Ukrainians have a sad date to commemorate in September 2014 – the concentration camps in Terezin and Talerhof were built to isolate the pro-Russian segment of population residing in Austria-Hungarian Galicia.

Thousands of Rusyns lost their lives because they had sympathies for Russia and wanted to preserve their historic self-identification. They refused to call themselves Ukrainians as the authorities of Austria – Hungary wanted them to. So they went to the camps.

The conditions were horrible. The first barracks in Talerhof were built in 1915. The prisoners had no cover to give them shelter from rain. They slept under open sky. The condition for getting freedom was the refusal to say the person belonged to the Rusyn nationality.

The wardens were the Galicians who agreed to call themselves the Ukrainians. They were the ones who exterminated the Rusyns. Their crimes are described in Talerhof Almanac published by the prisoners’ committee in the 1920s.

Ukrainian nationalists faithfully served Germans during the days of the country’s occupation. They hated everything Russian. They were willing to serve as chasteners and guards in numerous concentration camps. 700 thousand Red Army soldiers became prisoners after the Soviet troops were encircled near Kiev.

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