Motives of the local police regarding participation in the holocaust in the general district "Dnipropetrovsk" (evidence from the districts of Kryvyi Rih and Stalindorf)

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Article

Motives of the local police regarding participation in the holocaust in the general district "Dnipropetrovsk" (evidence from the districts of Kryvyi Rih and Stalindorf)

Roman Shliakhtych, PhD (History), Senior Lecturer, Department of History of Ukraine and Law, Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine

Анотація

Мотиви місцевих поліцаїв щодо участі у голокості в генеральній окрузі «Дніпропетровськ» (на прикладі Криворізького та Сталіндорфського районів)

Роман Шляхтич, кандидат історичних наук, старший викладач кафедри історії України та правознавства, Криворізький державний педагогічний університет, м. Кривий Ріг, Україна,

Метою дослідження є вивчення мотивів, які спонукали місцевих поліцаїв у Криворізькому та Сталіндорфському районах брати участь у Голокості. Методологія дослідження ґрунтується на принципах історизму, системоутворення, наукового характеру, перевірки, об 'єктивності автора, використання загальнонаукових (аналіз, синтез, узагальнення) та спеціально - історичних (історико-генетичних, історико-типологічні, історико- системні тощо) методи. Наукова новизна - вперше на основі відеосвідчення з архіву Yahad-In Unum та інших архівів досліджено мотиви місцевих поліцаїв, які брали участь у Голокості в Криворізькому та Сталіндорфському районах. Висновки. Відеосвідчення з архіву Yahad-In Unum дали можливість проаналізувати мотиви місцевих поліцейських, а також етапи Голокосту, в яких вони брали участь. Існувало кілька основних мотивів: соціально - економічні, пов'язані із задоволенням їх матеріальних потреб; ідеологічні, пов'язані з негативним ставленням деяких поліцаїв до радянської влади (вони також розглядали євреїв як представ - ників радянської влади); заздрість (яка межує з антисемітизмом); прагнення до влади. Ці мотиви спонукали місцеву поліцію взяти участь у Голокості. Прямими виконавцями разом із німцями були рядові поліцаї. Вони в основному займалися збиранням та охороною євреїв до розстрілу, супроводженням євреїв до місць страти, охороною місць масових вбивств, а іноді безпосереднь о вчиняли вбивство євреїв.

Ключові слова: окупаційний режим; мотиви; місцеві поліцаї.

Summary

The purpose of the research is to study the motives that prompted local policemen in the Kryvyi Rih and Stalindorf districts to participate in Holocaust.

The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, system-formation, scientific character, verification, the author 's objectivity, moderated narrative constructivism, and the use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and specially-historical (historical-genetic, historical-typological, historical-systemic, etc.) methods. Scientific novelty for the first time on the basis of video evidence from the Yahad-In Unum archive and other archives, we researched features of the motives for local policemen to participate in Holocaust in the Kryvyi Rih and Stalindorf districts. Conclusions - Video evidence from the Yahad-In Unum archive gave the opportunity to analyze the motives of local policemen and also the stages of the Holocaust in which they took part. There were several main motives: socio-economic motives, which were associated with the satisfaction of their material needs; ideological motives associated with the negative attitude of some policemen to the Soviet authority (they also saw the Jews as the representatives of Soviet power); envy (which bordered on anti-Semitism); the desire for power. These motives forced the local police to take part in the Holocaust. The direct executors, together with the Germans, were ordinary police officers. They were mainly engaged in the collection and guard of the Jews before the execution, the escorting of the Jews to the places of execution, guarding the places of mass murder, and sometimes directly committed murders of the Jews.

Key words: occupation regime; motives; local police.

Problem statement

On August 20, 1941 the Reikhskomissariat "Ukraine" was created. It was the one of the four occupation zones on the territory of Ukraine. The RKU consisted of six general districts, one of which was the general district "Dnepropetrovsk". This consisted of the territory of Dnipropetrovsk and the Northern part Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv regions. Until mid-October 1941 those areas were occupied by the German troops. Initially, power in the region belonged to the German military administration, but later it was passed into the hands of civil administration. However, on the ground, the power remained in the hands of local residents who were controlled by the Germans. The most sinister of all the power structures, created by the Germans in the occupied territories, were the SS, SD and local formations of German police.

