A Few Thoughts About the Russia -Ukraine War
By: Rev. K Paul
In February 1905, a pogrom occurred in Ukraine in which the Ukranian people slaughtered 300 Jews and injured thousands more. Another pogrom occurred in Ekaterinoslav, during which Ukranian’s finest sons murdered 120 Jews.
Pogroms occurred in 64 cities (Odessa, Ekaterinoslav, Kiev, Simferopol, Romny, Kremenchug, Nikolaev, Chernigov, Kamenets-Podolsky and Elisavetgrad) and in 626 villages. The pogroms lasted several days.
The Ukrainian murderers who slaughtered Jews were proud train workers, traders in local shops, artisans and industrialists.
During the Russian Civil War, between 1918 and 1921, Ukrainians proudest sons continued to murder Jews. A total of 1,236 violent incidents against Jews occurred in 524 towns in Ukraine. The estimates of the number of killed range between 30,000 and 60,000. Of the recorded 1,236 pogroms, 493 were carried out by Ukrainian People’s Republic soldiers under command of Symon Petliura, 307 by independent Ukrainian warlords, and 213 by Denikin’s army.
The Ukrainian people were delighted to “help” the German people murder Jews during the Shoah.
In 1941, Operation Barbarossa destroyed the Jewish population of Ukraine, and reduced it from 870,000 to 17,000.
The German massacres could not have been accomplished without the aid of the local Ukrainian population, because the Germans lacked the manpower to reach all of the communities that were annihilated, especially in the remote villages.
The nationalist OUN-Bandera faction of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army “openly advocated violence against Jews.” In August 1941 at its Second Congress in Kraków OUN-B embraced anti-Semitism. “Twenty so-called ‘foreign’ nationalities were listed as enemies of Ukraine: Jews were first.” The resolution stated: “OUN combats the Jews as the prop of the Muscovite-Bolshevik regime.” On September 1, 1941, Ukrainian language newspaper Volhyn wrote: “The element that settled our cities (Jews)… must disappear completely from our cities. The Jewish problem is already in the process of being solved.”
The Lviv pogroms were two massacres of Jews that took place from June 30 to July 2, and from July 25-29, 1941.
According to Yad Vashem, six thousand Jews were killed primarily by rioting Ukrainian nationalists and a newly formed Ukrainian militia.
Ukrainian nationalists assisted German Security Police and the Einsatzgruppen. They compiled lists of targets for the branch offices of the KdS and assisted with the roundups (as in Stanisławów, Włodzimierz Wołyński, Łuck), as well as in Zhytomyr, Rivne and Kiev among other locations.
In Korosten, the Ukranian people carried out the killings by themselves–even without the German present.
Did they think that the past oppression, cruelty, murders of the Jews staying there would go unpunished?
This is all part of G-d’s work.
He had said that vengeance was His, in His own time.
The bones of His chosen people will cry out.
Praying for the safety of our Jewish brothers and sisters stranded in Ukraine.
Hashemi will protect them and guide them to safety.
