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Ukrainian Voices #12
Ukrainian Nationalists and the Holocaust: OUN and UPA's Participation in the Destruction of Ukrainian Jewry, 1941–1944
One quarter of all Holocaust victims lived on the territory that now forms Ukraine, yet the Holocaust there has not received due attention. This book delineates the participation of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its armed force, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army ( Ukrainska povstanska armiia ―UPA), in the destruction of the Jewish population of Ukraine under German occupation in 1941–44. The extent of OUN’s and UPA’s culpability in the Holocaust has been a controversial issue in Ukraine and within the Ukrainian diaspora as well as in Jewish communities and Israel. Occasionally, the controversy has broken into the press of North America, the EU, and Israel.
Triangulating sources from Jewish survivors, Soviet investigations, German documentation, documents produced by OUN itself, and memoirs of OUN activists, it has been possible to establish that: OUN militias were key actors in the anti-Jewish violence of summer 1941; OUN recruited for and infiltrated police formations that provided indispensable manpower for the Germans' mobile killing units; and in 1943, thousands of these policemen deserted from German service to join the OUN-led nationalist insurgency, during which UPA killed Jews who had managed to survive the major liquidations of 1942.
Triangulating sources from Jewish survivors, Soviet investigations, German documentation, documents produced by OUN itself, and memoirs of OUN activists, it has been possible to establish that: OUN militias were key actors in the anti-Jewish violence of summer 1941; OUN recruited for and infiltrated police formations that provided indispensable manpower for the Germans' mobile killing units; and in 1943, thousands of these policemen deserted from German service to join the OUN-led nationalist insurgency, during which UPA killed Jews who had managed to survive the major liquidations of 1942.
588 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 21, 2021
About the author
John-Paul Himka
29 books11 followersAmerican-Canadian historian and retired professor of history of the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Himka received his BA in Byzantine-Slavonic Studies and Ph.D. in History from University of Michigan in 1971 and 1977 respectively. The title of his Ph.D. dissertation was Polish and Ukrainian Socialism: Austria, 1867–1890. As a historian Himka was a Marxist in the 1970s–80s, but became influenced by postmodernism in the 1990s. In 2012 he defined his methodology in history as "eclectic".
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 28, 2022
A very careful attempt to sift through the murk created on the subject both by the KGB and the OUN/UPA's many apologists, and establish exactly what it was Ukrainian Nationalists did during the Holocaust, and the extent to which they took part in it. All the more devastating for its carefulness.
August 21, 2025
This important book was published in 2021, the year before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but is sure to receive renewed attention now, especially since one of the Russian demands for settling the war is the denazification of Ukraine. The dedication of this book is “For Chrystia / Who stood beside me.” Lest Canadian readers be confused, this dedication was to Himka’s wife, Chrystia Chomiak, and not to his niece by marriage, Chrystia Freeland, who was herself born Chrystia Chomiak. Oddly enough, Chrystia Freeland, our former deputy prime minister and at this time our Minister of Interprovincial Affairs, actually worked for her uncle as a research assistant when she was younger, and co-authored at least one paper for him. So it is hard to square this with per pro-Bandera views, most recently and infamously shown in her holding a Banderist banner with a group of Ukrainian-Canadians shortly after the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
The book’s subtitle indicates that it looks at how the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its military wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainska povstanska armiia—UPA) aided and abetted the Holocaust, since they were responsible for the bulk of Jewish deaths caused by Ukrainians in Ukraine. Given the publicity generated by the disgraceful standing ovation offered by Canadian parliamentarians to a Ukrainian-Canadian veteran of the 14th Grenadier Division of the Waffen-SS in September 2023, people may be surprised that Himka concludes that this SS Division manned by Ukrainians played little role in the Holocaust. Himka might want to expand on his views, which he still stands by, if there is a second edition of his book published, as there should be.
On the other hand, Ukrainians who served in police forces in the Nazi regime were heavily implicated in the Holocaust, either killing Jews directly or turning them over to the Nazi forces for execution. One of the major achievements of this book is to describe the heinous actions of Ukrainian policemen that had not previously received much attention.
