VETERANS of Hitler’s notorious Waffen-SS who served in a battle unit accused of war crimes are still living in Britain, The Sun can reveal.
We tracked down more than 25 ex-soldiers of the crack SS Galizien division which fought for the Nazi regime during the Second World War.
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Ukrainian-born Myron Tabora is one of a believed 25 ex-Waffen-SS soldiers currently living in the UKCredit: NIGEL BENNETT
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The Waffen-SS soldiers, such as Mychajlo Ostapenko, were mainly non-Germans
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Ostap Kykawec, who now lives in West Yorkshire, was one of 8,000 of the Waffen-SS officers who settled in the UK after World War Two
They include veterans who admit suppressing popular rebellions which had been backed by the Allied powers during the bloody conflict.
There are also ex-soldiers who served in a brutal SS-led paramilitary force and two officers once listed by Soviet Russia as alleged war criminals.
The SS Galizien division was formed in 1943 from Ukrainian volunteers who joined the elite fighting force and swore an oath of allegiance to Hitler.
Around 50,000 men from the Galicia region of Ukraine were allowed to join the SS because its boss Heinrich Himmler had said they were more Aryan-like.
They fought on the eastern front and smashed uprisings in Slovakia, Yugoslavia and Serbia with brutal force.
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50,000 men from the Galicia region of Ukraine were allowed to join the SS because they were said to be more Aryan-like
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The Galizien division was made up of Ukrainian volunteers and commanded by notorious German SS officers noted for their brutalityCredit: Getty Images
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The unit fought on the eastern front and smashed uprisings in Slovakia, Yugoslavia and Serbia with brutal forceCredit: Getty Images
The unit was said to have massacred civilians in these countries as well as Polish nationals in Ukraine.
It also included former concentration camp guards and was led by SS officers notorious for their ability to commit murder on a huge scale.
But in a controversial move the British government allowed over 8,000 of the soldiers who surrendered to settle here after the war.
The government carried out few checks on the prisoners and claimed finding out if any were war criminals was an “impossible” task.
We have spoken to a number of the surviving soldiers who admitted they volunteered to join the SS division after it was formed in 1943.
They told how they knew nothing of any war crimes but some did admit taking part in anti-rebel campaigns.
Two men who we tracked down were officers in the SS Galizien and had been listed by Russia in 1948 as men who they claimed had committed war crimes on its territory.
But the list was ignored by the Foreign Office and the men were allowed to settle here in the UK – where they have lived ever since.
Myron Tabora, 90, and Ostap Kykawec, 92, were both lieutenants in the SS division and were listed by famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal as Ukrainian SS of interest.
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Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal said Tabora and Kykawec were both people of interestCredit: Times Newspapers Ltd
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The division was smashed at the Battle of Brody by the Red Army in mid-1944 but recovered and incorporated the notorious Galizien police unitsCredit: Getty Images
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The Galizien fought on the eastern front and smashed uprisings in Slovakia, Yugoslavia and Serbia with brutal forceCredit: Jürgen Stroop
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Some of the soldiers, pictured here in a training camp, are now claiming British pensionsCredit: NIGEL BENNETT
SS personnel cards and training school rosters for the pair can still be found in archives.
They show both men took part in SS officer school training which they said took place over two years when they joined in 1943 – meaning they hardly saw any fighting.
SS officer training also involved learning about methods of controlling prisoners which involved training at the notorious Dachau concentration camp in Germany.
But both Mr Tabora and Mr Kykawec, who joined when they were 18 and 19 respectively, deny they took part in any concentration camp training.
Mr Tabora, from Lichfield, Staffs, worked as an engineer after arriving in the UK and said he had never known he was listed by Russia as an alleged war criminal.
He also told how he had never seen his SS personnel card before.
He said: “I was with the Galizien, yes. But I never fired a rifle and I was in officer school for two years.
“I went to the Austria front but I didn’t know of any men committing crimes.
“But what is a war crime with what the Russians did?
“I heard about Polish people being killed in Ukraine but Poles were killing Ukrainians just the same.
“It was mutual. And what about the British Empire killing people?”
