BETWEEN HITLER AND STALIN

14th WAFFEN SS GALICIA

The Galizien [Galicia] 14th SS Volunteer Division of the Waffen-SS organized in 1943 to fight the advancing Red Army and Soviet partisans in Ukraine. In August 1944 it was renamed the 14th (1st Galician) Grenadier Division of the Waffen-SS. The division was made up of Galician Ukrainian volunteers willing to fight the Red Army in order to achieve an independent Ukraine.

It was decimated in July 1944 during the German-Soviet Battle of Brody but was reconstituted from surviving soldiers, reserve units, and new conscripts. The soldiers saw action against the Red Army and local Communist partisans in Slovakia, Slovenia, and near Graz, Austria, while retreating westward to surrender to British and US forces in Austria in May 1945 as the First Division of the Ukrainian National Army. Ten thousand were interned in the British POW camp near Bellaria, Italy, in June, and then near Rimini in October.

In May and June 1947 about 8,500 were transported by ship to the UK, where most of them were released as European Volunteer Workers between August and October 1948. Many remained in the UK, but more immigrated to Canada, the US, and Australia.

See Michael O. Logusz, Galicia Division: The Waffen-SS 14th Grenadier Division, 1943–1945 (Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2007); Michael James Melnyk, To Battle: The History and Formation of the 14th Waffen SS Grenadier Division, 2nd. rev. ed. (Solihull: Helion, 2007); idem, The History of the Galician Division of the Waffen SS, vol. 1. On the Eastern Front, April 1943 to July 1944 (Stroud, UK: Fonthill Media, 2016); and idem, The History of the Galician Division of the Waffen SS, vol. 2. Stalin's Nemesis (Stroud, UK: Fonthill Media, 2016).