u/NextDocument1906

At the time of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, approximately 160,000 Jews lived in the city. This number had increased by tens of thousands following the arrival of Jewish refugees from German-occupied Poland in late 1939.

The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) prepared for the expected German invasion by issuing instructions in May 1941 for carrying out ethnic cleansing through planned militia units. These instructions stated that "Russians, Poles, and Jews" were hostile to the Ukrainian nation and should be "destroyed in battle." Leaflets distributed by OUN members during the first days of the German invasion instructed the population:

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Lviv was occupied by the Wehrmacht early in the morning of 30 June 1941. The German forces consisted of the 1st Mountain Division and the Nachtigall Battalion, composed of ethnic Ukrainians and subordinated to the Abwehr. Later that afternoon, German military authorities reported that the population of Lviv was venting its anger over the prison massacres "on the Jews … who had always collaborated with the Bolsheviks."

On the morning of 30 June, the Ukrainian People's Militia was formed in the city. It included OUN activists who had arrived from Kraków with the Germans, OUN members already living in Lviv, and former Soviet militiamen who had either chosen to change sides or were OUN members who had infiltrated the Soviet militia. The OUN encouraged the active participation of the Ukrainian militia in the pogroms that had begun. Militiamen could be identified by armbands in the Ukrainian national colors—yellow and blue. Former Soviet policemen continued to wear their blue Soviet uniforms but replaced the Red Star on their caps with the Ukrainian trident (Tryzub).

The beating of the city's Jews by local residents began on 30 June, and that evening Ukrainian nationalists announced the proclamation of the Ukrainian State. The proclamation, signed by Yaroslav Stetsko, declared the OUN's cooperation with Germany, which, according to the document, had "helped the Ukrainian people free themselves from Russian occupation." At the same time, news spread throughout the city that thousands of bodies had been discovered in three city prisons following mass executions carried out by the NKVD.

On 1 July, a full-scale pogrom began. Jews were taken from their apartments, seized in the streets, arrested, beaten, and humiliated. They were forced to clean the streets; for example, one Jewish man was made to remove horse manure using his own hat. Women were beaten with sticks and other objects, stripped naked, and driven through the streets; some were raped. Pregnant women were also beaten. Local residents gathered in the streets to watch the pogrom.

Many Jews were then taken to the prisons to exhume the bodies of murdered inmates. During this work, they were also beaten and humiliated. One survivor, Kurt Lewin, particularly remembered a Ukrainian man wearing a vyshyvanka shirt. The man beat Jews with an iron rod, tearing off pieces of skin, severing ears, and gouging out eyes. He then picked up a club and smashed one Jewish man's skull, splattering the victim's brains onto Lewin's face and clothing.

Given that the OUN had not initially regarded Jews as its principal enemy—the role being primarily reserved for Poles and Russians—some historians have suggested that the Lviv pogrom and the persecution of Jews were, at least in part, an attempt by Ukrainian nationalists to gain favor with the German authorities in the hope of securing support for the establishment of an independent Ukrainian state.

From the testimony of Wehrmacht driver Höfer:

> I stopped nearby, and the Ukrainians who were on the clearing began loading the truck with belongings. From where I stood, I could see that the arriving Jews—men, women, and children—were also being met by Ukrainians and directed to the place where they were to deposit, in turn, their luggage, coats, shoes, outer clothing, and even their underwear. At a designated spot, the Jews were also required to surrender their valuables. Everything happened very quickly. If anyone hesitated, the Ukrainians hurried them along with kicks and blows. I do not think more than a minute passed between the time a person took off his coat and the moment he was standing completely naked. No distinction was made between men, women, and children...

> The stripped Jews were then led into a ravine approximately 150 meters long, 30 meters wide, and about 15 meters deep. There were two or three narrow passages leading down into it. As they reached the edge of the ravine, German policemen seized them and laid them on top of the bodies of Jews who had already been shot. This all happened very quickly. The corpses lay in orderly rows. As soon as a Jew lay down, a German policeman approached with a submachine gun and shot the person in the back of the head. The Jews descending into the ravine were so terrified by this horrific sight that they became completely submissive... It was an assembly line that made no distinction between men, women, and children. The children remained with their mothers and were shot together with them...