The General district "Dnipropetrovsk" consisted of several major cities: Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro), Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, Nikopol, Dniprodzerzhinsk (now Kamyanske) etc. The territory of the General district was divided into twenty districts, the centers of which were small towns. During the summer and early autumn of 1941, the power was in the hands of the German military leadership. In early September of 1941 Ortskommandaturen arrived in Dnepropetrovsk assuming full power in the city. The surrounding area was under the influence of the Dnipropetrovsk Ortskommandaturen. Besides, newly created city government was already subordinated to the authority of Ortskommandaturen. The first commandant of Dnipropetrovsk was Colonel von Alberti but he was in office only for two months. After him there was General Mangold (until September 19, 1943) whilst the last German Ortskommandat of the city was Captain Fisher (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 4 (R), op. 2, case 50, vol. 1, pp. 87-88). A similar situation prevailed in other major cities. For example, in Kryvyi Rih in the early autumn of 1941, power was in the hands of the 538 field commandant headed by major Regler (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 4 (R), op. 2, case 75, vol. 4, p. 77).

Main material

Civil governance and administration of the Reichskommissariat "Ukraine" were established in Dnipropetrovsk on November 15, 1941. The general district was ruled by the Generalkommissariat, district Gebietskommissariat and Shtatskommissariat ran big cities, and smaller ones were run by Ortskommandaturen. The staff of these bodies was predominantly German, except for lower posts (Slobodianiuk & Sha- khraichuk, 2004, p. 72). From the testimony of the former Deputy Chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk City Council I. Perebaskyn we know that statskonsult of Dnipropetrovsk consisted of 7-8 German employees and 2 local Volksdeutsche, and that the Commissioner-General was Claus Zelzner (Slobodianiuk & Shakhraichuk, 2004, p. 72). In large cities, power also belonged to the Germans, but the city councils consisted of local residents. Such was Kryvyi Rih - one of the five "urban type" districts in the Reichskommissariat "Ukraine". Initially it was headed by Dyshon and from January 1943 by Faubel. And the City Council was headed by local residents S. Sherstyuk, then O. Busur- manov and V. Marinenko (Stetskevych, Shaikan, Shliakhtych, & Levchenko, 2015, pp. 89-90).

In the general district of Dnipropetrovsk twenty smaller districts were formed as of September 1, 1942. Meanwhile, before the war there were 50 districts and four big cities in Dnipropetrovsk region. Therefore, the Germans increased the size of administrative-territorial units. This was due to a lack of sufficient number of managers, and also corresponded to the main purpose of the occupation - the exploitation of the territories.

The population of the General district was predominantly Ukrainian but places of residence for the Jewish population were allocated. One such place was The Stalindorf Jewish district. It was founded in 1930 and the center of the Jewish colony was originally the village of Izluchyste. In 1931, the district was enlarged and Stalindorf became the new district center. The composition of the consolidation area included 23 of the village Council, 16 of which were Jewish. All in all, according to the census of 1939, 129 439 Jews lived on the territory of Dnipropetrovsk region (Kruglov, Umanskiy, & Shchupak, 2016, p. 147).

The Germans came to the territory of Dnipropetrovsk region on August 12, 1941 and by mid-October the whole region had been occupied. Officially, Dnipropetrovsk was captured by the Germans on August 25, 1941 Work immediately began on the creation of local authorities in the region, the work in which, in some districts, rep - resentatives of the southern marching group of OUN(B) took an active part. Ukrainian nationalists acted in accordance with the "Act on the restoration of the Ukrainian state", proclaimed in Lviv June 30, 1941, and tried to create local authorities, to form police structures, to master culture and education. For example, in Kryvyi Rih and Nikopol during the autumn of 1941 there was a kind of "Ukrainian Renaissance": the Ukrainian theater was opened, "Prosvita" magazine was created, streets were renamed, office work in local authorities was transferred to the Ukrainian language and newspapers were printed in the Ukrainian language. But the situation was not like this in all cities of the General district. In Dnipropetrovsk the city Council was headed by a typical collaborator Sokolovsky, who actively carried out all the instructions of the German authorities.

Thus, with the advancement of German troops to the East, military power was replaced by civil. After all, the regions of occupied Ukraine had to be subordinated to the Ministry of the occupied Eastern regions and thus ensure the exploitation of local resources. On the one hand, the Germans used terror and coercion and, on the other, they allowed residents to hold senior positions in local authorities, as well as attracting them to local formations of the German police.

The analysis of sources and recent researches. In this article we will focus mainly on the events in the city of Kryvyi Rih and Stalindorf districts. For the purposes of disclosure, the research for this article drew upon archival materials from the state archive of the

SBU in Dnipro city, as well as eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust from the archive of the Yahad-In Unum. A cluster of archived criminal cases instituted against local policemen was found in Dnipro SBU archive. These sources contain information about the local collaborators who took part in the Jewish genocide; information about the sites of mass executions and their description; information about the victims and other details of policemen criminal activity in Kryvyi Rih and the countryside. Information about the participation of local police in the Holocaust is also in the materials on the German trials of Nazi criminals. In contrast to the Soviet criminal cases, materials from German lawsuits contain fairly accurate data about the number of victims, perpetrators and sites of mass executions. In addition, they have a serious evidence base.

