Ukraine - and Winchester VA
It is very likely that Russian prisoners held in Winchester VA during WWII were Ukrainian. This is surprising because we allied with Russia against the Germans in WWII. We welcome information from any reader who grew up then who remembers any of this.
According to Handley archives:
Smithfield Avenue, Winchester, VA, site of Prisoner of War Camp during World War II. Guard tower, with man identified only as "Dolan from Chicago". Camp located between Virginia Ave.and Kern St., with main gate actually on Smithfield Ave. Date uncertain, circa 1943-1944.
See more pictures of this prison camp holding Russian (and possibly Ukrainian) prisoner here in Winchester VA.
The Word Ukraine
The Oxford Dictionary notes that 1818 is the first English reference to the word Ukraine in The Gentlemen's Magazine in London. By the 1670s the word was in use in Polish and Russian and other slavic countries.
The Welcome
Initially the Ukrainians welcomed the Germans because the Ukrainians had just gone through a genocidal killing and starving by Russians.
Then the Ukrainians saw the Nazis to be just as ruthless and unsympathetic to their cause.
The Nazi Germans forced their Russian and Ukrainian prisoners to fight for Germany.
These were the prisoners who were held in prison camp in the Smithfield area of Winchester VA.
Breaking News
Because of breaking history where the Wagner Group is rebelling, we take another look at the history of Ukraine.
Right now, the Wagner group which is a private army under a popular leader is rebelling against the Russian Army and Putin for its incompetence in the war against Ukraine. It is also rebelling because of lethal insults such as not receiving the ammunition it needs and for attacks by the Russian army on the Wagner group forces.
This war of Russia against Ukraine could forecast a future further breakup of Russia itself.
China already dominates the economy of eastern Russian cities in Siberia and on the Pacific Ocean such as the Vladisvistok.
How related to Fort Loudoun Winchester VA?
It is not related, except that this culture was thriving under great pressure during the time Fort Loudoun was being built.
Ukraine culture at the time of Fort Loudoun was under the combined rule of the Poles and Lithuanians -- both who lost their countries and regained their independent status.
We will look at Ukraine's name, its origins and how this country without a sovereign border kept its concept alive through the centuries.
We talk about American Exceptionalism, but we will see how certain cultures have kept itself alive despite not being an official nation.
Ukraine is not the only one. The Kurds are another. the Uighurs in western China are another. There are many such cultures existing under suppression and extermination.
WWII Prison
The City of Winchester has many historic sites and, years ago, a prisoner of war camp existed near downtown, off of Virginia and Fairfax Avenues. [Blog Author Correction: Fairview instead of Fairfax]
When Paul Dehaven was 13-years-old, the Virginia Avenue Prisoner of War Camp was right in his backyard.
“I used to set-up in my back window, particularly when it snowed, and watch them change the guards and go out of the towers,” he said.
His father managed one of the departments at White House Foods, and he had thirty soldiers that worked there for him.
[ Blog author note - Caption for picture from Handley archives:
Smithfield Avenue POW Camp area as it looks in 2010s. Kern and Smithfield (approximate location of camp main gate, see 39-501 thl).}
“The prisoners worked in local industries. They also worked in apple orchards and with the processing of apples. They worked in those facilities, and they worked in one of the rubber companies here in Winchester,” Dehaven added.
The prisoners were not treated badly and, in fact, some local soldiers found love.
“A lot of these local military boys that were here, stationed at this camp, they did marry some local girls, and some of them spent the rest of their years here in Winchester,” Dehaven said.
The camp primarily housed German soldiers, but Russian soldiers were also held there.
[Blog author note: We believe they were more primarily Russian than German and some we believe were Ukrainian. We are working on documentation to back up that claim. The caption to this picture states: Smithfield Avenue Prisoner of War Camp during World War II. Prisoners, probably Russians. Camp located north of Virginia Ave., with main gate on Smithfield Ave. Date uncertain, circa 1943-1944.]
Source:
Here were Ukrainian and Russians who collaborated with the Germans in WWII.
They were captured as German Army prisoners.
But they weren't German. They were really Ukrainians and Russians fighting for the Germans against the Soviet Union.
The German POW camp was effectively shut down and sold on March 29, 1947 thus ending the use of POW labor for Frederick County fruit growers.
The Christ Episcopal Church on Boscawen and Washington Streets has a reference to Russian workers building and fixing things in its church. This claim was made in a Winchester Star article, the author of this blog will be adding as a link.
