In the September 8, 1919 New York Times, the president of the Ukrainian Association of Jews warned US President Woodrow Wilson of the coming genocide that had already begun in #Ukraine.
He correctly predicted the exact number — 6 million — who would die in the #Nazi #Holocaust.
These crimes of 1918-19 were not committed against Ukrainian Jews by Germans.
They were committed BY Ukrainian nationalists who over the next 2 decades would join forces with Nazi Germany.
This was the forgotten Holocaust before the Holocaust.
200,000 Jews were slaughtered between 1917-21 in #Ukraine — by any metric, a genocide.
Yet these pogroms are not even talked about by the #Holocaust Museums in the United States and Jerusalem.
It is vitally relevant to what happened in #WWII, and in today’s #UkraineRussiaWar.
This thread ties together the historical origins of the #NazisInUkraine from the early 20th Century to the post-WWII period, using primary source documents which reveal their plans for a “master race.”
As this panel of historians accurately point out in the video lecture above, the Ukrainians targeted Jews for much the same reasons #Hitler did — because Jewry was conflated with Soviet #communism.
This thread explains the motivation to kill was political as well as racial.
Quick 60 second explainer: ⏰
By early 1919, #Ukraine was devastated by #WWI, a typhus epidemic, and a civil war with #Russia.
But the Ukrainian nationalists kept on killing their Jewish neighbors by the thousands — because they were suspected of being #communists.
youtube.com/clip/UgkxXGkWM…
The anti-communist crusade of the #NazisInUkraine continued after #WWII, and throughout the #ColdWar with the full cooperation of the US government and CIA (as well as UK’s MI6).
It continues to this very day.
Watch my report w/ @KimIversenShow here:👇🏽
From 1917-1945, nothing could stop the slaughter of Jews and #Communists in #Ukraine, Poland, #Russia and the #USSR.
The only force that stopped it was the Red Army.
The Red Army put down each and every pogrom and liberated the concentration camps.
It truly is stunning to hear the historians in this “Forgotten Genocide” program describe pogrom after pogrom in villages across #Ukraine. Each and every time, it was the Red Army who came to the rescue and put a stop to the killing.
They did it again in #WWII, as we know.
And once again, in the 21st Century, #Russia will come to the rescue of Ukrainian civilians who are being murdered by a dictatorial, genocidal #Nazi regime as you read this.
Many Ukrainians will be thankful to their Russian cousins — but history shows that many will not.
The Ukrainian nationalists were the original gangstaz, the OG #Nazis — before the #Nazi Party was even born in #Germany, before anyone had ever heard of Adolf #Hitler.
The #NazisInUkraine showed Hitler how it’s done.
Where do you think #Hitler learned it? 🇺🇦
Where do you think we learned it? 🇺🇦
Who copied who’s homework?
🤔 🤨
Take a look at this rare silent movie footage taken of the aftermath of the Ukrainian nationalists’ genocidal pogroms of 1918-19 (at 1 hour, 6 minutes in the video).
You will no doubt be reminded of the #Nazi concentration camp films of 1945. GRAPHIC⚠️
The pattern repeated over and over in #Ukraine during the Civil War; the nationalists would slaughter an entire village of Jews, the Red Army would come and put a stop to it, take care of the victims, bury the dead — then the killing would resume as soon as the Reds left town.
For further reading on the Ukrainian nationalists’ bloody genocide of Jews and Communists, I recommend “Pogroms in #Ukraine 1918-19: Prelude to the #Holocaust.”
books.openedition.org/obp/11043
The author, Nokhem Shtif, wrote this book in 1920, from first hand experience with the Ukrainian nationalist “Volunteer Army” who controlled the region in that period — his recollections of these pogroms will chill you to the bone.
From the Introduction📕:
Sctif writes of the nationalist movement growing in Germany at the same time in 1920 (which later became the #Nazi Party) taking lessons from the Ukrainians.
“In #Germany the German nationalists are screaming right now for what the Volunteer Army did three years ago in Ukraine.”
