Ukraine

   The Jewish population of Soviet Ukraine in September 1939 was approximately 2.4 million people. When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, they were joined by Ukrainian nationalist units that had a deep hatred for communism In addition, volunteer Ukrainian Wehrmacht (German army) units fought alongside the Germans on the eastern front in hopes of regaining their independence. By October, the Germans occupied most of Ukraine and were welcomed by the population as liberators from Soviet rule.

   Accompanying the German army into Ukraine were Einsatzgruppen C and D. The Einsatzgruppen proceeded to wage a relentless campaign of terror against the Jews, which resulted in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews as well as thousands of Ukrainians suspected of being communists. In the eastern area of Ukraine, however, approximately 800,000 Jews were evacuated or escaped to the Soviet Union, and about 50,000 Jews from the western Ukraine and Bukovina similarly were able to escape the Germans. Almost immediately after their occupation of Ukraine, the Germans replaced Soviet rule in Ukraine with their own. The larger area of the former Soviet republic was administered by the German civilian government, and the eastern part of Ukraine was placed under a military rule. It quickly became apparent that the Germans were no better than the Soviets inasmuch as the population was subjected to starvation and millions of Ukrainians were sent on forced labor into the Reich. In the western Ukraine, where many in the population identified Jews with communism, a series of pogroms, assisted by Ukrainian auxiliary police, was waged against the Jews, which resulted in thousands of deaths. In Lvov, 5,000 Jews were killed in two such pogroms, and the Einsatzgruppen added to the total in other areas of western Ukraine. In eastern Ukraine, the Einsatzgruppen war of extermination against the Jews moved into high gear. The pattern commenced with the military command issuing a decree that required Jews to wear the yellow Star of David badge. This was followed with the requirement that Jews form committees, not unlike the Judenrate, and monitor the confinement of Jews to special streets. After a time, Jews were rounded up and taken to ravines and ditches where they were shot. It was also in the eastern Ukraine that the Germans and their Ukrainian police auxiliaries introduced eight gas vans that were used to increase the numbers targeted to be killed. On September 29–30, two weeks after the occupation of Kiev, the Germans marched the city’s Jews to the ravine of Babi Yar, where 33,771 were murdered.

   By the end of 1942 and mid-1943, the Einsatzgruppen and their Ukrainian helpers had achieved their objectives. Most of Ukraine had become Judenrein (free of Jews), and no Jews were left “officially” alive, even in the forced labor camps.