[烛光生存狂]-1944-1945年德国空军中的乌克兰防空部队辅助人员

The increasingly difficult state of affairs facing the German Reich’s military machine since 1943, caused by the heavy losses on the East front and bombings of German industrial cities by the Western Allies necessitated the shifting of focus on reinforcing the manpower pool with youth resources. In the sphere of anti-aircraft defence already in 1943 with the aid of Hitler-Youth (HJ) movement infrastructure the young Germans were employed for the needs of the armed forces in auxilary role on considerable scale. At the beginning of 1944, however, the non-German youth also entered the combat in similar capabilities. Ideological service of the SS system, co-ordinating the campaign of employing the foreign youth, defining foreign Waffen SS formations as “international European anti-Communist armed forces”, envisioned the SS-Youth as the reserve base for the elder comrades-in-arms and future “European youth front”, as gradually part of the German SS-Youth was transferred for frontline service in German divisions.

As for the youth from Central Eastern Europe, there were no plans prepared for their gradual transfer to the national frontline units, since the influx of volunteers was sufficient to fulfill the current needs, whereas by employing these youths in German AA defense sector, certain contingents of German personnel fit for combat could be released from duties and sent to the front. Similar practice proved effective in France, Slovakia, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, and the youth from these countries was followed by young Belgians, Dutchmen, Greeks, Tatars and even Arabs. By the middle of 1944 auxiliary youth AA defense formations have been raised in virtually every country controlled by the German armed forces.

Regarding the Central Eastern Europe, the recruitment concerned, first and foremost, the young Ukrainians, Russians, Byelorussians, Latvians and Estonians, as well as the representatives of Turkic peoples. For the recruitment campaign, a special administrative group was created (known as Fuehrungsgruppe P.5), subordinated to A.Rosenberg of the Ministry for Occupied eastern Territories and G.Berger, led by HJ Hauptbannfuehrer S.Nickel; the group comprised 100 officers and 200 NCOs, 100 male and female HJ youths employed as secretaries and couriers.

On March 4, 1944, Nickel issued the first recruitment order for the eastern occupied territories, concerning boys and girls aged 15—20 for the auxiliary military service in Germany. After an agreement concluded on March 31, 1944, between the Minister of Occupied eastern Territories, Reich Minister of Aviation, Reichsfuehrer SS and HJ Reich Leader, the re-designated “Dienststelle Nickel” received full administrative support for the recruitment, reporting, apart from the above-mentioned istitutions, to the SS-Hauptsamt. Formally designated as “SS-Youths”, the recruits, after the end of their training, were subordinated to the OKL structures, and therefore referred to as “Luftwaffenflakhelfer” (Airforce AA defence auxilaries), gradually abridged to “Flakhelfer”.

In April 1944 5 territorial commands (HJ-Kriegeinsatzkommando) were created by the Dienststelle Nickel”: “North” for the Baltic states territory, “Center” for Byelorussia and Russia, “South” for Ukraine, and “General-Gouvernement” and “Reich” for the young foreigners working in Germany. Every territorial command created its branches in the important cities (“Aussenstelle”), and recruitment offices in smaller cities (“Meldungsstelle”), beginning operation frist in the Baltic region, where Luftwaffe representatives considered the recruitment of young Latvians and Estonians at the conference in Kaunas already in February 1944.

In April 1944, due to the forthcoming offensive of the Red Army, the recruitment in the region practically appeared to be the large-scale evacuation of the local youth to Germany, co-ordinated by the activists of the pre-war youth and sports movements and school teachers. At first 2000 Estonian and Latvian boys and girls were recruited, but by July 1944 their numbers swelled rapidly to 15000. In Galicia (Western Ukraine) the recruitment began in April 1944, focusing on the target group of the youth aged 14—17 years, accepting voluntary applications and written permissions signed by both parents. In mid-April 1944 a group of 22 German officers of the “Dienststelle Nickel” arrived to Lviv, led by Oberbannfuehrer W.Haupt and SS-Obersturmfuehrer A.Kolff, starting recruitment first and foremost among the families of Ukrainian refugees evacuated form Eastern and Central Ukraine during the Soviet offensive, as well as from Volyn region, temporarily housed in the barrack camps and suffering from poor living conditions.

The second phase of the campaign was focused on the Ukrainian student youth, and the German officers visited the schools and gymnasiums together with the officers of the 14th Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS “Galizien”, which was popular among parts of the local population, thus making impression that in future the youths would be transferred to the Division itself, although in practice the majority of recruits joined the Luftwaffe AA defense units in the rear, and only a small proportion served in the Waffen SS AA frontline formations.

In May 1944 the recruitment started in the Ukrainian enclaves around Nowy Sanch and Peremyshl (presently—Poland), and by June the campaign was extended to the whole of Western Ukraine, including the boys and girls aged from 15 to 20 years. The first 250 young recruits, drafted in April—June 1944 passed a primary course in the military training camp at Perevorsk, named “Ukrainian SS-Youth Cap named after Fedir Chernyk” (Fedir Chernyk (1894—1918) was the hero of the World War One and Revolutionary War, killed in combat in 1918, greatly admired by the Ukrainian youth).

Gradually, the camp hosted more than 300 young Ukrainians, and near the German flag the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian national flag was installed, while the Ukrainian national symbol—trident was also present when on June 7, 1944 at the end of the course, the Governor of District Galizien, SS-Brigadefuehrer O.Wachter congratulated the cadets on the completion of primary training. On June 28, before embarking the trains to travel to the AA-defense training installations in Germany, the school cadets held a parade in the streets of Lviv, where their parents and local citizens gathered to greet the young soldiers. In order to ensure the continuation of edicational activities, necessary for the ex-students, the German instructors agreed to allocate 14—18 academic hours every week for the courses in main subjects, taught by the Ukrainian teachers, and afterwards the recruits were promised a free higher education in German institutes.

In June—July 1944 the inter-institutionary conflict was sparkled for a brief period, as several other bodies actually claimed the right to conduct recruitment apart from “Dienststelle Nickel”, namely the RSHA representatives, and later SS-HA, OKH and RMO officials. In July 1944 the decision was taken to recruit the Western Ukrainian girls as well, in order to be employed at the searchlight installations, Luftwaffe communication units, hospitals and command-and-control facilities. The national insignia was also developed: an armband containing a lion of gold (as in the “Galizien” division symbol, but without three crowns) in the blue rhombus placed on blue-and yellow background, a black triangle with “SS” letters placed above the armband (removed after the completion of training and replaced by a black triangle with blue Luftwaffe eagle and Gothic letters “LH”)—for Galician Ukrainians, whereas for the recruits

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