Himka notes that the context in which the OUN was formed explains in part why it was pro-Nazi after Hitler rose to power. The Ukrainian homeland was mostly split between Poland and the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany was hostile to both. Hitler, being the enemy of the OUN’s enemies, was considered a friend. Initially drawn to Italian fascism, the OUN became more drawn to the Nazis after Hitler became chancellor and this was also when it became more overtly anti-Semitic.
Himka is reticent about putting a figure on the number of Jewish deaths that can be attributed to the OUN and the UPA. In part, this may be because besides the Jews directly killed by these organizations there are the Jews turned over to the Nazis for execution. Should these be treated as OUN/UPA killings in whole or in part? He notes that Schmuel Spector estimates that 45,000 Jews were killed by OUN/UPA from 1941 to 1945, without endorsing his estimate. These would likely be more than half of all Jews killed by OUN/UPA during the war, so the total number of deaths would be less than one hundred thousand, as opposed to 1.5M Jewish deaths in Ukraine in the Holocaust. Whatever the number, Himka’s book shows that it is obscene to make a hero out of Stepan Bandera, as his niece Chrystia Freeland does.
Here are some detailed observations on the book, which may be of interest:
“Jan Badian was arrested on 25 July by ‘a Ukrainian from the civil militia’ and taken, with the other Jewish men from his apartment building, to the nearest precinct station, that of the sixth commissariat on ul. Kurkowa (now vul. Lysenka).” (p.243) [This was in the city of Lviv in 1941.)
In Ukrainian, "вул." is the abbreviation for вулиця (vulytsia), which translates to street, and “vul” is the transliteration of "вул". Therefore, when you see "вул." before a name, it indicates that the name is a street name. For example, "вул. Хрещатик" would be translated as "Khreshchatyk St.".
In Russian, "ул." is the acronym for улица (ulitsa), which translates to street in English, and “ul” is the transliteration of “ул”. It's commonly used in addresses and place names to denote a street.
“The nationalists accused Jews of supporting the dominant nations that oppressed Ukrainians, particularly the Russians and Poles but also the Czechs (in Carpatho-Ukraine).” (p. 164) [I don’t believe that this is a mistake. In Carpatho-Ukraine the 1930 census didn’t distinguish between Czechs and Slovaks, but the 5% of the population in this category were overwhelmingly Slovaks. However, the Czechs were dominant in Czechoslovakia, and Jews tended to favour the Czech language. Franz Kafka, the Jewish writer who wrote only in German, was nonetheless fluent in Czech, and took an active interest in the language.]
“On July 25-27, Ukrainians under German patronage rioted against the Jews again. The pogroms were organized by Ukrainian nationalist circles with German encouragement. Among the Jews of Lvov, rumors had spread that the Ukrainians were planning a pogrom. As July 25 approached, an unusual bustle was noticed among the Ukrainian police in the city. Jews tried not to step outside. Early in the morning of July 25, groups of peasants from nearby villages began to flow into Lvov. They assembled on the premises of police stations, set out from there to the street accompanied by Ukrainian policemen, and assaulted any Jew whom they encountered with clubs, knives, and axes. Groups of Jews were taken to the Jewish cemetery and murdered brutally. A roundup of Jews from their homes, coupled with looting, began in the afternoon. The proportion of Jewish intellectuals was high. Ukrainian police circulated in groups of five and consulted prepared lists. Some 2,000 people were murdered in approximately three days. The pogrom was known as the “Petliura Days,” in commemoration of Simon (Semyon) Petliura, the Ukrainian premier who had organized massive pogroms against Jews in 1919 and was murdered in exile by a Jew in 1926.” (https://www.zachorfoundation.org/time...) [2,000 is just one estimate of the number of dead.]
‘The number of victims during the Petliura days has been estimated at 1500, 6000, 10,000, 15,0”00, and 18,000-20,000. Struve inclines towards the lowest of these figures as most probable.” (p. 245)
“They [the Ukrainian police] called a meeting by the church in Hodynhrad [a town in Rivne oblast], sang the anthem ‘Shche ne vmerla Ukraina’ [Ukraine has not yet died] and demanded that the population hand over all Soviet functionaries.” (p. 270)
“The memoirs of Rafalivka Jews in the town’s yizkor book depict the painful trauma they underwent during the Ukrainian nationalist interregnum.” (p. 272) [Rafalivka is a rural settlement in Varash Raion of Rivne Oblast in western Ukraine. Today it has more than three thousand inhabitants.]
A "Yizkor book" is a memorial book, often written in Hebrew and/or Yiddish, that commemorates Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust. These books serve as a form of collective memory, documenting the history and lives of these communities before their destruction and often including lists of those who perished.]
“The fleeing Jews told Bas and Rosenfeld that ‘a large gang of thugs’ was crossing the river Styr and heading towards town.” (p. 274) [“The Styr begins near Brody, Lviv Oblast, then flows into Rivne Oblast, Volyn Oblast, then into Brest Region of Belarus where it finally flows into the Pripyat.”]
“OUN took off in Bukovina in 1934, when a number of independent nationalist organizations joined together as OUN of the Southwestern Ukrainian Lands.” (p. 286) [Bukovina today is divided between Ukraine and Romania. Chernivtsi oblast is the northern and Ukrainian part of Bukovina.]
“They rounded up. . . about 18-20 Jews, men, women and children and took them to a bridge above the Prut River.” (p. 292) [The Prut is a river in Eastern Europe. It is a left tributary of the Danube, and is 953 km (592 mi) long. The Prut originates on the eastern slope of Mount Hoverla, in the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine (Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast). At first, the river flows to the north. Near Yaremche it turns to the northeast, and near Kolomyia to the south-east. Having reached the border between Moldova and Romania, it turns even more to the south-east, and then to the south.]
“Finally, quite a few of the perpetrators named in the course of the investigation [into murders of Jews in Nyzhni and Verkhni Stanitsi] were members or sympathizers of OUN. . . These included Dmytro Hulia, startosta [should be “starosta”] of Nyzhni Stanivtsi, who had been an OUN member since 1937. . .” (p. 294)
“Fosti, ‘Diial’nist’ OUN u Bukovyni,’ 13“ (p.300, footnote 1008) [Should be “na Bukovvyni”, as shown in the reference list.]
“Therefore there was no objective obstacle to OUN-R [OUN-B] condemning the genocide of the Jews and warning Ukrainians not to take part in Nazi bestialities.” (p.370) [Should be “beastialities”. Himka is quoting from a Slavic language source, so the error was in the translation.]
“Yet when we read survivor accounts, time and again we come across aid Jews received—food, shelter, information—from ordinary Ukrainian households and individuals. These individual acts, courageous and honorable, have yet to find their historian.” (p. 446)
“But research on this topic is underway. Raisa Ostapenko at the Sorbonne is writing her doctoral dissertation on rescue in Ukraine.” (footnote on p. 446) [That research has already been published in English. Ostapenko delivered a paper at the University of Ottawa at the 19th annual Danyliw Seminar in 2019 on “To Risk One’s Life for Another: The Moral Psychology of Rescuing Jews during the Holocaust in Occupied Ukraine.”
The book’s subtitle indicates that it looks at how the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its military wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainska povstanska armiia—UPA) aided and abetted the Holocaust, since they were responsible for the bulk of Jewish deaths caused by Ukrainians in Ukraine. Given the publicity generated by the disgraceful standing ovation offered by Canadian parliamentarians to a Ukrainian-Canadian veteran of the 14th Grenadier Division of the Waffen-SS in September 2023, people may be surprised that Himka concludes that this SS Division manned by Ukrainians played little role in the Holocaust. Himka might want to expand on his views, which he still stands by, if there is a second edition of his book published, as there should be.
On the other hand, Ukrainians who served in police forces in the Nazi regime were heavily implicated in the Holocaust, either killing Jews directly or turning them over to the Nazi forces for execution. One of the major achievements of this book is to describe the heinous actions of Ukrainian policemen that had not previously received much attention.