> Inside the pit, I saw bodies lying side by side in three rows, each about 60 meters long. I could not tell how many layers of bodies lay one on top of another. The sight of blood-covered bodies convulsing in their final moments was simply beyond comprehension, and I could not take in all the details... While some people were undressing and most were waiting for their turn, there was a great deal of noise.

> The Ukrainians paid no attention to it. They continued hurriedly driving the people through the passages into the ravine. From the place where the victims undressed, the ravine itself was not visible, as it was about 150 meters from the first pile of clothing. In addition, a strong wind was blowing, and it was very cold.

> No gunshots could be heard from the ravine... More and more groups of people kept arriving from the city, and they apparently suspected nothing, believing that they were simply being resettled.

Keitel was arrested on 12 May 1945 and, on 20 November of the same year, appeared before the International Military Tribunal. He was charged with conspiracy against peace, planning and waging aggressive war, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The Tribunal rejected the defense's argument that Keitel had merely been following Hitler's orders and found him guilty on all counts.

Keitel himself later reflected:

> *As a German officer, I naturally consider it my duty to answer for everything I did, even if it was wrong. Whether it was my own fault or the result of circumstances is not always easy to determine. But one thing is impossible for me: to shift the blame onto a soldier at the front or a non-commissioned officer in order to absolve those who held the highest positions. That would not only be untrue, but also dishonorable... During the trial, my defense counsel asked me two fundamental questions. The first was:*

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> *"Can you imagine that, had the war ended victoriously, you would have refused the glory of being one of its victors?"*

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> *I replied:*

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> *"Under no circumstances. On the contrary, I would have regarded it as an honor..."*

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> *Finally, the second question:*

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> *"How would you act if you found yourself in the same situation again?"*

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> *I answered:*

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> *"I would not allow myself to be drawn into such a vile and criminal enterprise, and I would most likely choose death instead."*

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> *It is a sad realization that the soldierly virtues of obedience and loyalty were exploited for such ignoble purposes. It is equally sad that I never succeeded in recognizing the point at which the fulfillment of a soldier's duty turns into its very opposite... I hope that, having understood and reflected upon the disastrous causes and monstrous consequences of war, the German people will rise again to a new and better future within the community of nations.*

On 1 October 1946, Keitel was sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out on 16 October 1946.

After Joachim von Ribbentrop had been executed, Keitel ascended the gallows. He climbed onto the scaffold without assistance from the guards and stated his name. His final words were:

> *I call upon Almighty God to have mercy on the German people. More than two million German soldiers died for their Fatherland before me. I follow my sons—for Germany.*

With the noose around his neck, he shouted:

> **"Deutschland über alles!"**

On 21 May 1945, negotiations were held in the village of Ruda Różaniecka between representatives of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and former members of the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK). The talks resulted in a number of agreements on joint operations against Soviet forces.

According to the Polish historian Grzegorz Motyka, the partial shift in the policy of the Ukrainian nationalist movement toward the Polish population occurred because, by that time, the Poles had already largely left the Eastern Borderlands (Kresy).

Some context:

The First Conference of the Oppressed Peoples of Eastern Europe and Asia (21–22 November 1943) was a meeting of members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) representing various peoples of the Soviet Union. It was organized at the initiative of the leadership of the UPA and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) with the aim of fostering nationalist movements within the USSR and coordinating their efforts in the struggle against what they described as their "common enemy"—"Russian communism."

In 1943, the leadership of the UPA–OUN developed the idea of uniting with other nationalist movements across the Soviet Union in a common struggle against this perceived enemy.

In June 1943, the UPA command appealed to representatives of the peoples of Turkestan, the Urals, the Volga region, and Siberia, urging them to establish contact with the UPA, defect to its side with their weapons, and join a "common struggle against the imperialist predators"—Moscow and Berlin—which, according to the appeal, were "arguing over which of them should exploit you."

According to the UPA leadership, the moment was opportune because the warring powers had become greatly weakened, and "the period of national revolutions has arrived," a time that "the peoples of Europe and Asia must use to expel the imperialists from their lands and restore independent nation-states."