Nachtigall Battalion

The Nachtigall Battalion (Nightingale Battalion), also known as Ukrainian Nightingale Battalion Group (Bataillon Ukrainische Gruppe Nachtigall), officially known as Special Group Nachtigall, was the subunit under command of the Abwehr special operation unit Lehrregiment "Brandenburg" z.b.V. 800. Along with the Roland Battalion it was one of two military units formed February 25, 1941 by head of the Abwehr Wilhelm Franz Canaris, which sanctioned the creation of the "Ukrainian Legion" under German command. It was manned primarily by occupied Polish citizens of Ukrainian ethnicity directed to unit by Bandera's OUN orders.

In Germany, in November 1941 the Ukrainian personnel of the Legion was reorganized into the 201st Schutzmannschaft Battalion. It numbered 650 persons which served for one year at Belarus before disbanding.

Many of its members, especially the commanding officers, went on to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and 14 of its members joined SS-Freiwilligen-Schützen-Division «Galizien»  in spring 1943.

Formation and training
Prior to Operation Barbarossa, the Bandera's OUN actively cooperated with Nazi Germany. According to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and other sources, OUN-R leader Stepan Bandera held meetings with the heads of Germany's intelligence, regarding the formation of "Nachtigall" and "Roland" Battalions. February 25, 1941 head of the Abwehr Wilhelm Franz Canaris sanctioned the creation of the "Ukrainian Legion" under German command. The unit would have had 800 persons. Roman Shukhevych became a commander of the Legion from the OUN-R side. OUN expected that the unit would become the core of the future Ukrainian army. In the spring the OUN received 2.5 million marks for subversive activities against the USSR. In the spring of 1941 the Legion was reorganized into 2 units. One of the units became known as Nachtigall Battalion, a second became the Roland Battalion, a remained personnel was inmmidiately dispatched into Soviet Union for sabotage of Red Army's rear.

In May 1941, the German command decided to split a 700-strong Ukrainian Legion into two battalions: Nachtigall ("Nightingale") and Roland Battalion.

Training for Nachtigall took place in Neuhammer near Schlessig. On the Ukrainian side, the commander was Roman Shukhevych and on the German, Theodor Oberländer. (Oberländer was later to become Federal Minister for Displaced Persons, Refugees and War Victims in the Federal Republic of Germany.) Ex-Brandenburger Oberleutnant Dr. de:Hans-Albrecht Herzner was placed in military command of the Battalion.

The Nachtigall unit was outfitted in the standard Wehrmacht uniforms. Before entering Lviv, they placed blue and yellow ribbons on their shoulders.

War with the Soviet Union
Four days before the attack on the Soviet Union, the Battalion was moved to the border. On the night of June 23–24, 1941, the Battalion crossed the border near Przemyśl while traveling in the direction of Lviv.

The Nachtigall Battalion traveled along with a Panzer-Jaeger Division and some tank units went along through Radymno-Lviv-Ternopil-Proskuriv-Vinnytsia path.

Lviv
As part of the 1st Brandenberg Battalion, the first soldiers of the Nachtigall Battalion entered Lviv on June 29.

The battalion took up guard of strategic objects, the most important of which was the radio station on the Vysoky Zamok Hill in the centre of Lviv. From the radio station, the proclamation of the Act of Ukrainian Independence was proclaimed.

The Nachtigall servicemen participated and organized the declaration of independence proclaimed by Yaroslav Stetsko on June 30. Battalion chaplain Ivan Hrynokh made a speech after declaration meeting was end. The German administration however did not support these activities but did not act harshly against organizers until mid-September 1941.

The first company of the Nachtigall Battalion left Lviv with the Brandenburg on July 7 in the direction of Zolochiv. The remainder of the unit joined later during their eastward march towards Zolochiv, Ternopil and Vinnytsia. The unit participated in action against Stalin Line where some of its members were awarded by the Germans.

Some believe that on the way the soldiers of Nachtigall participated in the slaughter of Jews. Only during the march at three villages of the Vinnytsia region "all Jews which were met" were shot.

The German refusal to accept the OUN(b)’s June 30 proclamation of Ukrainian independence in L’viv led to a change of the Nachtigall battalion direction. As the result, the battalion was recalled to Cracow and disarmed on August 15. It was later transformed together with Roland battalion into the 201st Schutzmannschaft Battalion.

Assessment
Russian historian V. Chuyev states that despite the ending, OUN achieved its ultimate goals - 600 members of their organization had received military training and had battle experience and these men took positions as instructors and commanders in the structure of the newly formed Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

S. Bandera wrote: "The end of OUN was such: the revolutionary columns were commanded by Roman Shukhevych with a small party of officers who had not only undergone military training, but had come to a clear understanding of military tactics. The most important, they brought with them - an understanding of organization, strategies and tactics of partisan fighting, and the German method of dealing with partisan groups. This knowledge was very useful in the formation and activities of the UIA and in its future conflicts.

During its short history the Nachtigall Battalion had 39 casualties and had 40 wounded soldiers.

Controversy


Accusations have placed the Battalion in Lviv in July 1941 and claimed that the unit participated in the pogrom that took place. While some members of the unit did indeed participate in the pogrom, the unit as a whole was not involved in the event. The origin of the accusations against Nachtigall to a Soviet attempt to discredit the Adenauer government in Germany in 1959. Historical records have since exonerated the Nachtigall Battalion from participation in the pogrom.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center contends that between June 30 and July 3, 1941, in the days that the Battalion was in Lviv the Nachtigall soldiers together with the German army and the local Ukrainians participated in the killings of Jews in the city. The pretext for the pogrom was a rumor that the Jews were responsible for the execution of prisoners by the Soviets before the 1941 Soviet withdrawal from Lviv. The encyclopedia of the Holocaust states that some 4,000 Jews were kidnapped and killed at that time. It further states that the unit was removed from Lviv on July 7 and sent to the Eastern Front.

The Polish side contends that members of the Nazi-led Nachtigall battalion also participated in the massacres of Polish professors, including the ex-Polish Prime minister Kazimierz Bartel, Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński and others, in Lwów in 1941. See Massacre of Lviv professors.

Canadian Investigation: Involvement of any members of the Nachtigall Battalion in the war crimes have not yet been established. The Canadian Commission on War Criminals in Canada (Deschênes Commission) that look into allegations of war criminals residing in Canada, has not named any of the members of the Nachtigall Battalion. Moreover, it concluded, that units collaborating with the Nazis should not be indicted as a group and that mere membership in such units was not sufficient to justify prosecution.

World opinion: An international commission was set up at The Hague in the Netherlands in 1959 to carry out independent investigations. The members were four former anti-Hitler activists, Norwegian lawyer Hans Cappelen, former Danish foreign minister and president of the Danish parliament Ole Bjørn Kraft, Dutch socialist Karel van Staal, Belgian law professor Flor Peeters, and Swiss jurist and member of parliament Kurt Scoch. Following its interrogation of a number of Ukrainian witnesses between November 1959 and March 1960, the commission concluded: "After four months of inquiries and the evaluation of 232 statements by witnesses from all circles involved, it can be established that the accusations against the Battalion Nachtigall and against the then Lieutenant and currently Federal Minister Oberländer have no foundation in fact".

The Ukrainian side states that none of the allegations have been proven by any documents, and that the Battalion's main priority was securing the radio station, newspapers and proclaiming Ukrainian independence.

The activities of the Nachtigall Battalion continue to remain controversial. A study of the massacre in Lviv based on documents of the time was made by de Zayas in his book The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945 University of Nebraska Press, Rockport, Maine, 2000 edition.