GALIZIEN 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division composed of Ukrainian Volunteers

When the German troops entered Eastern Europe to carry out Operation Barbarossa, in order to conquer the Living Space for Germany and fight against Stalin's Communism, they achieved a great ally in the Ukrainian population. Initially there was some reluctance to include Slavic soldiers in the German ranks, but they finally agreed to do so when they realized that it was a town quite oppressed by the Soviet Union or the Second Republic of Poland. In the spring of 1943, the same Heinrich Himmler approved the creation of the Division that would take the name of the Polish region of Galizia, from where they came most of the more than 11,000 Ukrainians who would integrate it.

The new soldiers were trained in Poland, specifically in the city of Sanok. In June 1944 they were sent to fight on the eastern front with German officers under their command. The Galizien Division suffered heavy losses during the Leopolis-Sandomierz offensive carried out by the Red Army, whose purpose was to take the city of Lviv, the most important city in western Ukraine. There they fought in remarkable numerical inferiority and of warlike equipment. In October 1944, after being reinforced with more men, the Division is sent to Slovakia and later to Slovenia to fight against the communist partisans.

In April of 1945, the Galizien Division was withdrawn in Austria, after having fought against the Red Army in the Graz region, recomposing itself as the National Army of Ukraine and the following month, once the war in Europe was formally concluded, it was They surrendered to British troops and were transferred to a prisoner of war camp in Rimini, Italy. At the end of 1945 you were welcomed by Poland to avoid being deported to the Soviet Union. In 1946, many former members of the Galizien Division emigrated to the United States and Canada.

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