Russia looks at Ukraine
as a part of its own self,
like China looks at Taiwan as part of itself.
This is no different than Sudetenland prior to WWII, the area of old Czechoslovakia where a huge German population existed.
Germany wanted to annex that area.
This is no different from the Russian populations still existing in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Moldavia and other independent countries spun from the Soviet Union breakup.
And yet each country has its own culture and right to self determination rather than be combined into one huge entity. Many countries have this issue.
Spain is a polyglot of nations, as is the United Kingdom, or Germany.
Each case is complicated.
But more states could lead to more freedom and disperse the concentration of power.
Self determination is always at heart the history of this world.
The Name of Ukraine.
Other countries like The Netherlands (Nederland), or The Sudan, or The Congo refer to itself as a region. Ukraine doesn't like that "region" connotation.. This is now frowned upon by Ukraine because THE often precedes a region or area, not a country.
Ukraine wants to be identifed as a country, not a region.
Although its name means the Borderlands.
The Beginnings
Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, is an old city going back to the late 800s AD according to dendrochronological analysis , the study of tree rings and content of the wooden constructions.
Kyiv is now the accepted spelling in the western anglo press.
It was part of the Khazars who were a semi-nomadicTurkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, and Kazakhstan.
Some western historians (e.g. Kevin Alan Brook) speculate that the city was founded by Khazars or Magyars.
Brook posits that Kyiv is a Turkic place name (Küi = riverbank + ev = settlement).
However, the Primary Chronicle (a main source of information about the early history of the area) mentions Slavic Kievans telling Askold and Dir that they lived without a local ruler and paid tribute to the Khazars - an event attributed to the 9th century. Brook believes that during the 8th and 9th centuries the city functioned as an outpost of the Khazar empire. A hill-fortress, called Sambat (Old Turkic for "high place") was built to defend the area.
See more about its orgins.
Ukraine during Seven Years War?
Ukraine had its culture but no national sovereign border.
Its language was standardizing and solidifying during this time period of the Seven Years War.
At the time area was ruled over by the House of Wettin who "ruled Poland–Lithuania and Saxony simultaneously, dividing power between the two states," covering the time of 1697–1771.
See Source:
Ukrainian culture and language flourished
in the sixteenth and first half of the 17th century,
when Ukraine was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, albeit in spite of being part of the PLC, not as a result.
After the Treaty of Pereyaslav, Ukrainian high culture went into a long period of steady decline. In the aftermath, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was taken over by the Russian Empire and closed down later in the 19th century. Most of the remaining Ukrainian schools also switched to Polish or Russian in the territories controlled by these respective countries, which was followed by a new wave of Polonization and Russification of the native nobility. Gradually the official language of Ukrainian provinces under Poland was changed to Polish, while the upper classes in the Russian part of Ukraine used Russian.
Source:
And yet the culture and language survived
and evolved under a relentless pressure to exterminate it.
For Ukraine, still, more than any other song, it's these lyrics. . .
Even while not a country, a Ukrainian chorus and ballet group was invited to the Whitehouse.
A postcard from 1932 commemorates an appearance in Washington by the Ukrainian Chorus and Ballet. The 300-person troupe toured the U.S. that year in honor of the bicentennial of George Washington's birth. It was also a way to remind American audiences of Ukraine's unique culture at a time when the country was under control by the Soviet Union.
Is Ukrainian language More Polish? More Russian? Lithuanian?
Where was Ukraine during the American Revolution?
Twenty years after the Seven Years War, during the American Revolution, Poland Lithuania is getting carved up, with Russia under Catherine the Great taking the biggest chunk all the way down to the Black Sea.
She even hired John Paul Jones for a stint after the Rev war to help her beat out the Turks from the Byzantine-Ottoman Empire which had the Black Sea areas.
This map covers the time periiod of 1772–1795.
"After the Partitions of Poland (1772–1795) and the Russian conquest of the Crimean Khanate, the Russian Empire and Habsburg Austria were in control of all the territories that constitute present day Ukraine for a hundred years." Source is Wikipedia.
Oh and one more by the way.
Don't forget the Cossacks in this area.
Compiled by Jim Moyer 3/6/2022, updated 6/24/2023, 6/25/2023
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Ukrainan Chrorus and Ballet In 1932
visited the Whitehouse during the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birthday, which was also the year when your 25 cent piece was changed to sport Washington's profile,
a spectacle of Ukrainian music and dance
delighted a Washington audience —
and conveyed an important message.
