Nikopol has renamed one of its streets after Pyotr Dyachenko, an officer of the Ukrainian Waffen SS Division ‘Galizien’, the head of Ukraine’s Jewish community said on Monday.
Eduard Dolinsky, director of the United Jewish Committee of Ukraine, lamented the move by the city authorities both on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), pointing out that Dyachenko was the recipient of one of Nazi Germany’s highest decorations, the Iron Cross.
“The Nikopol City Council has renamed Pavlograd Street in honor of the Nazi war criminal, accomplice in the Holocaust, performer of punitive actions against civilians, commander of the 31st Schutzmannschaft battalion, head of collaborationist units within the Wehrmacht and the SS Galizien division, Pyotr Dyachenko,” Dolinsky wrote.
The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, known as ‘Galizien’ (Galicia), attracted tens of thousands of volunteers from what is now western Ukraine. Its members took a personal oath to Adolf Hitler. The division went on to commit atrocities against Jews, Polish civilians, and Soviet civilians and partisans.