1. Yaroslav Semenovych Stetsko was a Ukrainian politician, writer and ideologist who served as the leader of Stepan Bandera's faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the OUN-B, from 1941 until his death.
16 Facts About Yaroslav Stetsko
1. 2.
Yaroslav Stetsko was born on 19 January 1912 in Tarnopol, Austria-Hungary into a Ukrainian Catholic priest's family.
3.
Yaroslav Stetsko was active in Ukrainian nationalist organizations from an early age.
4.
Yaroslav Stetsko was a member of three separate organizations: "Ukrayinska Natsionalistychna Molod'" where he became a member of the National Executive in 1932, Ukrainian Military Organization and eventually the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.
5.
On 3 July 1941 Yaroslav Stetsko wrote a letter to Adolf Hitler in which he expressed his gratitude and admiration for the German army, and wished the war with the USSR to end with a quick victory.
6.
The composition of Yaroslav Stetsko's cabinet draw the ire of the SD in Berlin, who in a reported dated July 4 1941 lists "The present composition: Head of the Government - Yaroslav Stetsko; Minister of Health -Dr Panchyshyn" and "Ministry of War - Riko Yaryi married to a Jew".
7.
In Berlin, Yaroslav Stetsko was pressed to explain the circumstances of the proclamation, and that he acted without German approval, in "A Statement by the Head of the Ukrainian Government" dated 15 July 1941, Yaroslav Stetsko reaffirms "I did not arrange the Proclamation of the Ukrainian Government with any of the German administrative authorities".
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Yaroslav Stetsko clarified he warned against this "irrational step" and refused to shake hands with Stetsko.
9.
Bandera and Yaroslav Stetsko were held in the central Berlin prison at Spandau from 15 September 1941 until January 1942, when they were transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp's special barrack for high-profile political prisoners, Zellenbau.
10.
Yaroslav Stetsko stated that although he considered Moscow rather than the Jews to be the main enemy of imprisoned Ukraine, he absolutely endorsed the idea of the indubitably harmful role of Jews in the enslavement of Ukraine by Moscow.
11.
Yaroslav Stetsko finally stated that he absolutely endorsed the extermination of the Jews, and the rationality of the German methods of extermination of Jews, instead of assimilating them.
12.
Yaroslav Stetsko continued to be very active politically after World War II.
13.
Yaroslav Stetsko became a board member of the World Anti-Communist League.
14.
In 1946, Yaroslav Stetsko spearheaded the creation of a new anti-Soviet organization, the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations.
15.
Yaroslav Stetsko was president of this organization until his death.
16.
On 5 July 1986, Yaroslav Stetsko died in Munich, Germany.