Washington Post
By John Kelly
Columnist
March 2, 2022 at 2:51 p.m. EST
A postcard from 1932 commemorates an appearance in Washington by the Ukrainian Chorus and Ballet. The 300-person troupe toured the U.S. that year in honor of the bicentennial of George Washington's birth. It was also a way to remind American audiences of Ukraine's unique culture at a time when the country was under control by the Soviet Union. (Collection of Sharon House, original photograph from Washington Evening Star)
Sharon House doesn’t remember exactly where she got the postcard. Probably at a postcard show or ephemera fair. With 1,500 cards in her collection of Washington-related subjects, it can be hard to keep track of specifics. But the card struck the District resident as especially relevant today.
On the front is a black-and-white photo of nearly two dozen people smiling for the camera. A few men are in suits, but most of the other figures are dressed in some sort of native costume: lavishly embroidered fabrics, ornate headdresses, shiny boots.
“The first word on the back is ‘Ukraine’ or some variation of 'Ukraine,’ ” Sharon wrote. “I don’t know what the rest says.”
The Cyrillic letters read: “Ukrainians greet Koshetz and Avramenko with bread and salt in Washington on our Easter, May 1, 1932, on the occasion of their performance with a concert in honor of the 200th anniversary of the first President of the United States.”
Alexander Koshetz and Vasile Avramenko. The two men couldn’t have been more different, but they shared a single aim: to convince North Americans that Ukraine was an independent country and should be free from the suffocating grasp of the Soviet Union. They did it through song and dance, the singers under the direction of arranger and choir director Koshetz, the dancers under choreographer Avramenko.
The year 1932 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of the soldier and politician who had thrown off the yoke of British oppression. Events honoring George Washington were held across the United States all year. They included a multi-city tour by the 300-member Ukrainian Chorus and Ballet.
“During the Washington Bi-Centennial Tour they were trying to use Ukrainian folk dancing and choral singing to bring Ukrainians and their struggle/demands for independent statehood to the attention of American politicians and the American public,” Canadian historian Orest Martynowych, author of “The Showman and the Ukrainian Cause: Folk Dance, Film and the Life of Vasile Avramenko,” wrote in an email.
During the brief time when Ukraine was an independent state — between the fall of the czars and the rise of the Bolsheviks — the country’s leadership supported a national chorus under the direction of Koshetz. It toured the world, introducing audiences to Ukraine’s choral tradition, an example of what we might call “soft power.”
In 1921, while the chorus was abroad, Ukraine fell to the Soviets. Now stateless, Koshetz and the singers continued performing. Twinned with Avramenko’s lavish ballet and folk dance productions, they reminded the world of Ukraine’s unique culture.
The Washington appearance was the first of their 30-city bicentennial tour. Performers arrived by bus the morning of May 1. At some point, they met members of the local Ukrainian community and snapped that photo: the bald Koshetz in a pale overcoat and a Poirot mustache; the severe Avramenko to his right in a dark shirt and jacket.
Their 8:15 p.m. show was at Washington Auditorium, a 6,000-seat venue at 19th and E streets NW. Among those in attendance were Sen. Royal S. Copeland (D-N.Y.) and the ambassadors from France, Germany and Belgium.
Martynowych said that by 1932, Koshetz and Avramenko were not on the best of terms.
“They were diametrically opposed personalities,” he wrote in the email. “Koshetz was a highly educated, disciplined conductor, arranger and ethnomusicologist; Avramenko was an uneducated, basically self-taught and undisciplined promoter.”
Though nearly every seat was full, that was primarily because Avramenko had distributed so many free tickets. The backdrop for the show, depicting the U.S. Capitol, had only recently been coated with a fireproof material, creating a stench that filled the room. An 11 a.m. rehearsal had to be postponed until 6 p.m., when the odor had cleared.
“[As] always happens, that idiot Avramenko ruined everything,” Koshetz later remarked.
Nevertheless, the critics were impressed by the spectacle. The songs, arranged by Koshetz, “proved a musical aggregation of great beauty,” wrote The Washington Post. “The terpsichorean abilities of the ballet equaled the wonderful voices of the chorus. The ballet pictures and dances … were enhanced by the dancers wearing their colorful national costumes.”
Sen. Royal said the folk art was born from Ukraine’s fertile soil, from the country’s “dramatic and tragic past.”
Martynowych said the bicentennial tour was the first collaboration between Koshetz and Avramenko — and their last. Koshetz died in Winnipeg in 1944 after teaching a summer course there. Avramenko died in New York City in 1981. Neither had ever returned to Ukraine, which wouldn’t gain independence until 1991.
