German documents from the early 1940s give the impression that extreme Ukrainian nationalists were indifferent to the plight of the Jews ; they were willing to either kill them or help them , whichever was more appropriate , for their political goals . The OUN-B 's ambivalent wartime attitude towards the Jews was highlighted during the Second General Congress of OUN-B ( April , 1941 , Kraków ) in which the OUN-B condemned anti-Jewish pogroms . and specifically warned against the pogromist mindset as useful only to Muscovite propaganda . At that conference the OUN-B declared " The Jews in the USSR constitute the most faithful support of the ruling Bolshevik regime , and the vanguard of Muscovite imperialism in Ukraine . The Muscovite-Bolshevik government exploits the anti-Jewish sentiments of the Ukrainian masses to divert their attention from the true cause of their misfortune and to channel them in a time of frustration into pogroms on Jews . The OUN combats the Jews as the prop of the Muscovite-Bolshevik regime and simultaneously it renders the masses conscious of the fact that the principal foe is Moscow . " On the other hand , the OUN was willing to support Nazi antisemitic policies if doing so would help their cause . The OUN sought German recognition for an independent Ukrainian state . Despite its declared condemnation of pogroms in April 1941 , when German official Reinhard Heydrich requested " self-cleansing actions " in June of that year the OUN organized militias who killed several thousand Jews in western Ukraine soon afterward that year . Some historians , such as Yad Vashem , have claimed that militas under the OUN 's command were involved in the massacre of 6,000 Jews in Lviv soon after that city 's fall to German forces . OUN members spread propaganda urging people to engage in pogroms . A slogan put forth by the Bandera group and recorded in the July 16 , 1941 Einsatzgruppen report stated : " Long live Ukraine without Jews , Poles and Germans ; Poles behind the river San , Germans to Berlin , and Jews to the gallows " . In instructions to its members concerning how the OUN should behave during the war , it declared that " in times of chaos ... one can allow oneself to liquidate Polish , Russian and Jewish figures , particularly the servants of Bolshevik-Muscovite imperialism " and further , when speaking of Russians , Poles , and Jews , to " destroy in struggle , particularly those opposing the regime , by means of : deporting them to their own lands , eradicating their intelligentsia , which is not to be admitted to any governmental positions , and overall preventing any creation of this intelligentsia ( e.g. access to education etc ) ... Jews are to be isolated , removed from governmental positions in order to prevent sabotage ... Those who are deemed necessary may only work under strict supervision and removed from their positions for slightest misconduct ... Jewish assimilation is not possible . " OUN members who infiltrated the German police were involved in clearing ghettos and helping the Germans to implement the Final Solution . Although most Jews were actually killed by Germans , the OUN police working for them played a crucial supporting role in the liquidation of 200,000 Jews in Volyn in the beginning of the war ( although in isolated cases Ukrainian policemen also helped Jews to escape . ) The OUN also helped some Jews to escape . According to a report to the Chief of the Security Police in Berlin , dated March 30 , 1942 , " ... it has been clearly established that the Bandera movement provided forged passports not only for its own members , but also for Jews . " OUN bands also killed Jews who had fled into the forests from the Germans
in Volyn
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists