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Ukranian religion faiths Christianity Mennonites World War II
Ukranian Mennonites: World War II (1941-45)
Figure 1.--Here we see pupils of a girls school at the Mennonite settlement of East Prussian settlers northwest of Khortytsia Island,. Chortitza Colony near Zaporizhia during 1943. Soon after this photograph was taken, the Great Trek west to escape the Red Army began. Herbert List was a hugely successful profesional photographer in the 1930s. Being partly Jewish he had difficilty working professionally in NAZI Germany. He did leave photographs of German occuoied Eastern Europe. We are not sure how he arranged that. He captured the emense destruction. (Too often only the destruction in Germany is depicted.) He also photographed the Mennonite communities. Actually the NAZI interest in the Mennoites may be how List got the assignment to photograph in the occupied Ukraine.
Some of the Mennonites who survivd remained were forcibly deported to the East by Stalin after the German World War II Barbarossa invasion of the Soviet Union (1941). The Mennonites were not specifically targeted, but were part of the larger Soviet action against ethnic Germans. Some but not all of the Mennonites were deported eastward in 1941 before advancing German troops. We are not sure how the NKVD selected who to deport. We believe it was primarily a matter of time. The Mennonites were mostly located in the central Ukraine and the Germans got to them before they could be deported. For the race obsessed NAZIs, the Mennonites were a rare find of what they saw as gentically valuable material in a sea of Untermench. Rather than being supressed, in the remamining Mennoite communities were promoted and awarded special privliges and treatment. Artucles about the Mennites appeared in NAZI newspapers and magazines stressing liberatiin from Soviet supression. A historian paraphases a typical article, "Children’s eyes sparkled in the candlelight. This was the first time many had seen a Christmas tree, aglow in the Einlage kindergarten in December 1942. Soldiers handed out wooden toys. They had spent weeks carving them—model houses, schools, churches, city halls, trucks, and trains—while convalescing at the military hospital in this Mennonite village in southeastern Ukraine. The group joined in song, filling the hall with old German Christmas carols. The tunes, which had not been heard openly during the recent years of Bolshevik rule, reminded all those present of the momentous changes wrought since Hitler’s armies had taken control of Ukraine. ["Die Brücke...] Apparently the NKVD had veen able to deoort many of the German Volk Dutsch from the southern Ukraine. One repoorts indiucates that there were 10,000 Kindergarten-age children, meaning there was avery sizeabkle German population. Reich authorities assigned special teams to asess the genetuc value of the Volk Deutshe. Apparenbtly these were SA men as brown shirts were mentioned. They were alo to conduct the NAZIification of a largely apolitical, highly religious community. Here the Volk Deitsche were a particularly vulnerable groups because of their percecution during the Stalinist era and antipathy toward Soviet Communism.
Soviet Deportations (1941)
Some of the Mennonites who survivd remained wereforcibly deported to the East by Stalin after the German World War II Barbarossa invasion of the Soviet Union (1941). The Mennonites were not specifically targeted, but were part of the larger Soviet action against ethnic Germans. Some but not all of the Mennonites were deported eastward in 1941 before advancing German troops. We are not sure how the NKVD selected who to deport. We believe it was primarily a matter of time. The Mennonites were mostly located in the central Ukraine and the Germans got to them before they could be deported. In contrast, most of the Volga Germnans further east were successfully deported.
For the race obsessed NAZIs, the Mennonites were a rare find of what they saw as gentically valuable material in a sea of Untermench. The Germans were not sure at first what to make of the Mennoites. A Chistian pacifist sect was hardky the nAZI's cup of tea, bit they were German and made for excellent bproioagand=da back home. ir what tRather than being supressed, in the remamining Mennoite communities were promoted and awarded special privliges and treatment. Articles about the Mennonites appeared in NAZI newspapers and magazines stressing liberatioin from Soviet percecutionn. A historian paraphases a typical article, "Children’s eyes sparkled in the candlelight. This was the first time many had seen a Christmas tree, aglow in the Einlage kindergarten in December 1942. Soldiers handed out wooden toys. They had spent weeks carving them—model houses, schools, churches, city halls, trucks, and trains—while convalescing at the military hospital in this Mennonite village in southeastern Ukraine. The group joined in song, filling the hall with old German Christmas carols. The tunes, which had not been heard openly during the recent years of Bolshevik rule, reminded all those present of the momentous changes wrought since Hitler’s armies had taken control of Ukraine. ["Die Brücke...] Apparently the NKVD had been unable to deoprt many of the German Volk Dutsch from the southern Ukraine. One repoorts indicates that there were 10,000 Kindergarten-age children, meaning there was avery sizeabkle German population. Reich authorities assigned special teams to assess the genetuc value of the Volk Deutshe. Apparenbtly these were SA men as brown shirts were mentioned. They were alo to conduct the NAZIification of a largely apolitical, highly religious community. Special attention was given to education. Here the Volk Deutsche were a particularly vulnerable groups because of their percecution during the Stalinist era and antipathy toward Soviet Communism. Local militias were formed and Hitler Youth groups for the older boys and girls. We are unsure to what extent they cooperated with the Holocaust. We know they did receive Jewish property from both the Einstzgruppen operations and the Holocaust. And we suspect that their militia group played a role, but do not yet have details. The Einsatzgruppen were small and recruited locals for their grisly opertioins. There is no way to excuse this, but one must realize that we are talking about two very evil regimes. The Soviets had committed terrible atroicities against the Mennoites. Many of those who blithly critcise the Mennoites are unlikely to have behaved differently if they were in a similar position.
With the advance of the Red Armny into the Ukraine, the Mennoites trekked westward along with the retreating German armies. They were accompanied by armed Mennonite militia groups. Some sources suggest thaey were responsible for atrocities along the vway, but we do not yet have documentation of this. The whole opoeratiin was supervised by the SS which is more than occurred when the Red Army entered the eastern areas of the Reich. The civilians were on their own. The Mennoite refugees arrived at camps in occupied western Poland, probably the same camps where the Baltic Home to the Reich Germans had been processed. They were subjected to exhaustive racial testing before qualifying for special rights as qualified Aryan ethnic resettlers (1944). This included homes and farms taken from Poles or murdered Jews (1944). That was mostly in 1944. Before they could settle down, however, the Red Army landed on their door step again and they had to flee once mire, this time into Germany itself (1945).
While under NAZI rule they tried to prove their Germaness, after the German surrender (May 1945) that were intent on provening their anti-Fascism and non-Germaness. One historian focusing on the Mennoites writes, "After claiming all those benefits based on German ethnicity, someone had to prove that Mennonite refugees (in Germany) were not Germans. United Nations guidelines excluded Germans from refugee programs because they were considered to be the war’s instigators." The Canadian Mennonite relief leader Peter Dyck inventing a new ethnicity: 'Mennonite'. The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) claimed that the Mennonite refugees from Ukraine 'were not Germans at all, but Mennonites'. The MCC claimed that Mebbonite refugees were pacifists who didn’t aid the military or the National Socialist Party." This was, howevr, eroneous. It was not possible to be a pacifist either in the Soviet Union or NAZI Germany. Virtually all Mennonite males by their kate teens were fighting in German regiments or militia groups. Whether they were forved or not is another question. Dyck reports that that Mennonite men with a tattooed number on their arms signifying membrship in the SS were refused entrance to Canada after 1945.
Sources
"Die Brücke zur Heimat," Deutsche Ukraine-Zeitung, January 9, 1943, 8; "Soldaten erfreuen volksdeutsche Kinder," Deutsche Ukraine-Zeitung, December 29, 1942, 3.