Despite their differences, both men were veritable Johnny Appleseeds of Ukrainian culture, inspiring the establishment of choirs and folk dance schools in far-flung towns and cities across the continent that exist to this day.
As the cold open on last week’s “Saturday Night Live” illustrated — when a Ukrainian chorus from New York sang a hymn — music can reach the heart in ways that words can’t..
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The Origins of Kyiv (old anglo spelling Kiev)
The legend of Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv speaks of a founder-family consisting of a Slavic tribal leader Kyi, the eldest, his brothers Schek and Khoryv, and also their sister Lybid, who founded the city. Kyiv (Ukrainian: Київ) is translated as "belonging to Kyi" or as "Kyi's place".
The non-legendary time of the founding of the city is harder to ascertain.
Slavic settlement existed in the area from the end of the 5th century, that later developed into the city.[3]
Archaeological excavations demonstrate the probability of commercial activity in Kyiv's Podil district in the seventh or eighth century. However, dendrochronological analysis of the remnants of Podil's log dwellings provides evidence of settlement only as far back as 887,
and, according to Omeljan Pritsak, archaeologists have proven "beyond any doubt that Kiev as a town did not exist before the last quarter of the ninth to the first half of the tenth century."[4]
Some western historians (e.g. Kevin Alan Brook) speculate that the city was founded by Khazars or Magyars.
Brook posits that Kyiv is a Turkic place name (Küi = riverbank + ev = settlement).[5]
However, the Primary Chronicle (a main source of information about the early history of the area) mentions Slavic Kievans telling Askold and Dir that they lived without a local ruler and paid tribute to the Khazars - an event attributed to the 9th century. Brook believes that during the 8th and 9th centuries the city functioned as an outpost of the Khazar empire. A hill-fortress, called Sambat (Old Turkic for "high place") was built to defend the area.[6]
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Links for further Research
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Virginia POW Camps in World War II
Tour the camps, learn stories of the daily lives of the POWs, and discover the impact they had on the Old Dominion.
During World War II, Virginians watched as German and Italian prisoners invaded the Old Dominion. At least 17,000 Germans and countless Italians lived in over twenty camps across the state and worked on five military installations. Farmers hired POWs to pick apples. Fertilizer companies, lumber yards, and hospitals hired them. At first a phenomenon of war in Virginia’s backyard, these former enemy combatants became familiar to many–often developing a rapport with their employers. Among them were die-hired Nazis and Fascists, but they benefited from double standards that placed them in better jobs and conditions than African Americans.
Historians Kathryn Coker and Jason Wetzel tell a different story of the Old Dominion at War.
Frederick County Fruit Growers Association Inc. Records
Stewart Bell Jr. Archives Handley Regional Library Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society P.O. Box 58, Winchester, VA 22604 (540) 662-9041 ext. 17 archives@handleyregional.org www.handleyregional.org
This collection contains information relating to the Frederick County Fruit Growers Association and German POW camp in Winchester, Virginia.
The German POW camp was effectively shut down and sold on March 29, 1947 thus ending the use of POW labor for Frederick County fruit growers.
The collection spans the years 1946-1962. Ephemera includes bills/invoices and the distribution of costs of the German POW camp along with reports relating to POW, Bahamian and White labor utilized on local Frederick County farms as well as information regarding the sale of the German POW camp on March 29, 1947. Also contained within the collection are treasury and financial reports of the POW camp, building and contact specifications/pricing, as well as the POW camp daily and weekly payroll information and forms of individual workers from 1946-1947. 3 Boxes (Last Updated 05/2016) BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL: The Frederick County Fruit Growers Association Inc. helped to establish the German POW camp utilized during and after WWII. POW, Bahamian and white workers were used to operate Winchester and Frederick County apple orchards throughout 1946-1962. The German POW camp was effectively shut down and sold on March 29, 1947 thus ending the use of POW labor for Frederick County fruit growers. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Taken from the collection. CITE AS: Frederick County Fruit Growers Association Inc. Records, 1713 THL, Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA, USA. ORGANIZATION: BOX 1-Bills/Invoices German POW Camp Distribution of Cost/General Correspondence for German POW Camps—contains the distribution of cost and estimated cost of construction along with correspondence; unnumbered leaves, typescript. German POW Camp Distribution of Cost/Reimbursable Receipts of Bills, 1946—contains the distribution of cost of construction for May 13, 1946, statement of account/reimbursable receipts of bills. