A Report by an Eyewitness
by M. Seleshko
Toward the end of February, 1944, when I was marking time in a German
prison in Potsdam, I was transferred to cell number 20, already
occupied by several other prisoners. After a brief acquaintance I
learned that one of these was a Ukrainian from the vicinity of
Vinnytsia. We came to know each other closely and he told me his life
history. At that time he was twenty-three years of age, born and bred in
Soviet Ukraine. He had been educated by the Communist party and had
been a Communist in the full meaning of the word. Communist ideals were
his ideals. He fought on the German/Soviet front. After his capture by
the Germans, he was forced into anti-aircraft artillery work for the
Germans in Berlin. Because of negligence in line of duty he was thrown
into jail. There our paths met.
I kept asking him questions about life under the Soviets. He formerly
belonged to a civilian border patrol unit. Being a Comsomol, he took
his duties seriously and helped track down many foreign intelligence
agents who were trying to slip across the border into the Soviet Union.
There were others, young Soviet patriots like himself, in the villages
and districts.
He told me of the steps taken by the Soviets in Ukraine as a
preparation for war. In the Communist party at least as early as 1937 it
was felt that war against Germany was imminent. Confidential
instructions to members of the party and the Comsomol stressed this
eventuality. These instructions ordered that the Soviet hinterland in
Ukraine be purged of enemies of the people. By the words "enemies of the
people" were meant not only all those people who worked actively
against the Soviet regime, but also those who were believed to be
inclined to hostility toward the government including those whose
complete devotion to the regime had not been clearly manifested.
A purge of enemies of the population of the Soviet border regions was
commenced. Herein lies the story of the Ukrainian tragedy in Vinnytsia,
which was revealed to the world in 1943. (Vinnytsia is a Ukrainian
city, which was, prior to 1939, approximately 100 miles from the eastern
border of Poland.)
My young companion is now a Ukrainian patriot, and much about him
must not be made public. Everything he said supplemented my own
knowledge of the Vinnytsia tragedy and helped to complete the picture I
had formed of it during my experiences in Vinnytsia.
In the summer of 1943 I was living in Berlin under the close
supervision of the Gestapo as a suspected foreigner, an unreliable alien
and a Polish citizen. On July 2, 1943, during the noon hour, I was
called to the telephone by what the Germans called the Ukrainian
Confidence Service. This was a German government agency which registered
all Ukrainians in Germany and tried to win their support for German
purposes among the Ukrainians.
