Interesting fact I discovered about the 14th SS while digging on the Canadian Parliaments guest. The Division along with many of the remnants of the Ukrainian Volunteers/Conscripts. Both Wehrmacht and S.S. were due to be handed over to be handed over to the Soviet Union.
But the Commander of the remnants of the Ukrainian Forces in the closing days of the war, Pablo Shandruk, was actually a veteran of both the Imperial Russian Army, Ukrainian National Republican Army (Existed roughly 1918-1920), Polish Army (During this service he was decorated for gallantry during the 1939 invasion), and during 1940-1944 after being released from POW camps. He was apparently active with both the Polish Home Army, and Polish Resistance Networks as a whole. Before he accepted a command of the Remnants of Ukrainian Forces which were hastily reorganized and branded the Ukrainian National Army in the waning days of the war.
Any who. He apparently begged the Free Polish Army Commander, a former colleague and ex-friend, who was also in charge of the internment camps where his men were held. To spare his men deportation to the USSR. For reasons unknown. The Polish commander, for reasons unknown, agreed and apparently managed to pull enough strings, along with unexpected assistance from the Vatican, to get the Ukrainians protection from Deportation as ex-Polish citizens. As the region the bulk of them were from was formerly territory of the 2nd Polish Republic.
I don’t know if it’s actually relevant. Just an extremely interesting train of events as to how that dude ended up in Canada and not a remote mass grave in a Siberian Gulag.
Interesting fact I discovered about the 14th SS while digging on the Canadian Parliaments guest. The Division along with many of the remnants of the Ukrainian Volunteers/Conscripts. Both Wehrmacht and S.S. were due to be handed over to be handed over to the Soviet Union.
But the Commander of the remnants of the Ukrainian Forces in the closing days of the war, Pablo Shandruk, was actually a veteran of both the Imperial Russian Army, Ukrainian National Republican Army (Existed roughly 1918-1920), Polish Army (During this service he was decorated for gallantry during the 1939 invasion), and during 1940-1944 after being released from POW camps. He was apparently active with both the Polish Home Army, and Polish Resistance Networks as a whole. Before he accepted a command of the Remnants of Ukrainian Forces which were hastily reorganized and branded the Ukrainian National Army in the waning days of the war.
Any who. He apparently begged the Free Polish Army Commander, a former colleague and ex-friend, who was also in charge of the internment camps where his men were held. To spare his men deportation to the USSR. For reasons unknown. The Polish commander, for reasons unknown, agreed and apparently managed to pull enough strings, along with unexpected assistance from the Vatican, to get the Ukrainians protection from Deportation as ex-Polish citizens. As the region the bulk of them were from was formerly territory of the 2nd Polish Republic.
I don’t know if it’s actually relevant. Just an extremely interesting train of events as to how that dude ended up in Canada and not a remote mass grave in a Siberian Gulag.