Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine

Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum WENDY LOWER Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine © The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The assertions, arguments, and conclusions contained herein are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Set in Gill and Quadraat types by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Manufactured in the United States of America The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. Portions of the text have been previously published: Wendy Lower, ‘‘A New Ordering of Space and Race: Nazi Colonial Dreams in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, –,’’ German Studies Review , no. (): –; used by permission of German Studies Review. Wendy Lower, ‘‘‘Anticipa- tory Obedience’ and the Nazi Implementation of the Holocaust in the Ukraine: A Case Study of Central and Peripheral Forces in the Generalbezirk Zhytomyr, –,’’ Holocaust and Genocide Studies , no. (): –; used by permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lower, Wendy. Nazi empire-building and the Holocaust in Ukraine / Wendy Lower. p. cm. ‘‘Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.’’ Includes bibliographical references and index. --- (alk. paper) . Ukraine—ZìHytomyrs’ka oblast’—History—German occupation, –. Germany—Politics and government—–. Holocaust, Jewish (–)—Ukraine—ZìHytomyrs’ka oblast’. World War, –— Ukraine—ZìHytomyrs’ka oblast’. Germany—Colonies—Ukraine— ZìHytomyrs’ka oblast’—History—th century. I. Title. .. .'—dc For the mothers and daughters of the Czilug family: Gitia Malik (born in Liubar, ), Rakhilia Stepanskii (born in Liubar, ; killed at Babi Yar, September ), Liuba Stepanskii (born in Sarapul, ; killed at Babi Yar, September ), and Klavdia Malik (born in Novohrad- Volyns’kyi, ) This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments xi Glossary xv Introduction Nazi Colonialism and Ukraine Military Conquest and Social Upheaval, July–August The Wehrmacht Administration of Zhytomyr Making Genocide Possible: The Onset of the Holocaust, July–December The Zhytomyr General Commissariat, – The General Commissariat’s Machinery of Destruction: The Holocaust in the Countryside and Jewish Forced Labor, – Himmler’s Hegewald Colony: Nazi Resettlement Experiments and the Volksdeutsche The Unraveling of Nazi Rule, – Legacies of Nazi Rule Appendix: German and Ukrainian Spellings of Place Names Notes Bibliography Index Illustrations and Maps Himmler speaking with Felix Steiner Hitler visiting with German Red Cross nurses in Berdychiv German Flyer: ‘‘Passes’’ for Red Army deserters German road signs in the center of Zhytomyr Soviet POWs in a Vinnytsia POW camp SD officers prepare to hang Moishe Kogan and Wolf Kieper Rounded-up Jews at the hanging of Moishe Kogan and Wolf Kieper Organizational chart of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine Organizational chart of a Gebietskommissariat in Ukraine Kurt Klemm Ukrainian forced laborers examined by a Wehrmacht doctor Ukrainian forced laborers say good-bye to loved ones Announcement forbidding the sheltering of Jews Work on the Main Road, by Arnold Daghani Back ‘‘Home’’ from Work, by Arnold Daghani Mass Graves, by Arnold Daghani German SS-policeman shooting a Jewish man in Vinnytsia Hitler with Wilhelm List and Hermann Göring Hitler’s office at Werwolf Himmler receiving birthday congratulations Himmler inspecting cotton fields in Ukraine Vinnitsa German soldiers during the reconquest of Zhytomyr Nazi-Dominated Europe in and Plans for a Greater Germanic Empire The Reich Commissariat Ukraine, May Administrative Map of the General District of Zhytomyr Ethnic German Settlement Area, named ‘‘Hegewald’’ (preservation forest) The Collapse of the Nazi Empire: The Forced Evacuation of Volksdeutsche from Ukraine, This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Little did I know when I started the research for this book that my interest in Ukraine and Holocaust history would end up demanding so much time and energy from family, friends, mentors, and colleagues in Ukraine, Germany, and the United States. Many people who helped me trusted that I would do jus- tice to the material that they generously shared with me. I am responsible for any flaws in the book, but I cannot take full credit for its merits. During my research trips to Zhytomyr, Ukraine, I stayed with the Starovoitov family, without whom I could not have completed this study. I am forever grateful to Klav- dia (Malik) Starovoitov, my host ‘‘mother.’’ She introduced me to Zhytomyr’s Holocaust survivor community; she helped me translate handwritten sources in Russian and Ukrainian; and she opened up her home and dacha to me. She and her son Felix negotiated on my behalf with the local archives; as a ‘‘West- erner’’ with admittedly little sense of how to ‘‘work the Soviet system’’ of blat (personal favors, barter) and the like, I would have certainly been denied research opportunities without their involvement and know-how. At the Zhytomyr State Archives, Tat’iana Nikolaevna Franz and Hrihorii Denisenko answered my many inquiries about the holdings, brought new material to my attention, and helped arrange interviews with former partisans and forced laborers. Mary Poltorak, Aleksei Pavlov, and Sergei Gonzar assisted me with additional translations and served as interpreters. Zhytomyr scholars Efim Melamed and the late professor Boris Kruglak shared their invaluable in- sight into the region’s history. Kira Burova at the local Office of Jewish Affairs and Emigration provided me with recorded interviews of Holocaust survivors and invited me to conduct additional interviews with her. I am also grateful to Zhytomyr’s veterans association led by Ivan Shinal’skii. The newly revived synagogue in Zhytomyr opened its doors to me as well, allowing me to view its newspaper collections and use its copy machine. In Germany, reference staff at the Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwalt- ungen (Ludwigsburg) provided me with very useful materials. I am especially grateful to Dr. Dieter Pohl at the Institute for Contemporary History in Mu- nich who helped me a great deal by commenting on my manuscript. Dr. Karel Berkhoff at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the Netherlands also offered a constructive critique. In the United States, thanks go to my Ukrainian language instructors, Nata- lie Shostak and Natalie Gawdiak (at the Library of Congress). At the National Archives, archivist and historian Timothy Mulligan saved me countless hours of research by guiding me through the labyrinth of captured German records. Just as I was preparing to return to the Zhytomyr archives for a second time in the spring of , the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened. Thanks to the museum’s specialist on former Soviet archival collections, Carl Modig, I learned of additional files in Zhytomyr. In the museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, fellows and scholars including Hans Mommsen, Susannah Heschel, Berel Lang, Aron Rodrigue, Götz Aly, Peter Longerich, Ger- hard Weinberg, Jean Ancel, Dennis Deletant, Konrad Kwiet, Rebecca Boehling, Henry Friedlander, Hans Safrian, Christian Gerlach, Rebecca Golbert, Viorel Achim, Kate Brown, Alexander Prusin, Katrin Reichelt, Misha Tyaglyy, Tim Cole, David Furber, Dirk Moses, Robert Bernheim, and especially the center’s staff historians Peter Black, Jürgen Matthäus, Geoff Megargee, Martin Dean, Vadim Altskan, Radu Iaonid, and Michael Gelb engaged me in scholarly dis- cussions of my research and gave me pertinent materials. Alexander Rossino and Peter Black reviewed all or parts of the book manuscript. Museum staff in the archives and library, including Henry Mayer, Mark Ziomek, Michlean Amir, Anatol Steck, Aleksandra Borecka, Bill Connelly, Steve Kanaley, Sharon Muller, and Sara Sirman guided my use of the collections. The director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Paul Shapiro, supported this work as a valued mentor and tireless advocate of Holocaust scholarship. Thanks also to my CAHS colleagues Robert Ehrenreich, Tracy Brown, and Lisa Zaid for sus- taining me with their savvy computer skills and good humor. This work also benefited from continued exchange with former Summer Research Work- shop participants Ray Brandon and Edward Westermann. On countless occa- sions I turned to the center’s director of publications, Benton Arnovitz, for his counsel. I have enjoyed and appreciated working with the center’s editorial co- ordinator, Dr. Aleisa Fishman, who conscientiously carried my work through the center’s review process. Thanks to the distinguished scholars of the Publi- cations Subcommittee for taking valuable time away from their full schedules to read and comment on this work. The transformation of this work from a dissertation to a book could not have been accomplished without the commit- ment and hard work of many people at the University of North Carolina Press, above all Senior Editor Chuck Grench, Editor Paul Betz, and Assistant Editor Amanda McMillan. I am especially grateful to Doris Bergen at the University of Notre Dame and Tim Snyder at Yale University, who devoted many hours

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