Did you know that nationalist Ukrainians massacred thousands of Poles during WW II? The Second World War in Ukraine began on the 22nd of June 1941 when the nazis launched Operation Barbarossa. It was the name for the full scale German invasion of the Soviet Union. Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union back then. Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera declared Ukraine independent. Yet, the nazis directly put down this short lived Ukrainian independence. When the Germans invaded Ukraine Jews were slaughtered by the SS Einsatzgruppen. The Holocaust by Bullets had begun. Ukrainian collaboration with Nazi Germany and antisemitism in Ukraine was a result of Stalins terror policy and the widespread belief Jews were communists (Jewish Bolshevism).The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) led by Stepan Bandera helped the nazis. Over the course of WW II in Ukraine many Jews would be exterminated. When the nazis advanced further into the Soviet Union Poles were hunted down by Ukrainian nationalists. Learn more about the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. History Hustle presents: Stepan Bandera and the UPA – How Ukrainian Nationalism led to a Polish Genocide (1943–1945).