Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118 | |
---|---|
Active | Founded in spring of 1942 |
Country | Occupied Poland/Soviet Union |
Allegiance | Nazi Germany |
Branch | Schutzmannschaft |
Type | Paramilitary volunteer brigade |
Role | Nazi security warfare |
Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118 (Ukrainian Schuma)[1] was a Schutzmannschaft auxiliary police battalion (Schuma). The core of the Schutzmannschaft battalion 118 consisted of Ukrainian nationalists from Bukovina in western Ukraine, and the unit included other nationalities.[2] It was linked to the ultra-nationalist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), to its smaller Melnyk wing. Nine-hundred members of the OUN in Bukovina marched towards eastern Ukraine as members of the paramilitary Bukovinian Battalion. After reinforcement by volunteers from Galicia and other parts of Ukraine, the Bukovinian Battalion had a total number of 1,500–1,700 soldiers. When the Bukovinian Battalion was dissolved, many of its members and officers were reorganized as Schutzmannschaft battalions 115 and 118.[2] Among the people incorporated into the Schutzmannschaft battalions 115 and 118 were Ukrainian participants in the Babi Yar massacre.[2]
The Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118 was formed by the Nazis in the spring of 1942 in Kyiv in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. It was based upon Battalion 115, splitting away from it, but also included Soviet prisoners of war.[3] A hundred members of the 115th Battalion's 3rd Company formed the 118th Battalion's 1st Company; it was the battalion's most active part, considered its elite and consisted mostly of nationalists from western Ukraine.[3][4] Additionally, two new companies were composed of Soviet POWs, mostly Ukrainians and Russians,[2] and local volunteers from the Kyiv region.[3][2][5] The battalion's German commander was Sturmbannführer Erich Körner, who had his own staff of Germans, commanded by Emil Zass.[2]
In 1944, the battalion, led by the former Red Army officer Hryhoriy Vasiura (aged 27, executed in 1987 by the USSR),[6] was merged back to Battalion 115 and transferred from East Prussia to France, where it joined the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS.[2]
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