Of course, important information about the participation of local police in the Holocaust is also contained in the testimony of eyewitnesses to this tragedy. A considerable amount of evidence describing the murders of Jewish citizens can also be found in the materials of the Extraordinary State Commission on Reporting and Investigating the Atrocities of the German Fascist Occupants (Commission). These materials are valuable because they had been collected in the Dnip- ropetrovsk region since 1944. And witnesses, who have not yet forgotten all the details, describe these events. These documents give general overview of the extent of the Holocaust in the region. However, it is important to remember that the Commission materials were not only created as a historical document. They were also intended to be ideological material substantiating the general concept of the Soviet "Great Patriotic War". As the official Soviet historiography tended to diminish the role of local collaborators and blame the Germans, these materials require additional verification.

Video testimonies from the Yahad-In Unum archive are more rigorous. All testimonies have a pretty clear structure: the personal data of the respondent; his/her social origin; memories of the life of the Jews and the local population leading up to the Soviet-German war, the arrival of Germans and first impressions of their appearance; information on the fate of the Jews in the first days, weeks and months of Nazi occupation; data on the sites of the mass executions of the Jewish population; the involvement of local policemen in the Jewish genocide; the remembrance policy at sites of mass executions etc.

The testimonies differ in the degree of informative value. The most informative sources are the memories of people who were 5-7 to 1517 years old at the time of the genocide. It was psychologically traumatic for them, which is very well reflected in their memory. The tes - timonies of people who were 18 and older are less informative. They usually do not tell the full story and try not to remember unpleasant moments or do not talk about them at all. No less important is the fact that for many respondents the Jewish story was not central in their own individual, despite the fact that they lived in a predominantly Jewish environment. Therefore, sometimes the topic of the Holocaust in the interview is covered quite fragmentarily. Despite this, these memories contain considerable factual material that is undoubtedly important for the objective coverage of the role of local policemen in the Holocaust.

In addition, information on the participation of local police in the Holocaust is contained in the monograph "Holocaust in Ukraine" (Kruglov, Umanskiy, & Shchupak, 2016, p. 563). This is one of the first publications in Ukrainian historiography that comprehensively reveals various aspects of the Holocaust in the territory of Nazi-occupied Ukraine. In particular, the authors reveal the problem of participation of local collaborators in the Holocaust. In I. Dereiko's (Dereiko, 2012, p. 174) noteworthy monograph the author examines the local formation of the German police. The author investigates the structure of these bodies on the territory of the Reikhskomissariat "Ukraine", analyzes the degree of their involvement in various punitive operations including the territory of the General district "Dnipropetrovsk". Another Ukrainian historian, Yu. Radchenko (Radchenko, 2011, pp. 4686) also writes about the local formation of the German police. In his opinion, Berlin officials gave only general instructions to their subordinates regarding the murder of Jews. And local security police and SD had "a broad initiative in the matter of the arrest and murder of all real and imaginary enemies of the new order" (including Jews). This researcher also argues that the local formations of the German police primarily served as "ordinary executors" who just followed the instructions and "proactive conformists" who entertained a view of the regime. The Soviet totalitarian society of the 30s made them to be that kind of people.

Serious work in researching the participation of local formations of the German police in the Holocaust has been carried out by foreign historians. One of the problems which preoccupy the work of modern foreign historians is the problem of the motives that guided the local policemen. This topic explored in the works of M. Dean (Dean, 2000, p. 220), C. Browning (Browning, 1993, p. 191) and O. Prusina (Prusin, 2007, pp. 31-59). Thus, M. Dean in his monograph explores the local formations of the German police, which operated on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus. He concludes that local policemen could voluntarily refuse to kill Jews. But, most of them decided to execute the command. A similar idea is found in the work of C. Browning. In his opinion, the question of choice occupies an important place in the formation of the criminal, since it was the choice that turned an ordinary person into a murderer. He also analyzes the psychological motives that led the policemen to kill innocent people. The main motive layed in the subordination to the authorities and the desire of the group affiliation.

The problem of motivation of local policemen is further explored by another well-known researcher, O. Prusin. He emphasizes that most of the policemen were mentally "normal" people. Therefore, their behavior during the occupation should be considered in the context of their age, socio-economic status, education, attitude to power etc. He thus identifies three socio-psychological types of policemen: "political activists" are those who are guided by ideological ideas or motives; "proactive conformists" and "ordinary executors" who simply followed the order. The latter two types constituted the majority among the local policemen.

In addition, foreign historians pay considerable attention to the research of the participation of local policemen in various stages of the Holocaust. For example, in his book the well-known researcher Andrey Umansky gives archival records from the Germans archives, as well as documentary photograph. This particular kind of historical sources is gaining more and more importance for studying the Holo - caust. After all, in the photo submitted by the Umansky it is clearly visible that the police exactly take an active part in leading the convoy of the Kryvyi Rih Jews to place of their execution in October 1941 (Umansky, 2018, pp. 225-227). Well-known Canadian researcher Y. Grabowski (Grabowski, 2017, p. 32) also explores the participation of policeman in various stages of the Holocaust. In particular, he notes that local police in Poland not only took part in guarding and escorting Jews in to the places of execution, but also in their murders. A similar situation can be observed on the territory of the Dnipropet- rovsk region. There is evidence that local policemen killed their former neighbors, namely local Jews. Many of these testimonies can be found in the work of Father Patrick Desbois (Diubua, 2011, p. 310). On the basis of the analysis of witnesses testimonies Father Desbois comes to the conclusion that the role of the "local" factor was one of the most important factors in the genocide of Jews in Ukraine. After all, almost all the witnesses claim that the local police officers acted very cruelly towards the Jews.

Thus, despite the large amount of archival material, as well as the studies of both Ukrainian and foreign researchers, the problem of participation of local police in the Holocaust remains understudied. Moreover, the participation of local police representative in Holocaust in the territory of the general district "Dnipropetrovsk" had hardly been studied. The purpose of the research is to study the motives that prompted local policemen in the Kryvyi Rih and Stalindorf districts to participate in Holocaust.

Statement of the basic material. Since the beginning of the Soviet-German war crimes against the local population, including Jewish, were not only by Einsatzgruppen but by Wehrmacht troops and local volunteers who began to enter the local police structures. According to the well-known researcher Dieter Pohl in the area of responsibility of the Army group "South", which operated on the territory of Ukraine, security measures were distributed between the Wehrmacht and the SS and police (Diter, 2015, p. 45). Therefore, to ensure order and security Wehrmacht had engaged three army security division (213th, 444th and 454th), which augmented battalions of the German regular police or police order (318th, 311th and 82nd). Alongside the military authorities, Supreme leader of the SS and police chief Russia- South Friedrich Jeckeln kept order in the occupied Ukrainian lands. Under his command were the 5th and 6th teams of Einsatzgruppen C and the police regiment South, which consisted of the 45th, 303rd and 314th battalions of the order police. And in reserve there were three more police battalions (the 304th, 315th and 320th) (Diter, 2015, p. 45). These forces were engaged in the occupied Ukrainian territo- ries during the summer-early autumn of 1941, even before the representatives of the German civil administration came to the General district "Dnipropetrovsk". The beginning of creation of the local authorities and police took place alongside the acquisition of cities and villages of the upcoming General district.

The first large city occupied by Germans in the territory of the future General district "Dnipropetrovsk" was Kryvyi Rih. The central part of the city was captured by German troops on 14 August 1941, while the battles in the Northern outskirts took place on August 15. Along with the Germans the so-called Kryvyi Rih swarm southern marching group OUN also came to the city. We know that this group was headed by P. Rizhko. Its members were J. Potichnyj, D. Horba- chiv, I. Salyak, I. Tarnavsky, G. Maksimec (Hanna Kovalenko) and others. They were helped by Ukrainian translators in the Wehrmacht: T. Naidych, O. Vitoshynskiy, M. Voynovych, T. Sendzik (Slobodia- niuk & Shakhraichuk, 2004, p. 201). Almost immediately, the creation of local authorities in the city began and the leading role in this process was played by Ukrainian nationalists. Thus on the 17 August 1941,

Horbachiv convened a meeting of intellectuals in the city. The first who spoke was Horbachiv himself and he stressed the need for elections of local self-government bodies, after all, so the Ukrainians can begin to build their own state (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 12848, p. 23). Consequently, one of the results of the meeting was the election of a city Council headed by engineer S. Sherstyuk. Some members of the city Council were either members of the OUN, or its supporters, and therefore until January 1942, the nationalists acted in the city quite legally (Stakhiv, 1995, p. 94).

After the Germans captured Kryvyi Rih, Kryvyi Rih rural district began to form. The nearest villages to Kryvyi Rih were united in the rural district, by U. Yefremenko. A similar situation occurred in the Stalindorf district, which was captured on 16-20 August 1941 and soon renamed Friesendorf. Very quickly occupation authorities began to establish in the areas: district and rural councils, gendarmerie and police. The local Police in the Stalindorf district included non-Jewish inhabitants. There is no information about the existence of the Jewish police in Stalindorf district.

The structure of the police, SD and SS in occupied Ukraine was modeled after the relevant structure of the Reich, but a crucial problem was the lack of personnel. Therefore, the Germans used all available resources and simplified the structure of these bodies in the occupied territories to a minimum. After the creation of the Reichskommissariat "Ukraine" and formation of all six General districts, SS - Obergruppenfьhrer Hans-Adolf Prьtzmannwas appointed as the highest SS and police Fьhrer and SS gruppenfuhrer Dr. Max Thomas - as the Head of the security police and the SD (Kruglov, Umanskiy, & Shchupak, 2016, p. 554). The heads of the security police and SD in the General districts were subordinate to Dr. Thomas, and the SS and police Fuhrers in each district were subordinate to Prьtzmann. Local residents were actively involved in the structures of the "security police and the SD", the Schutzmannschaft. Thus, in Kryvyi Rih, the structure of the local police began to be created from the end of August 1941. At the time, it was officially called "Ukrainian police" and was initially controlled by Ukrainian nationalists. It was headed by a local resident Mykola Taranenko, and his Deputy, a member of the OUN(M), Mykola Lebid.

The issue of the creation of "Ukrainian police" was also covered by the city Council. This was the task of Gayan, the Vice-President of the city (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 17233, p. 32). At this time, - the "Ukrainian police" in the city was divided into five departments. Each department consisted of 12-15 people. The head of the first police departments was Kupriyanenko, the second department was headed by Mykola Stetsenko, the third - Grigory Kunitsyn, the fourth - Gavrilo Bohun and the fifth - Anisim Ilchuk (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 17233, pp. 32-35). However, at the end of September, as a result of the appearance in Kryvyi Rih of the German civil administration the reorganization of the "Ukrainian police " began. Therefore, instead of five offices in the Central part of the city there were three and in parallel began the formation of police departments in other parts of the city.

We thus know that during the occupation, Kryvyi Rih was divided into three districts: Central, Vechirnokutskyi and Fabrychno- zavodskyi. In Central district remained two departments and the so- called "reserve police troop". The last was headed by Ilchuk, it consisted of people older than 30 years who took an active part in the murders of the Jewish population of Kryvyi Rih. In Vechirnyokutskyi disctrict from September to October 1941 the police was headed by local resident Timothy Lepsky. His Deputy was Vasily Veretenikov. District police officers were Ivan Marchenko and Peter Dobrogorsky (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 15862, p. 35). However, after T. Lepsky robbed an apartment he was arrested and dismissed. On 10 November 1941, instead of Lepsky, German Lieutenant Triloph headed the police in the district and Tsymevskyi, also German, was his Deputy (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (r), op. 2, case 15862, p. 25).

Besides, two punitive units were formed in Kryvyi Rih in the autumn of 1941 that were also involved in the Holocaust. Those were the 130th Schutzmannschaft battalion and a hundred of Cossacks under the leadership of Bohun. From the minutes of the police interview, it is known that the first Cossack battalion was formed in September- October 1941. It consisted of local policemen and Red Army prisoners from the local camp (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 18955, pp. 46-47). The 130th Schutzmannschaft battalion was formed in late 1941 and early 1942. It consisted of local policemen, and also volunteers from amongst local residents. There were also prisoners of war in the battalion, whom the Germans forced to participate (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 18955, pp. 46-47).

In early1942 the "security police and SD" were created in the city. So, since May 1942, major Adolf Haan became the head of the Kryvyi Rih "security police and the SD", major Hans Iordan as his assistant. Meanwhile, since December 1942 George Budig (or Budich) became the chief of the Kryvyi Rih SD, whilst his adjutant was Hans Brinks (or Brings) (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 4 (R), op. 2, case 75, vol. 1, pp. 304-307). Thus, from 1942 Kryvyi Rih police came under the full control and began to perform mainly repressive and punitive functions.

For example, since October 1941 the police in a rural area of Kryvyi Rih, formerly headed by the Ukrainian Nationalist Petro Tar- navskiy, was directed by Stepan Nikitsky, albeit with Tarnavskiy as one of his deputies until summer 1942. Another Nikitsky's deputy, Fedir Shabliy, testified to the nationalist activities of Tarnavskiy during the interrogation. In particular, F. Shabliy's testimony revealed that P. Tarnavsky organized "Prosvita" in the villages Khrystoforivka and Veseli Terny in the Kryvyi Rih district (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 18955, p. 51). In the summer of 1942, he thus went into hiding and disappeared from Kryvyi Rih.

S. Nikitsky was the chief of police of the Kryvyi Rih district until February 1944 (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 11857, vol. 1, p. 30). His deputies were: at first P. Tamavsky, then Matvey Zablotsky, and later F. Shabliy. The last two held positions of the feldwebel; the chief of guard service was the non-commissioned officer Shutko (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 11857, vol. 1, p. 26). Also S. Nikitsky ran 7 rural police departments: in the village (note: village - v.) of Lozuvatka the police was headed by Yury Yagodkin, v. Khrystoforivka - by M. Hutorny; v. Zelena Balka - by Pavlo Vo- lichenko; v. Oleksandro-Dar - by Chernyak, v. Veselovka - by Pavlo Necheporenko; v. Shevchenkovo - by Petro Shelest, v. Nedaivoda - by Ivan Kosyak (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 11857, vol. 1, p. 22). The number of policemen in each district was different. Thus, in 1942 the number of policemen in townships of Kryvyi Rih district was as follows: Lozuvatka - 20; Nedaivoda - 12; Oleksan- drivka - 12; Khrystoforivka - 9; Zelena Balka - 10; Veselovka - 8; Veseli Terny - 18; Shevchenkovo - 10 (Melnyk, 2014, p. 61). In addition, 29 policemen guarding the gendarmerie of Kryvyi Rih district were also under command of S. Nikitsky (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 11857, vol. 1, p. 26). Overall, according to the standard distribution, the police should have consisted of 100 people but the total needed staff was never recruited. The police of Kryvyi Rih rural district were subordinate of the gendarmerie. from 1941 -1943 the gendarmerie of Kryvyi Rih district was headed by the Germans: first, Gass, and later - Shtolb and Frank (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 11857, vol. 1, p. 35; 39).

According to testimonies from contemporary local residents in the Yahad-In Unum archive, policemen from the rural districts of Kryvyi Rih and Stalindorf took fairly active part in the Holocaust. Some witnesses mention the existence of police stations in their villages and the names of individual police officers who mistreated local residents, including Jews. Thus, district policemen in the village of Khristoforovka took an active part in the shootings of the Jews of Stalindorf district from settlements 4 and Krasnoarmeyske (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 974U). A witness from the village of Kirove, which was near the Jewish settlements of Stalindorf district, said that there were 12 policemen in Kirov (3 from other villages and 9 local) (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 955U). In the village of Novokomna in the Stalindorf district, the witness specifically remembered 3 local policemen: Vasily Baidak, Ivan Zhatko and Golov- chenko (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 1082U). A witness from the village of Ekaterino-Mikhaylivka also remembered three local policemen: Golovatyi, Kostyurenko and Khrebtov. This village was located next to the Jewish settlement of Freidorf in Stalindorf district (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 950U).

Thus, the activity of local Auxiliary police started in the region in August-September 1941. During that period local Ukrainian nationalists created the "Ukrainian police" in accordance with the directives that came from the management of both OUNs. But in relation with the expansion of German civil administration in the region is the situation with the local authorities and police began to change. Repressions against the Ukrainian nationalists began, and as the result exclusion of the OUN from local authorities and police. It led to reorganization and transformation of local police structures and, first of all, into repressive and punitive bodies. Since the end of 1941 leading positions in these structures were occupied by German officers and this provided even more opportunities to attract local police to participate in the Holocaust. Yet, the evidence of local residents as well as information from the archives proves that the police had already taken part in different stages of the Holocaust by the autumn of 1941.

Testimonies from Yahad-in Unum archive, as well as material from the Ukrainian regional archives and the SBU archives, give quite an ambiguous picture of the first months of the German occupation. On the one hand, Ukrainian nationalists who came from the territory of Western Ukraine actively formed local authorities in some cities and villages of the region, and also involved the local population in the OUN. On the other hand, the German military administration did not interfere with the establishment of local authorities, for the main criterion at this time was the loyalty of the local authorities to the Germans . And finally, local residents frightened by the retreat of the red army, and taught over the years Stalin's terror and famine not to trust the authorities, formed strategies of their own in those conditions. Meanwhile, some of them chose to serve in the police as a means of survival and self-affirmation.

Local residents, who chose to serve in the German police, were guided by certain motives. There were several main motives: socioeconomic, which were associated with the satisfaction of their material needs; ideological motives associated with the negative attitude of some policemen to the Soviet authority (from this point of view the Jews were considered as people related to this authority); the envy which verging on anti-Semitism; desire for power.

Material gain was an important socio-economic motivation that encouraged local residents to join the police. For example, Kryvyi Rih policeman Semyon Petrichenko received a salary of 220 rubles and food for his service in the police (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 15055, p. 24). And investigator of the Kryvyi Rih police Grigory Zablotsky received 500 German marks a month in the service, again alongside with food (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 16681, p. 35). Another local policeman, the head of the "reserve police troop" Anisim Ilchuk received 400 rubles for his service (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 18835, vol. 1, p. 34). Thus, the material stimulation of policemen both in the city and in the village was a significant enough factor to work in this structure. In addition, they got uniforms, and some policemen were even allowed firearms. One witness recalls that in the village of Khristoforovka, Kryvyi Rih district, local policemen were dressed in German uniforms and had weapons (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 985U). The witness of the settlement No. 8, which was located in Stalindorf district, also recalls the uniforms and weapons of local policemen (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 974U). However, other witnesses from villages of Stalindorf and Kryvyi Rih areas remember that policemen only carried clubs as weapon, and were dressed in civil clothes. Thus, if payment and food were integral parts of service in police forces, weapons and uniform were allocated at the discretion of local German administration.

