The impression created in the viewer's mind is that these veterans are unanimously guilty of war
crimes and crimes against humanity, that they were once supporters of and now continue to be
admirers of Hitler, that they sympathized with Nazi ambitions during World War II, that they are
the remnants of a much larger group of Ukrainians who shared a similar orientation, and that as
their reunion was sanctioned by the Lviv City Council and the Ukrainian Catholic Church, similar
charges must apply to Ukrainians generally. To all this, however, I must echo Cardinal
Lubachivsky's words: "It is not true!"
The Galicia Division was recruited by the Germans only well into the war, in the summer and fall
of 1943 when they were beginning to experience setbacks on their Eastern front. That the
Galicia Division was considered an "SS" division does not bear the significance given it by 60
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