Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Stepan Bandera" in English language version.
It is an undeniable fact, though, that OUN organized pogroms and mass violence against Jews and others throughout Western Ukraine in July 1941.German documentation and Jewish testimony are unanimous that Ukrainians were the pogromists. The pattern of the violence exhibits many features of coordination over the whole territory .... Both were anti-democratic, anti-Semitic, xenophobic, and admirers of the Italian fascists and German national socialists. Both were involved in atrocities, though the Bandera wing was much more deeply involved .... after Stalingrad and after Kursk, OUN began to distance itself from fascism, particularly at its Third Extraordinary Grand Assembly in August 1943. Bandera himself, however, remained true to the old ideology to the end.
On 22 June 1941, the first phase of the Holocaust in these territories began when at least 140 pogroms broke out, resulting in the murder of thirteen to thirty-five thousand Jews. In the largest pogrom, in Lviv, which began around ten o'clock at night, just a few hours before the proclamationof the Ukrainian state, four thousand Jews were killed. The perpetrators of this pogrom consisted of the militia of the OUN-B, which worked together with the Germans, groups of local civilians, as well as various German units, including some from the Wehrmacht.
After the outbreak of World War II, the Germans constantly favored the OUN, at the expense of more moderate Ukrainian groups. The extremist Ukrainian nationalist groups then launched a campaign of vilification against moderate leaders, accusing them of various misdeeds...As early as the spring of 1940, a central Ukrainian committee was organized in Cracow under the chairmanship of Volodimir Kubiovitch...Shortly before the outbreak of Russo-German hostilities, the Germans, through Colonel Erwin Stolze, of the Abwehr, conducted negotiations with both OUN leaders, Melnyk and Bandera, requesting that they engage in underground activities in the rear of the Soviet armies in the Ukraine.
Stepan Bandera, who had led a gang carrying out terrorist attacks in Polish-ruled western Ukraine in the 1930s. Both factions were funded by the Germans..
Stepan Bandera, leader of the Nazi-sponsored terrorist group OUN.
had walked out of the prison in 1939 following the German invasion of Poland, slipping through Soviet hands
Khrushchev's major regret was that in September 1939, when the Red Army had crossed the Polish border under the terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and taken over Western Ukraine and Belarus, Bandera had been able to escape his Polish prison
The OUN had many factions and was rife with ideological disputes, but on the whole it harmonized with the fascist, integral-nationalist, anticommunist, and antisemitic profile of German National Socialists.
For instance, the chant, 'Glory to Ukraine!' (Slava Ukraini!), followed by 'Glory to the Heroes!' (Heroiam slava!), had its origins in Ukraine's national revolution of 1917–1920, but it became widespread as a slogan under the wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) under the leadership of Stepan Bandera. By 1941, the Bandera wing of the OUN had embraced the ideals of fascism and Nazism, emphasizing militarism, one-party rule, and the cult of the leader.
Both factions of the OUN hoped that the Germans would permit the establishment of an independent Ukrainian state, at least in Galicia... OUN-B who used it as a vehicle to perpetrate ethnic cleansing — indeed genocide — across Wolyn. As German forces abandoned the countryside, UPA units murdered the entire populations of Polish villages (and many Ukrainians as well) in an attempt to frighten the remainder into fleeing.
In January 2010, former president of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko officially 'rehabilitated' Stepan Bandera, head of one of the two factions of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the political sponsor of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. This act drew condemnation from Russia, Poland, and Jewish groups.
At the turn of 1944/1945, Bandera took part in negotiations with the Nazis, which led to the formation of the Ukrainian National Committee (UNK) in March 1945.
It is an undeniable fact, though, that OUN organized pogroms and mass violence against Jews and others throughout Western Ukraine in July 1941.German documentation and Jewish testimony are unanimous that Ukrainians were the pogromists. The pattern of the violence exhibits many features of coordination over the whole territory .... Both were anti-democratic, anti-Semitic, xenophobic, and admirers of the Italian fascists and German national socialists. Both were involved in atrocities, though the Bandera wing was much more deeply involved .... after Stalingrad and after Kursk, OUN began to distance itself from fascism, particularly at its Third Extraordinary Grand Assembly in August 1943. Bandera himself, however, remained true to the old ideology to the end.
Deeply deplores the decision by the outgoing President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, posthumously to award Stepan Bandera, a leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) which collaborated with Nazi Germany, the title of 'National Hero of Ukraine', hopes, in this regard, that the new Ukrainian leadership will reconsider such decisions and will maintain its commitment to European values.
If the authors had examined carefully the documents available in the West, particularly in Germany, they would have discovered whether we are talking about the Andrii Mel'nyk faction of the OUN or Stepan Bandera faction, the crucial issue for both was reestablishing an inpendent Ukrainian state. Other issues were subordinated to this objective.The position of both factions of the OUN is well documented in various official papers, including those sent by the OUN leadership to the
And Putin has accused 'Banderites and neo-Nazis' of putting up heavy weapons and using human shields... Banderites is a term used — often pejoratively — to describe followers of controversial Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera, and Ukrainian nationalists in general.
Until his death in 1959, Bandera remained a supporter of authoritarian and violent politics.
Himka says attempts to whitewash UPA's wartime record harm Ukraine's fledgling democracy by encouraging the far right in Ukraine and negatively impact democratic practices within the Ukrainian community in Canada. I think personally that you can't be making heroes out of Holocaust perpetrators and ethnic cleansers, says Himka.
At the turn of 1944/1945, Bandera took part in negotiations with the Nazis, which led to the formation of the Ukrainian National Committee (UNK) in March 1945.
It is an undeniable fact, though, that OUN organized pogroms and mass violence against Jews and others throughout Western Ukraine in July 1941.German documentation and Jewish testimony are unanimous that Ukrainians were the pogromists. The pattern of the violence exhibits many features of coordination over the whole territory .... Both were anti-democratic, anti-Semitic, xenophobic, and admirers of the Italian fascists and German national socialists. Both were involved in atrocities, though the Bandera wing was much more deeply involved .... after Stalingrad and after Kursk, OUN began to distance itself from fascism, particularly at its Third Extraordinary Grand Assembly in August 1943. Bandera himself, however, remained true to the old ideology to the end.
So while Bandera and his men were responsible for killing Jews, their ideology wasn't fundamentally anti-Semitic; rather, it was pro-Ukrainian, and anti-everyone who appeared to be in the way of that, which included the pro-Soviet Jews. 'For the Nazis, anti-Semitism was an unconditional core belief, and Nazi anti-Semitism was an all-or-nothing proposition that was both immutable and immune to circumstances,' explained Alexander John Motyl, a professor of political science at Rutgers, in an email. 'For the Ukrainian nationalists, their attitude toward Jews depended on political circumstances.' The primary enemy of the OUN was Poland and then the Soviet Union—or, rather, Poles and Russians. Jews were a 'problem' because they weren't Ukrainian, and because they were implicated, or believed to be implicated, in helping the Soviets take over Ukrainian territory.
At the turn of 1944/1945, Bandera took part in negotiations with the Nazis, which led to the formation of the Ukrainian National Committee (UNK) in March 1945.
Some Ukrainian immigrant circles in Canada, the United States, and Germany had been active for decades in trying to suppress the topic and reacted to any testimony about Ukrainian anti-Jewish violence with virulent diatribes against what they dismissed as 'Jewish propaganda' ... the Ukrainian Insurrectional Army (UPA), which was responsible for ethnic 'cleansing' actions against Poles and Jews in Volhynia and Galicia.
Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted Bandera's role in Holocaust crimes and the tens of thousands of Jewish victims murdered in Ukraine...
It is an undeniable fact, though, that OUN organized pogroms and mass violence against Jews and others throughout Western Ukraine in July 1941.German documentation and Jewish testimony are unanimous that Ukrainians were the pogromists. The pattern of the violence exhibits many features of coordination over the whole territory .... Both were anti-democratic, anti-Semitic, xenophobic, and admirers of the Italian fascists and German national socialists. Both were involved in atrocities, though the Bandera wing was much more deeply involved .... after Stalingrad and after Kursk, OUN began to distance itself from fascism, particularly at its Third Extraordinary Grand Assembly in August 1943. Bandera himself, however, remained true to the old ideology to the end.
If the authors had examined carefully the documents available in the West, particularly in Germany, they would have discovered whether we are talking about the Andrii Mel'nyk faction of the OUN or Stepan Bandera faction, the crucial issue for both was reestablishing an inpendent Ukrainian state. Other issues were subordinated to this objective.The position of both factions of the OUN is well documented in various official papers, including those sent by the OUN leadership to the
World Jewish Congress troubled by honoring of Nazi collaborator in Ukraine