Himka notes that the context in which the OUN was formed explains in part why it was pro-Nazi after Hitler rose to power. The Ukrainian homeland was mostly split between Poland and the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany was hostile to both. Hitler, being the enemy of the OUN’s enemies, was considered a friend. Initially drawn to Italian fascism, the OUN became more drawn to the Nazis after Hitler became chancellor and this was also when it became more overtly anti-Semitic.
Himka is reticent about putting a figure on the number of Jewish deaths that can be attributed to the OUN and the UPA. In part, this may be because besides the Jews directly killed by these organizations there are the Jews turned over to the Nazis for execution. Should these be treated as OUN/UPA killings in whole or in part? He notes that Schmuel Spector estimates that 45,000 Jews were killed by OUN/UPA from 1941 to 1945, without endorsing his estimate. These would likely be more than half of all Jews killed by OUN/UPA during the war, so the total number of deaths would be less than one hundred thousand, as opposed to 1.5M Jewish deaths in Ukraine in the Holocaust. Whatever the number, Himka’s book shows that it is obscene to make a hero out of Stepan Bandera, as his niece Chrystia Freeland does.
Here are some detailed observations on the book, which may be of interest:
“Jan Badian was arrested on 25 July by ‘a Ukrainian from the civil militia’ and taken, with the other Jewish men from his apartment building, to the nearest precinct station, that of the sixth commissariat on ul. Kurkowa (now vul. Lysenka).” (p.243) [This was in the city of Lviv in 1941.)
In Ukrainian, "вул." is the abbreviation for вулиця (vulytsia), which translates to street, and “vul” is the transliteration of "вул". Therefore, when you see "вул." before a name, it indicates that the name is a street name. For example, "вул. Хрещатик" would be translated as "Khreshchatyk St.".
In Russian, "ул." is the acronym for улица (ulitsa), which translates to street in English, and “ul” is the transliteration of “ул”. It's commonly used in addresses and place names to denote a street.
“The nationalists accused Jews of supporting the dominant nations that oppressed Ukrainians, particularly the Russians and Poles but also the Czechs (in Carpatho-Ukraine).” (p. 164) [I don’t believe that this is a mistake. In Carpatho-Ukraine the 1930 census didn’t distinguish between Czechs and Slovaks, but the 5% of the population in this category were overwhelmingly Slovaks. However, the Czechs were dominant in Czechoslovakia, and Jews tended to favour the Czech language. Franz Kafka, the Jewish writer who wrote only in German, was nonetheless fluent in Czech, and took an active interest in the language.]
“On July 25-27, Ukrainians under German patronage rioted against the Jews again. The pogroms were organized by Ukrainian nationalist circles with German encouragement. Among the Jews of Lvov, rumors had spread that the Ukrainians were planning a pogrom. As July 25 approached, an unusual bustle was noticed among the Ukrainian police in the city. Jews tried not to step outside. Early in the morning of July 25, groups of peasants from nearby villages began to flow into Lvov. They assembled on the premises of police stations, set out from there to the street accompanied by Ukrainian policemen, and assaulted any Jew whom they encountered with clubs, knives, and axes. Groups of Jews were taken to the Jewish cemetery and murdered brutally. A roundup of Jews from their homes, coupled with looting, began in the afternoon. The proportion of Jewish intellectuals was high. Ukrainian police circulated in groups of five and consulted prepared lists. Some 2,000 people were murdered in approximately three days. The pogrom was known as the “Petliura Days,” in commemoration of Simon (Semyon) Petliura, the Ukrainian premier who had organized massive pogroms against Jews in 1919 and was murdered in exile by a Jew in 1926.” (https://www.zachorfoundation.org/time...) [2,000 is just one estimate of the number of dead.]
