Roman Shliakhtych

The purpose of the project is to research the involvement of representatives of local police in the Holocaust on the territory of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, helping to form an objective view of the events that took place during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine.

On July 20, 1941, the Reichskommissariat Ukraine was established. It consisted of six general districts. Until mid-October 1941, these regions were occupied by German troops. Initially, power on these lands belonged to the German military command, but later, passed into the hands of the civilian German administration. During the late summer and fall of 1941, the German command involved local police in punitive actions against the local population, including the genocide of Ukrainian Jews.

It was during this summer and the spring of 1942 that the majority of the Jewish population was murdered. Commonly, the actual perpetrators of these murders were representatives of the German Sonderkommandos. Local police officers were also involved in executions, but not often. Mostly local police were detected and identified Jews, guarded Jews detention centers, escorted them to the places of execution, guarded places of execution, looted Jewish property. Undoubtedly, all these actions are also a part of the Holocaust. And therefore, the police officers who participated in different stages of the Holocaust are also criminals involved in the murder of more than one million Ukrainian Jews.

In addition, the aspect of involving local police in the protection of ghettos and labor camps in central Ukraine remains less researched. In particular, in the modern Kirovograd and Dnipropetrovsk regions. We know that there were many labor camps in the area of the highways, where Jews worked and were kept. Ghettos have also been established in some towns and villages in the region. Mostly local collaborators were involved in guarding and exterminations in ghettos.