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Thread about activity in the US of the interwar Ukrainian monarchist United Hetman Organization (UHO), which collaborated with Nazi Germany hoping to revive the short-lived reign of the so-called Hetman of Ukraine, Pavlo Skoropadsky, the Kaiser's puppet in Kyiv at the end of WW1.
The UHO formed in the West in late 1920s to early 30s as the rival fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) created front groups in North America. UHO & OUN were pro-Nazi but differed on "White Russians." Future OUN leaders helped chase Skoropadsky from Kyiv in 1918.
After WW1, Skoropadsky resettled in Wannsee, Germany where, a journalist wrote in early 1939, if you asked a taxi to take you to "der Ukraine," you'd arrive at the deposed Hetman's villa. He spent the 20s and 30s warming up to German (often military) officials, including Goering.
"The Hetman movement itself includes a small number of people, an inner circle, on whom I can absolutely rely," Skoropadsky told a journalist in Wannsee in early 1939. "It is difficult to say how we would solve the Jewish question... The Jews have done much harm in my country."
The UHO was active in the Mid-West of the United States, with its national HQ in Chicago. It was particularly strong in Detroit, where the Hetmanites benefited from the support of Henry Ford & a shady relationship with Ford Motor Company. Ford's literature influenced many Nazis.
Virtual UHO leader John Koos knew Henry Ford as an investigator for Harry Bennett's Service Department—dubbed the Ford Gestapo by the UWA—for which Koos apparently recruited Hetmanite thugs. When the Hetman's heir visited the US in 1937-38 Koos introduced "Prince Danylo" to Ford.
The German American Bund, the successor to the Friends of New Germany which staged the infamous Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, was quite active in Chicago, where it maintained close ties to the United Hetman Organization. Bund officials appeared at UHO picnics and meetings.
Three months before World War 2 began, the UHO reportedly made plans to celebrate the 950th anniversary of the Kievan Rus' adoption of Christianity in Charles Coughlin's "National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica Catholic Church" in Royal Oak, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.
After WW2 began, UHO ended its feud with OUN/ODWU, allegedly at Berlin's behest, under pretense "Skoropadsky & Melnyk will together take the government of the future Ukrainian State into their joint hands...as was done by the King of Italy and Mussolini."
After the House Un-American Activities Committee heard testimony about the ODWU & UHO in 1939, the FBI got word of a rumored cover-up on behalf of Koos and Bennett to steer HUAC's brief investigation away from UHO's ties to the German American Bund and the Ford Motor Company.
The FBI began to investigate ODWU and UHO in 1940 and soon acquired several Confidential Informants that shed light on these orgs. The FBI also kept in touch with the ADL, which was working with Jewish & Ukrainian leftists to investigate the Hetmanites.
In the spring of 1941, UHO leader Alexander Shapoval told an FBI CI he learned of Hitler's plans "for the conquest of North America" including "a revolution in the western provinces of Canada...to set up some sort of provisional government there..." & then a revolution in the US:
Shapoval, a former Russian army colonel, was allegedly "leading special work in connection with the airplane manufacturers of this country, and has a number of men in airplane factories [including 'a Ford plant in Michigan'] doing espionage work and gathering information..."
Alexander Shapoval edited the UHO paper Nash Styah (Our Banner), which carried news of "The Resurrection of the Ukraine" after the Nazis captured Lviv & began to implement the "Shoah by Bullets" in western Ukraine: "Unity, love, constructive work are the watchwords in Galicia..."
"Golden Domed Kiev Has Been Wrung From the Claws of the AntiChrist," read a headline in Chicago's Nash Styah, two days before the Babi Yar massacre began, announcing the Nazi occupation of the Ukrainian capital: "This news filled with joy the soul of every true Ukrainian."
In those days, in autumn 1941, an FBI informant "pointed out to reporting Agent that it has been common knowledge among the Ukrainians of Cleveland that the Hetman group is a militant, political group armed with rifles," which they used for ceremonies and drills in the 1930s.
Unable to stand the spotlight, the UHO disbanded in 1942, but a "successor body of sorts" called the United Hetman Organization of America sprung up in 1943. The "UHO-A" went on to join the OUN-B's neo-fascist Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, led by war criminal Yaroslav Stetsko.
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