Did Goebbels say that the Third Reich needed Bandera’s followers in order to destroy the rebellious Slavs, after which they themselves must be destroyed?

“Bandera’s men are insane maniacs or, in other words, brutalized cattle. But these are exactly the ones we need at this time in order to destroy the rebellious Slavs. And then they themselves must be destroyed, since animals have no place among people” - this quote, attributed to Joseph Goebbels, is often found on the Internet. We tried to figure out whether Goebbels could have said this? And if he could, did he really say it?

The words about Bandera, allegedly said by the main ideologist of Nazi Germany, Joseph Goebbels, are quoted by numerous Media, bloggers And users social networks. Often the authors of publications quote Goebbels in support of their opinion about Bandera’s followers or Ukrainians in general, speaking, that “even the fascists despised them” or that it was impossible to allow nuclear and biological weapons to fall into the hands of the Ukrainians, because “according to Goebbels, they are insane maniacs and brutalized cattle.” These words were also quoted by public figures, such as an actor and showman Nikita Dzhigurda, head of the Opposition Bloc party faction in the Odessa Regional Council Vadim Shkarovsky and former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov.

A quote about Bandera can often be found in the form of an image: white text on a black background next to a portrait of the Reich Minister of Public Education and Propaganda of the Third Reich, Joseph Goebbels. And the signature under the quote is “Paul Goebbels.” Although Goebbels had two names - Paul Joseph, even in his school years he chose middle name and your works always signed just like Joseph Goebbels. This discrepancy, although it does not prove the quote is fake, does indicate that it is unlikely that the creator of this collage copied the quote from a primary source or an authoritative publication where Goebbels’ name would have been indicated correctly.

A search for the quote in German yielded no results. Translated, this phrase would sound something like this: “Die Banderiten sind verrückte Wahnsinnige oder, mit anderen Worten, verrücktes Vieh. Aber das sind diejenigen, die wir in dieser Zeit brauchen, um die rebellischen Slawen zu vernichten. Und dann müssen sie selbst zerstört werden, denn die Tiere haben keinen Platz unter den Menschen” (translation by the author of the publication). But even a search using the combination of the keywords Die Banderiten (“Banderites”) and Josef Göbbels did not produce results. Also not in publicly available digitized statements Goebbels mentions the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists under the leadership of Stepan Bandera (OUN(b)), which during the Second World War sought to cooperate with Germany for a joint struggle against Moscow.

Although Goebbels did not speak out about the Banderaites (at least according to open sources), he probably knew about their actions, as well as other members of the top leadership of the Third Reich. Formation of OUN(b) battalions supervised head of the Abwehr (German military intelligence and counterintelligence) Wilhelm Canaris, but the relationship of the OUN(b) with the Abwehr wore the pragmatic nature of a situational alliance, when both parties received benefits to achieve their goals. How wrote Later, historian and OUN(b) member Lev Shankovsky, the organization “was ready to cooperate with Germany for a joint fight against Moscow,” but only if Ukrainian independence was recognized. In June 1941, Bandera’s comrades at a meeting at the Lviv Opera House proclaimed the “Act of Revival of the Ukrainian State.” According to some information, the German leadership reacted extremely negatively to this initiative. After listening to the report on the events in Lvov, Hitler said: “Parteigenosse Himmler, restore order with this gang,” and also ordered to “trample those who allowed this Slavic swinishness.” Bandera was arrested and placed in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he spent more than three years in solitary confinement - however, in a special section for “political persons”. Since then, in their propaganda leaflets the Germans called Bandera and the OUN agents of Stalin.

In November 1941, the chief of the Security Police and SD, Reinhard Heydrich, signed order on eliminating Banderaites:

“Topic: OUN (Bandera movement)

It has been clearly established that Bandera’s supporters are preparing an uprising in the Reichskommissariat with the ultimate goal of creating an independent Ukraine. All leaders of the Bandera movement should be immediately arrested and, after thorough interrogation, quietly liquidated as looters. Send the interrogation protocols to the C/5 operational group. This document is subject to immediate destruction after it is taken into account by the head of the group.”

However, not a single statement that we found from the high command of the Third Reich, including Goebbels, speaks of the need to destroy Bandera’s followers, because “animals have no place among people.” We are only talking about the German leaders’ rejection of any Slavic statehood, including the Ukrainian one, which Bandera nationalists openly sought.

We found the earliest quotation of Goebbels’s alleged words about Bandera in publications 2017 on the website of the Ukrainian online magazine “Korrespondent.net”, owned by a Ukrainian TV presenter and “Russian TV expert” Yuri Kot. The cat more than once spoke on television programs of Russian state channels, commenting on the Bandera movement during the Second World War and in modern Ukraine. The cat also wrote book “Ukrainians! We are Russians! What a delight!”, in which, supposedly, “using strong evidence, the author claims that Ukrainians will certainly return to the fold of their native Russian civilization.” 

We contacted Yuri Kot to clarify the origin of the Goebbels quote he used in his 2017 publication. The cat replied that the quote did not actually belong to Goebbels, but to the Gauleiter of East Prussia Erich Koch and as proof he shared a link to fast Boris Rozhin, writing under the pseudonym ColonelCassad. In this post, Rozhin analyzes the authenticity of a quote attributed to Koch: “Ukrainians are brutalized Russians who are ready to kill even their own Frau for the idea of ​​a Ukrainian state. They are ideal fighters against the Red Army, but after that they are subject to total sanitization as the most terrible barbarians.” Regardless of whether this phrase is Koch's, it is very different from the Goebbels pseudo-quote that Kot used. The Cat did not answer the repeated question about the original source of the quote that interests us.

With a high probability, Yuri Kot is the real author of Goebbels’ statement about Bandera’s followers, which was picked up and replicated by online publications and social network users.

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Deutsche Welle: Joseph Goebbels - Nazi propaganda virtuoso
2. Did Goebbels say: “When I hear the word culture, I grab my gun”?
3. Is it true that Joseph Goebbels invented the “40 to 60” propaganda method?