Back 118-ы ахоўны паліцэйскі батальён Byelorussian 118-ы батальён дапаможнай паліцыі BE-X-OLD 118-и полицейски батальон Bulgarian Schutzmannschaft Bataillon 118 French Battaglione Schutzmannschaft 118 Italian 118 Batalion Schutzmannschaft Polish 118-й батальон шуцманшафта Russian 118-й батальйон шуцманшафту Ukrainian

Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118

Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118
Commanders of Schutzmannschaft battalions 102, 115, and 118 at a training base in Minsk, spring 1942
ActiveFounded in spring of 1942
Country Occupied Poland/Soviet Union
Allegiance Nazi Germany
BranchSchutzmannschaft
TypeParamilitary volunteer brigade
RoleNazi 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]

  1. ^ Natalia Petrouchkevitch, Wilfrid Laurier University, Victims and criminals: Schutzmannschaft battalion 118 (Belarus, Ukraine).
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Per A. Rudling, "Terror and Local Collaboration in Occupied Belorussia: The Case of Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118. Part One: Background" Historical Yearbook of the Nicolae Iorga History Institute (Bucharest) 8 (2011), pp. 195, 202–203
  3. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Rudling was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference katriuk990129 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Registrar of Canadian Citizenship, Canada: Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Katriuk. Reasons for Judgement. Docket: T-2409-96 including brief history of Battalion 118.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference SunNews was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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