Another component of the financial incentive of policemen, in addition to salaries and food rations, was the opportunity to participate in the looting of property from shot or evacuated Jews. Policeman I. Ka- lashnyk, who in the autumn of 1941 was the head of the Kryvyi Rih city police warehouse, testified that at the end of 1941 the German police ordered him to create a group of local policemen. This group had to remove property from the apartments and houses of the shot people, including Jews. At the inquest, I. Kalashnik confessed that he took different things from the apartments: furniture, clothes, dishes, firewood, etc. All of those assets I. Kalashnik collected in the warehouse, and then it obviously was shared by the local policemen (SA SSU,

Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 14293, p. 31). The situation was similar in rural areas. For example, the witness recalls that after the execution of Jews from the 6th village of Stalindorf district, local policemen took everything out of Jewish houses even furniture (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 986U). Police officer Datluk from the village of "area D" in the Stalindorf district physically assaulted the Jews in order to make them give him their valuables (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 934U). Policemen from the colony of Ingulets were actively engaged in robbery of the Jews, eyewitnesses recall them taking all the resident's valuables away (Yahad -In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 1077U). Sometimes, however, the Germans carried out punishment of the guilty policemen, as an example for others. A witness recalls an interesting case happened in the village of Novocomna at the beginning of the German occupation. During this period Jews in the village lived freely, but their rights had been already restricted. Local policeman Golovchenko decided to take advantage of this. He cut sofas and chairs trying to find gold in houses belonging to Jews. He used weapon to force the Jews to give him their valuables. But some of local residents decided to report the village commandant about it. He thrashed Golovchenko and forced him to leave the police. Such cases do not indicate uncensorious attitude of the Germans towards the Jewish population, but rather an attempt to strengthen the discipline of the local police structures in order to carry out "important tasks", including the ones related to the Jewish genocide.

Thus, the matching of their material needs was a significant factor for police service but not the only one. Some locals joined the police due to their ideological convictions. Many city and village policemen were unsatisfied with the Soviet regime. First of all, this discontent rose from their personal experience. For example, Zablotsky an investigator from Kryvyi Rih police testified that in 1929 his father was dekulakilized, which means dispossessed, and soon died. His mother died in 1933. He was left alone and had to go to Donbass, then to Kryvyi Rih searching for money (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 16681, p. 21). Peter Golovaty's household, another policeman, was dispossessed in 1930. After that, his father was forced to spend almost ten years in exile performing compulsory work for needs of Soviet regime (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 17980, p. 17). There were many people with the criminal past among the policemen who also did not show compassion either to the Soviet government or to the people who were a part of it. Above-mentioned Ilchuk was also one of the kind. He was convicted by the Soviet authorities twice in 1927 and in 1938 (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 18835, p. 31). And the situation in rural areas was the same. For example, a witness from the village of Kamyanka said that ex-prisoners were the first chosen for service in the local police (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 912U). It is clear that the occupiers were looking for such people from the local population, because they could be easily manipulated and did not have moral barriers and this had allowed to use them for murders and bullying of former Soviet regime-connected, as well as the Jews, whom German propaganda represented as "Jewish Bolshevik".

Two more motivations to join the local police appear came out of verbal testimonies. The first one is envy related to the Jews. This envy was closely linked to popular anti-Semitism extremely spread among the local residents, especially in rural areas. The majority of Yahad-In Unum interviewees said that lives of Ukrainians and Jews were fully different. Hardly anyone said that his/her Ukrainian neighbor lived better. But the most of respondent say that Jews had better quality of life. Thus, it was not only socially but also nationally related envy.

However, eyewitnesses recall that before the war there was no openly expressed discontent with the Jews in the Kryvyi Rih and Stalindorf districts and all the local residents lived in peace. But, almost all of the interviewees talking about everyday life in the 1930s admit that the Jews lived better than their Ukrainian and even German neighbors. The Jews had better houses covered by iron, better collective farms, so called kolkhoz (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 990U). And Jewish settlements were less affected with the Holo- domor (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 982U). The Jews could hire non-Jews (mostly Ukrainians) for household chores or to look after children (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 1074U). There are lots of such examples, but for the most of Ukrainians it was not the reason to hate the Jews. Thus, a witness recalls the help of the Jews from the village of Novocomna in the Stalindorf district as she moved there with her family in 1933. A local Council lent a Ukrainian family a house and a cow. An old lady from the kindergarten nourished her when the interviewee was 4 years old. Another witness testified than during Holodomor her mother used to work for the Jewish family from the neighboring village No. 8. They shred food with her because they knew she had little children to feed (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 1082U). The witness said that actually the help of Jewish family saved them lives.

