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Ukranian religion faiths Christianity Mennonites World War II
Ukranian Mennonites: World War II --Fleeing West (1943-45)
Figure 1.--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. It was a huge nmove from central Ukraine to westrn Poland, all done with hore-drawn carts. But of couse that mean thar fodder had to bev found along the way. We are not yet sure just when it occurred, but from the way they are dressed in it looks like late 1943
The failure of the Kursk Offensive (July 1943), mean that th Germans could not hild the Ukraine. With the advance of the Red Army, the Mennoiteswere forced to trek 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 opoeratioin 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. It was a huge nmove from central Ukraine to westrn Poland, all done with hore-drawn carts. But of couse that mean thar fodder had to bev found along the way. We are not yet sure just when it occurred, but from the way they are dressed in it looks like late 1943 (figure 1). 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.
