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Mass executions by hand were the OUN's favoured method of implementing the Holocaust. The german system of Concentration Camps was established by the SS in response to the problem that the enormous volume of death witnessed and inflicted by their professional executioners resulted in severe mental breakdowns and occasional crises of faith due to development of empathy for the victims. An often overlooked aspect of this outsourcing was making the direct killing more technical and the other approach was delegating the killing to more enthusiastic collaborators like the Banderites. Concentration camps were, sytematically speaking, a backup-measure for whoever wasn't caught by the collaborators. Furthermore the collaborators acted reciprocally as a dragnet for escapees from the Ghettos and specialised annihilation camps. | Mass executions by hand were the OUN's favoured method of implementing the Holocaust. The german system of Concentration Camps was established by the SS in response to the problem that the enormous volume of death witnessed and inflicted by their professional executioners resulted in severe mental breakdowns and occasional crises of faith due to development of empathy for the victims. An often overlooked aspect of this outsourcing was making the direct killing more technical and the other approach was delegating the killing to more enthusiastic collaborators like the Banderites. Concentration camps were, sytematically speaking, a backup-measure for whoever wasn't caught by the collaborators. Furthermore the collaborators acted reciprocally as a dragnet for escapees from the Ghettos and specialised annihilation camps. | ||
Survivor of the Galician Holocaust described the Banderites methods thusly:<blockquote>"When the Bandera gangs seize a Jew, they consider it a prize catch. . . . They literally slash Jews to pieces with their machetes."<ref name=":1">Moshe Maltz, Years of Horrors—Glimpse of Hope: The Diary of a Family in Hiding (New York: Shengold, 1993), 147, entry for November 1944.</ref></blockquote><blockquote>"Bandera men . . . are not discriminating about who they kill; they are gunning down the populations of entire villages. . . . Since there are hardly any Jews left to kill, the Bandera gangs have turned on the Poles. They are literally hacking Poles to pieces. Every day . . . you can see the bodies of Poles, with wires around their necks, floating down the river Bug."<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>Bladed weapons and farm tools were preffered weapons of murder.<ref>Bruder, “Den ukrainischen Staat,” 146.</ref> Polish survivor testimonies contain accounts of how the UPA (at that time thoroughly infiltrated by and merged with the OUN-B forced family members to take part in murders of their relatives. Mutiliation and torture were employed as standard procedure and a favoured method of exhibiting the results to the OUN's enemies was the crucifiction of victims. | Survivor of the Galician Holocaust described the Banderites methods thusly:<blockquote>"When the Bandera gangs seize a Jew, they consider it a prize catch. . . . They literally slash Jews to pieces with their machetes."<ref name=":1">Moshe Maltz, Years of Horrors—Glimpse of Hope: The Diary of a Family in Hiding (New York: Shengold, 1993), 147, entry for November 1944.</ref></blockquote><blockquote>"Bandera men . . . are not discriminating about who they kill; they are gunning down the populations of entire villages. . . . Since there are hardly any Jews left to kill, the Bandera gangs have turned on the Poles. They are literally hacking Poles to pieces. Every day . . . you can see the bodies of Poles, with wires around their necks, floating down the river Bug."<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>Bladed weapons and farm tools were preffered weapons of murder.<ref>Bruder, “Den ukrainischen Staat,” 146.</ref> Polish survivor testimonies contain accounts of how the UPA (at that time thoroughly infiltrated by and merged with the OUN-B) forced family members to take part in murders of their relatives. Mutiliation and torture were employed as standard procedure and a favoured method of exhibiting the results to the OUN's enemies was the crucifiction of victims. | ||
===Ghettos and concentration camps=== | ===Ghettos and concentration camps=== | ||
The OUN-B established an organisation to carry out killings of Jews in western Ukraine called the Ukrainian People's Militsiya. This organization became the police of western Ukraine as instructed by the Nazis. The Ukrainian People's Militsiya alongside the Nazis transferred hundreds of thousands of Jews to ghettos and concentration camps. In the Ternopil Oblast of western Ukraine, 97% of Jews were killed, whereas ( for contrast) in the Kharkov Oblast of eastern Ukraine, 91% survived. The OUN-B was directly involved in the killing of some 820,000 Jews in concentration camps and ghettos. | The OUN-B established an organisation to carry out killings of Jews in western Ukraine called the Ukrainian People's Militsiya. This organization became the police of western Ukraine as instructed by the Nazis. The Ukrainian People's Militsiya alongside the Nazis transferred hundreds of thousands of Jews to ghettos and concentration camps. In the Ternopil Oblast of western Ukraine, 97% of Jews were killed, whereas ( for contrast) in the Kharkov Oblast of eastern Ukraine, 91% survived. The OUN-B was directly involved in the killing of some 820,000 Jews in concentration camps and ghettos. | ||