“Historical tradition pointed the pillagers against the Jews,” he wrote. “The generals and politicians sat back and watched, and they were quietly pleased…
And they counted on this criminal mind-set to achieve another aim: to drive out the Bolsheviks and take #Russia back.”
The Ukrainian nationalist Volunteer Army targeted local Hewish communities for rape, pillage, and mass extermination for one central reason:
The Jews were accused of being “Russian collaborators.” (Based on false pretexts & lies.)
Is any of this starting to sound familiar?
The areas of #Ukraine where these horrific genocides occurred a century ago during the civil war with #Russia — #Kharkiv, #Rostov-On-Don, #Odessa — are the same places where blood spills now in the #RussiaUkraineWar️. 🩸
books.openedition.org/obp/11058
The Ukrainian and German nationalists first began to fraternize and coalesce during Germany’s brief conquest of Ukraine during #WWI. Throughout 1918 Ukraine was occupied by 250,000 Habsburg and 400,000 German troops. Seventeen Russian provinces (as well as Poland) were occupied.
German military censorship was introduced for all newspapers.
The first to be closed down was the Russian-language newspaper Kievskaia mysl´ (Kyivan Thought), which had been Leon #Trotsky’s employer for many years.
The anti-Bolshevik crackdowns began immediately.
The Russian language newspaper had offended the Germans by suggesting that they risked antagonizing the Ukrainian peasantry with their behavior as conquerors.
The newspaper was allowed to reopen after it promised not to print articles critical of the Germans.
It was here that the Germans began to forge ties with the Ukrainian nationalists, whom they saw as valuable allies in the fight against Bolshevik #Russia.
“The Germans had the best contacts w/ the Ukrainian nationalist parties.”
The German occupiers took note of how the Ukrainian nationalists Volunteer Army dealt with Jews particularly!
Then, the Poles occupied #Ukraine for a brief spell — and continued the ferocious massacres of Bolsheviks and Jews suspected of sympathies to #Russia.
Some historians believe if #Germany had given the Ukrainian nationalists the independence they demanded during the first occupation of #Ukraine in #WWI or the second occupation in #WWII — #Russia would have been defeated, and #Hitler’s heir might stand astride Europe today.”
Source: Ukrainian Nationalism 1939–1945. By John A. Armstrong. 1955. (New York: Columbia University Press; Toronto: Oxford. xi, 322pp.)
Volume 12, Issue 1
doi.org/10.1177/002070…
If this thread left you feeling a bit anxious about the current #UkraineRussiaWar, the Western powers & #NATO assure you that #Zelensky has the situation under control and there are absolutely, positively NO #NazisInUkraine!
Nothing to see here! 👀
Finally, if you’d like to learn more, please read this new book by Jeffrey Veidlinger, the University of Michigan history professor seen in the video.
His book on this subject was years in the making, and was vital to my own understanding of this very complex history. 📕
@AriannaPaul8 Those Cold War years were critical, as the CIA & MI6 were actively using the Ukrainian Banderite militias to try and overthrow the #USSR — yet Khrushchev & Brezhnev either did not take the threat seriously, or didn’t do enough to put the #NazisInUkraine in prison.
However..
@AriannaPaul8 Khrushchev, to his credit, did carry out Stalin’s wish to get Stepan #Bandera. Khrushchev gave the order to KGB for Bandera’s 1959 Assassination.
The Soviets did capture & kill a LOT of these Ukrainian #Nazis in the Cold War era, but obviously didn’t catch them all!
@AriannaPaul8 The Ukrainian resistance groups were very resourceful at evading capture.
They had CIA & MI6 funding, and safe houses set up in a network all across West Germany, outside Soviet jurisdiction. These guys had hideouts in the Bavarian alps, just like their boy #Hitler…
If you enjoyed this thread, please consider buying me a book. 📕 (who knows? Your book just might inspire me to write another mega-thread!)
You can also drop a 💰 tip or pick a gift from my Wishlist! 🎁
giftapp.com/reallorispencer
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