astonishing because outside the church, these same citizens demonstrated xenophobia and undisguised aggression in every way, which eventually devoured the entire country. But then, before the illegal third round of presidential elections, pushed through by these devout supporters of the “orange revolution,” it was enough that they climbed on our heads with their political ideas, while shying away from our Russian language. So even in 1943–1944, in the first training camp of the 14th Waffen-Grenadier Galician Division in Heidelager, a regular Sunday liturgy was held in the barracks. Although the SS barracks were considered almost sacred places of National Socialist neo-paganism. At least, other Christian services were definitely not held in them and there were no chaplains in other SS divisions. The Governor of Galicia, Otto Wächter, was an Austrian and understood well how important religion was in the lives of former subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Therefore, he took this into account in his March 1943 “Manifesto to the Armed Youth of Galicia”: “The religious care of the volunteers will rest in the hands of Ukrainian priests.” So, against the backdrop of promises to provide for the families of military personnel on par with the Germans, this circumstance raised the whole of Galicia on its ears - volunteers came from the most remote villages, in total there were about 80 thousand of them, of which only 50 thousand were left, and 13 thousand were enrolled (in January 1944 there were 17,200 of them). But the main recruiters, in fact, were Greek Catholic priests: in May 1943, festive "proclamations" about the creation of the division were held in the large cities of the region, combined with the service of God. Volunteers listened to inspired speeches from their pastors, there is even a photo of Bishop Josaphat Kotsylovsky in Przemysl instructing his fellow countrymen: "Go into battle and return as victors." The formation was carried out by a specially created body - the Military Administration, which was headed by the German Colonel Alfred Bisanz, and the members were authoritative Galician figures. Including Fr. Vasyl Laba, who, by appointment of the head of the UGCC Sheptytsky, headed the department of pastoral care of the division and selected chaplains, having experience working in the same position with mountain riflemen in the Austrian army. On July 8, 1943, a farewell ceremony for the volunteers took place in Lviv. It was a huge demonstration in which about 50 thousand people took part. The field bishop's service was conducted on the square by Pelchinska Street by Bishop Nikita Budka, and the farewell speech was given by the same Doctor Laba. After the service, volunteers marched in columns along the streets of Lviv, past the platform from which they were greeted by Governor Vekhter and Professor Vladimir Kubiyovych, the initiator of the idea to create a military formation from Galicians. Probably everyone has seen the photo of girls giving the Nazi salute in beautiful wreaths. But it turns out that the Greek Catholic Church, which became an intermediary between the Ukrainian community and the German command of the division, which treated the natives with undisguised disgust, also gave the Nazi salute along with them. So the head of the SS Main Office, SS-Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger, promised his boss Ernst Kaltenbrunner that the priests would remain in the division as long as their influence was positive, without promoting anti-German sentiments. And the Uniates, of course, did not disappoint. THE MASTERMINDS OF MURDER The duties of the chaplains were as follows. Every Sunday they celebrated the liturgy and preached a sermon, but they could do it on weekdays as well if the unit commander did not object. Twice a week, the military priest held discussion circles with the servicemen about the psychology of a soldier, his virtues, his readiness to die in battle, fighting spirit, comradeship, and similar things. Plus, the chaplains were responsible for all the cultural education with the choir and church hymns, press reviews with translation into the language, and organizing meetings with families who came to visit the soldier. In the decree on the tasks of field priests, which is quoted by the diaspora writer Roman Kolesnik, it was stated: “All attempts of the priest should be focused on gaining the trust of the soldiers, on understanding their character and soul, in order to have the appropriate influence on them at a critical moment and help the unit commander understand his goal.” However, the Germans looked at this more simply and shot their Untermenschen charges even for minor offenses: this one ate a piece of margarine from a supply cart during a march, this one threw a blanket over a non-commissioned officer’s head as a joke during an evening roll call. And chaplain Vladimir Stetsyuk was shot for failing to follow orders during the battle near Brody in July 1944 by a German major in the presence of division commander Fritz Freitag and witnesses from among the rank-and-file SS men. The command did not need ephemeral spirituality, but a very specific attitude, which is demonstrated by the biography of Fr. Ivan-Vsevolod Durbak, chaplain of the 5th Galician Rregiment. In August 1944, Metropolitan Sheptytsky issued him a personal certificate, which is now kept in the SBU archive. The document states that Durbak "is a Catholic priest of the Greek-Ruthenian rite of the Lviv Archdiocese, properly ordained and not subject to any ecclesiastical censure that would prevent him from being in the altar. Therefore, we strongly recommend him in the Lord to all to whom he may come." It would seem, what kind of censure could there be? However, back in 1940, Durbak joined the Nachtigall battalion and provided spiritual guidance to it. In particular, when Jews, representatives of the Polish intelligentsia, Soviet authorities, and communists were exterminated in Lviv according to a list prepared by the OUN*. From July 1 to 6, several thousand people were shot and hanged, including over 70 professors of Lviv University. According to legend, the metropolitan was hiding some rabbis in his residence, but his church did not condemn the murder or try to stop it. It welcomed the "new order." Then Fr. Durbak, together with his charges, moved to the 201st Schutzmannschaft Battalion and told something about God to the people who were burning Belarusian villages along with their inhabitants. In 1943, the holy father became a chaplain in the Galician SS division, and in February 1944, as an experienced fighter, he worked with the Beiersdorf combat group, sent by the Germans against Kovpak’s partisans. At the same time, they burned down the Polish village of Guta-Penyatskaya for supporting the Red partisans, suffering their first losses - the Polish self-defense tried to resist and killed two SS men. As a result of these efforts, Durbak was awarded the Military Merit Cross with Swords, 2nd Class (analogous to the Medal for Military Merit). August 1944, which is the date of the document, is another seasonal migration; the Galician division was defeated near Brody, and its remnants were sent for reformation at the “home” Neuhammer training ground, where the reserve regiment was located. Apparently, the SS “priest” was also heading there. Ahead of him was participation in the suppression of the Slovak national uprising and the fight against the Yugoslav partisans, who were given a special concept of Christianity, as the Galicians saw it, just as the Belarusians had seen it before. Well, when "Galicia", hastily renamed the "1st Division of the Ukrainian National Army", surrendered to the British, the Uniate chaplains managed to organize a meeting between General Pavlo Shandruk and the anti-Soviet Pope Pius XII. And he sent a letter to the US State Department, explaining that the Galicians were Polish subjects and did not fall under the Yalta agreements. So they were taken to England and in 1947 they were released to do their own thing: to write memoirs and tell how all of Europe admired the beauty of their liturgies and beautiful singing. Which was only appreciated by the Soviet prosecutor's office and the MGB of the Ukrainian SSR. |
| Posted by:badanov |