Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201

Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201
Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201 leaders, with Roman Shukhevych (sitting, second from left), 1942
Active	late October 1941 – December 1942
Country	Reichskommissariat Ostland
Branch	Sicherheitspolizei
Type	Battalion
Role	Security police
Size	650
Engagements	Anti-partisan operations in Belarus, Holocaust in Belarus
Commanders
Notable commanders	Yevhen Pobihushchyi-Ren Roman Shukhevych (deputy commander)[1]

The Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201 was a World War II Ukrainian Schutzmannschaft auxiliary police battalion formed by Nazi Germany on 21 October 1941,^[2] predominantly from the soldiers of Ukrainian Nachtigall Battalion dissolved two months prior and the Roland Battalion.^[2] The battalion was part of the Army Group Centre that operated in Belarus.^[1]

Nachtigall was an intelligence and diversion group of Abwehr,^[1] but according to other historians^{[according to whom?]} a Security Police unit, composed almost exclusively from members of the OUN(b) [pl; ru; uk], who were transported from Vinnytsia to Neuhammer on 13 August 1941 and disarmed at gunpoint due to political disagreement with the German leadership.^[2] Historian Frank Golczewski says the Battalion fought against partisans and participated in the Jewish genocide in Belarus.^[3] According to historian John-Paul Himka no one has specifically studied the activities of Schuma 201 in relation to the destruction of the Jewish population. But we do know – wrote Himka – that the Germans routinely used the Schuma battalions in Belarus both to fight partisans and to murder Jews.^[4][5]

Battalion 201 numbered 650 persons, most of whom belonged to Stepan Bandera’s wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. It served for a year in Belarus before being disbanded.^[6] Roman Shukhevych, the supreme commander of the UPA from 1943 to 1950 was an officer of the battalion.

Many of its members, especially the commanding officers, would later be recruited into the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.