‘The number of victims during the Petliura days has been estimated at 1500, 6000, 10,000, 15,0”00, and 18,000-20,000. Struve inclines towards the lowest of these figures as most probable.” (p. 245)
“They [the Ukrainian police] called a meeting by the church in Hodynhrad [a town in Rivne oblast], sang the anthem ‘Shche ne vmerla Ukraina’ [Ukraine has not yet died] and demanded that the population hand over all Soviet functionaries.” (p. 270)
“The memoirs of Rafalivka Jews in the town’s yizkor book depict the painful trauma they underwent during the Ukrainian nationalist interregnum.” (p. 272) [Rafalivka is a rural settlement in Varash Raion of Rivne Oblast in western Ukraine. Today it has more than three thousand inhabitants.]
A "Yizkor book" is a memorial book, often written in Hebrew and/or Yiddish, that commemorates Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust. These books serve as a form of collective memory, documenting the history and lives of these communities before their destruction and often including lists of those who perished.]
“The fleeing Jews told Bas and Rosenfeld that ‘a large gang of thugs’ was crossing the river Styr and heading towards town.” (p. 274) [“The Styr begins near Brody, Lviv Oblast, then flows into Rivne Oblast, Volyn Oblast, then into Brest Region of Belarus where it finally flows into the Pripyat.”]
“OUN took off in Bukovina in 1934, when a number of independent nationalist organizations joined together as OUN of the Southwestern Ukrainian Lands.” (p. 286) [Bukovina today is divided between Ukraine and Romania. Chernivtsi oblast is the northern and Ukrainian part of Bukovina.]
“They rounded up. . . about 18-20 Jews, men, women and children and took them to a bridge above the Prut River.” (p. 292) [The Prut is a river in Eastern Europe. It is a left tributary of the Danube, and is 953 km (592 mi) long. The Prut originates on the eastern slope of Mount Hoverla, in the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine (Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast). At first, the river flows to the north. Near Yaremche it turns to the northeast, and near Kolomyia to the south-east. Having reached the border between Moldova and Romania, it turns even more to the south-east, and then to the south.]
“Finally, quite a few of the perpetrators named in the course of the investigation [into murders of Jews in Nyzhni and Verkhni Stanitsi] were members or sympathizers of OUN. . . These included Dmytro Hulia, startosta [should be “starosta”] of Nyzhni Stanivtsi, who had been an OUN member since 1937. . .” (p. 294)
“Fosti, ‘Diial’nist’ OUN u Bukovyni,’ 13“ (p.300, footnote 1008) [Should be “na Bukovvyni”, as shown in the reference list.]
“Therefore there was no objective obstacle to OUN-R [OUN-B] condemning the genocide of the Jews and warning Ukrainians not to take part in Nazi bestialities.” (p.370) [Should be “beastialities”. Himka is quoting from a Slavic language source, so the error was in the translation.]
“Yet when we read survivor accounts, time and again we come across aid Jews received—food, shelter, information—from ordinary Ukrainian households and individuals. These individual acts, courageous and honorable, have yet to find their historian.” (p. 446)
“But research on this topic is underway. Raisa Ostapenko at the Sorbonne is writing her doctoral dissertation on rescue in Ukraine.” (footnote on p. 446) [That research has already been published in English. Ostapenko delivered a paper at the University of Ottawa at the 19th annual Danyliw Seminar in 2019 on “To Risk One’s Life for Another: The Moral Psychology of Rescuing Jews during the Holocaust in Occupied Ukraine.”
August 18, 2026
In "Ukrainian nationalists and the Holocaust; OUN and UPA’s Participation in the Destruction of Ukrainian Jewry, 1941-1944," Dr Himka promises a focused study of the “participation of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its armed force, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (…UPA), in the destruction of the Jewish population in Ukraine under German occupation, 1941-44.” (13). In my view he more than delivers. The study is narrow, focused, and filled with primary source material and analysis. Himka starts with an extended chapter explaining his sources and how he uses them. I found this very helpful. The sources include eyewitness testimony, official documents, personal diaries, other historical works, and many more. His analysis is complex and, in my view, fair. The writing style is accessible, but because of the subject matter, difficult to read at times. For anyone serious about the internal conflicts in Ukraine, the causes of the war with Russia, and the use of history in present-day politics, I would say this is a must read.
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