The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, commonly referred to as the Galicia Division, was a World War II infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the military wing of the German Nazi Party, made up predominantly of volunteers with a Ukrainian ethnic background from the area of Galicia, later also with some Slovaks.
Officially known as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, the Galicia Division was one of a number of “foreign” units of the Waffen-SS formed during the course of the Second World War.
In 1944, the Division was described thus: Join the ranks of the Waffen SS Galicia Division for defence of your motherland in armed brotherhood with the best warriors in the world!35
Waffen SS "Galicia" Division1 Abstract: This paper looks at how the memory and, subsequently, narratives of the Waffen SS "Galicia," later known as the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army, are being (re)constructed and presented to a wider audience by scholars, politicians, and World War II veterans.
Montreal and Kingston: McGill Queens University Press, 2023. 464 pp., 46 figures, 3 maps, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN: 9780228016533. An estimated 25,000 Ukrainians served in the Fourteenth Waffen-SS “Galicia” Division.
Although the story of the "Galicia" Division's involvement in alleged war crimes differs from that of other Waffen SS units, the Division still shares the notoriety because of its belonging to the Waffen SS. For detailed analysis of the Waffen SS, see Marc J. Rikmenspoel, Waffen-SS Encyclopaedia (Bedford: The Aberjona Press, 2004). 17 Melnyk.
