Minutes - it was a Waffen SS division, which is quite a different thing: "Like other German
volunteer units, the Division Halychyna [Galicia] was included in the 14th Grenadier Division of
the SS-Waffen." (Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopaedia, Volume 2, p. 1088.)
Five qualities of the Galicia Division make it a most atypical component of the stereotype of
the SS: (1) it was strictly a combat unit and so played no role in the management of
concentration camps or death camps, (2) its Ukrainian members wore a lion rampant instead of an
"SS" on their right collars during most of the life of the division, (3) it was accompanied by
Ukrainian chaplains who attended to the spiritual needs of the troops, (4) it was kept separate
from other German forces, and (5) it was created with the proviso that it never be used against
the Western Allies, but only against Soviet forces on the Eastern front. These five qualities
alone render the Galicia Division an entity unlike any that was being conjured up in the minds
of 60 Minutes viewers.
Photographs contrasting different insignia of
German and Ukrainian members of the Galicia
Division
Of course the members of any military unit will be required to swear oaths of obedience to the
Commander-in-Chief. No fighting force can function without such an oath, and the members of the
Galicia Division were unable to avoid swearing one. However, compare the differences in the
German SS oath and the Ukrainian Waffen-SS oath:
German SS Oath
"I swear to you Adolf Hitler, as Leader and Chancellor of the Reich, loyalty
and valor. I vow to you and all those you place over me obedience until
death, so help me God."
Ukrainian Waffen-SS Oath
"I swear by God this holy oath, that in the struggle against Bolshevism I will
give the Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces, Adolf Hitler, absolute
obedience, and if it be his will, as a fearless soldier, I will always be
prepared to lay down my life for this oath." (Richard Landwehr, Fighting for
Freedom: The Ukrainian Volunteer Division of the Waffen-SS, Bibliophile Legion
Books, Silver Spring, Maryland, 1985, p. 45)
Here are three revealing differences between the above oaths: (1) The German SS oath swears to
Adolf Hitler who happens to be leader, whereas the Ukrainian Waffen-SS oath swears to the leader
who happens to be Adolf Hitler. (2) The German SS oath does not restrict the Germans to any
limited role, but the Ukrainian Waffen-SS oath does restrict the Ukrainian role to the "struggle
against Bolshevism." (3) In the words "obedience until death," the German SS oath appears to
imply obedience for the rest of one's life, whereas the Ukrainian Waffen-SS oath limits the
duration of the obedience to the period of service "as a fearless soldier." These are not
insignificant differences - they constitute an affirmation that the Ukrainians had their own
goals, and that these overlapped with German goals only on the matter of opposing the Soviet
re-occupation of Ukraine. For the Ukrainians to have won an even greater variance from the
fundamental German SS oath would have been for the Germans to accept into their armed forces
members who were openly declaring recalcitrance and insubordination.
The Ukrainian motivation for permitting the formation of the Galicia Division was threefold: (1)
the existence of the division would serve to improve German treatment of Ukrainians in the
occupied territories, (2) the Division would form the nucleus of a national army which might
promote Ukrainian aspirations to statehood, and (3) the Division would be thrown into the fight
to oppose the Soviet re-occupation of Ukraine.
Even though both Canada and the U.S. have Nazi-hunting units within their respective Justice
Departments, not a single member of the Division has ever been convicted of any war crime and
none has ever been charged. The absence of evidence of any wrongdoing not only of the Division
as a whole, but also of any member of the Division, during his membership in the Division or
before or after, is widely recognized. Judge Jules Deschenes, heading Canada's Commission of
Inquiry on War Criminals, concluded that:
The members of the Galicia Division were individually screened for security
purposes before admission to Canada. Charges of war crimes against members of
the Galicia Division have never been substantiated, neither in 1950 when they
were first preferred, nor in 1984 when they were renewed, nor before this
Commission. ... In the absence of evidence of participation in or knowledge of
specific war crimes, mere membership in the Galicia Division is insufficient to
justify prosecution. (Jules Deschenes, Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals,
1986, p. 12)
Judge Deschenes cites a 1947 report of a British Screening Commission which was filed just prior
to the Galicia Division being moved from Italy to Britain (note that these are the words of the
1947 British Screening Commission, not of Judge Deschenes):
They probably were not, and certainly do not now seem to be at heart
