What Our Fathers Did–A NAZI Legacy in Ukraine

If you have any doubts about the prevalence of Nazi ideology and adherents in Ukraine please watch the following snippet from the 2015 documentary, What Our Fathers Did–A Nazi Legacy. The film features Philippe Sands, a Jew and an eminent human rights lawyer based in London (his grandfather and other relaatives were murdered in Ukraine by Nazis during the Holocaust), and the sons of the two Nazi Officials who oversaw the extermination of Jews in Poland and Ukraine–Niklas Frank and Horst von Wachter.

Niklas Frank is the son of Hans Frank:

After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Frank was appointed Governor-General of the occupied Polish territories. During his tenure, he instituted a reign of terror against the civilian population and became directly involved in the mass murder of Jews.^[1] He engaged in the use of forced labour and oversaw four of the extermination camps. Frank remained head of the General Government until its collapse in early 1945.

After the war, Frank was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials. He was sentenced to death and executed by hanging in October 1946.

For those not familiar with the Poland’s role in the Holocaust, all of the mass extermination camps were erected on Polish territory–Auschwitz/Birkenau, Belzac, Chelmno, Majdenak, Sobibor and Treblinka. Those six camps accounted for almost 50% of all Jews murdered by Nazis during the Holocaust (i.e., 3 million). Hans Frank directly oversaw four of those murder factories.

Niklas Frank does not speak kindly of his father. He despises the deceased Hans Frank for his brutality and inhumanity.

Horst von Wachter sings a different tune about his father, Otto von Wachter. Otto von Wachter was the Nazi Governor of Ukraine and came up with the idea of forming an SS Division comprised of Ukrainian recruits:

The idea to organize a division of volunteers from Galicia was proposed by the German Governor of District Galicia, Dr. Otto von Wächter. He suggested creation of a Waffen-SS division composed of Galician volunteers and designed for regular combat on the Eastern Front. The creation of 14th Voluntary Division SS Galizien was announced in April 1943 at ceremonies throughout Galicia. At least 50 documents including contemporary newspaper clippings, radio broadcasts and speeches etc. record the date of 28 April. By June 1943 the first phase of recruitment had taken place. Initially Wächter’s proposal (which he was certain would be supported by Ukrainian circles) was rejected. In Berlin Wächter was able to get support from Heinrich Himmler who made the stipulation that the division would only made up of Galicians, who Himmler considered “more Aryan-like”.^[7] The terms “Ukrainian”, “Ukraine”, could not be used when addressing the division, stressing the Imperial Austro-Hungarian heritage of the term “Galizien”.^[8] David Marples suggests that the division was titled “Galicia” to ensure stricter German control to avoid direct use of inflammatory term “Ukrainian”.^[9]

Otto von Wachter went into hiding at the end of World War II. He found refuge with a Catholic Priest but died, reportedly of kidney disease, in 1949. Polish authorities wanted to put him on trial for the murder of 100,000 Poles.

In the following video clip you will see Ukrainians in 2015 burying the remains of Nazi soldiers, wearing Nazi regalia and celebrating the heritage of the 14th Voluntary Division SS Galizien. His son, Horst, is not repulsed by his father’s legacy.

The Russian charge that Ukraine still harbors Nazis, albeit 3rd generation Nazis, is true. You can read more about this at my previous post, Yes, The Azon Battalion Are Nazi Sympathizers. I would encourage you to watch the full documentary. It is haunting and oddly relevant to today.