But, meanwhile, some people saved the prerevolutionary antiSemitic attitude. For example, one of the witnesses quite seriously said that before the war in the Jewish colony of Ingulets near the village of Shiroke there was a mill. The owner of a mill was the Jew, and Ukrainians worked at it (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 1077U). Thus, there is a possibility that some people who later joined the police thought in terms of popular antisemitism. And they decided to use "new circumstances" either for revenge or for satisfaction.

The desire for power was also an important factor for the service in police. People who served in the local German police implemented the Soviet power model. Because in the Soviet Union in the early Stalinism time, the power and especially of the security agencies had to be carried out first of all by force and coercion. The power model carried out by the local police was of the same kind. Moreover, their brutality towards the neighbors, especially in rural areas, rooted the tumultuous events of the 1930s. Some policemen, consciously or unconsciously, adopted the behavior of their compatriots who had the power in the 30s. Often, when talking about the horrors of the Holodomor of 1932-1933, witnesses describe the activities of local Bolsheviks. These were representatives of the poor rural population as well as communists and komsomol members assigned to villages. They acted very cruelly and often used their power to satisfy their material or physical needs. Their objective was to take all the food from the local people and thus make them starve. These same witnesses described activities of the local policemen during the Holocaust and their attitude to local Jews and non-Jews in the same way (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 1069U). In the years of the Holocaust, the policemen, just as the Bolsheviks in the years of the Holodomor, achieved their power ambitions. And as the best for that they considered the service of the repressive-punitive organs.

Another category of local residents who joined the German repressive-punitive bodies were those with sadistic inclinations. It is well-known that some mental disorders or psychotraumas may result in sadistic behavior towards family members, neighbors or other people. Under normal circumstances, such people may not show their aggression, but in the extreme situations they may be unmotivated cruel and aggressive. Especially, if they know there will be no punishment for that. For example, Vasily Pasternak was the head of one of the city construction gangs before the war. But during the occupation, he not only headed the investigation Department of the Kryvyi Rih police, but also personally participated in the tortures and was present at the executions of local residents (SA SSU, Dnipro, fund 6 (R), op. 2, case 16681, p. 73). A witness from the village of Maksimovka recalls that in the years of German occupation in the village No. 8 there was a policeman Piddubets. This policeman had two sons and the elder of them did not want to join the Germans. He wanted to join the Red Army. Piddubets was against it and cut off his own son two index fingers in order to prevent that. Later Piddubets drove his wife to suicide (Yahad- In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 974U). Sometimes witnesses tell about the changes in the people's state of mind who were quite normal before the invasion, but soon after that they began to display propensity to sadism. Thus, the policeman from the village of Progress was an ordinary tractor driver and did not display any sadistic and aggressive propensity before the occupation. However, soon after the Germans invasion, he personally chose Jewish children to be shot and was present at their execution (Yahad-In Unum's Archives / Testimony n. 925U). Thus, in the period of German occupation, people with a variety of mental disabilities and psychological traumas had the opportunity to realize their desires without any punishment. And, thus, such people joined the police too.

Conclusions. The archival criminal cases of local policemen and testimonies have a huge information potential in relation to research of the Holocaust in the region. For example, they allow us to trace the motivational component of people who joined of the German Police. Thus, the main motivation was the material benefit, because they were paid for the service in the Police, provided with clothes and food rations. In addition, the Police had the opportunity to rob the local residents, including murdered and evacuated Jews. Another motivation was the desire for power. The information from the archival criminal cases regarding the social profile of the Policemen is important too. Thus, most of Policemen were from rural families. Therefore, it is no wonder considering the Social policy of the Soviet Union in the 30s. Furthermore, these people were undereducated and had problems with the Soviet authorities. And some, like A. Ilchuk, were sentenced before the war. And those particular people joined the bodies of the German Police.

Thus, verbal testimonies and the archival criminal cases help to reconstruct the events of the Holocaust in the region. However, research on the participation of local residents as performers and organizers of the Holocaust is only at the early stage and should be continued. In particular, the following aspects should be researched: participation of local administration in the Holocaust; ideological position of the Local Policemen; the level of involvement of members and sympathizers of the OUN in the German Police bodies.

This article was made possible thanks to Yahad - In Unum fellowship and thanks to the generosity of Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (Ontario, Canada). Special thanks Dr. Alexander Kruglov and Dr. Andriy Umansky.

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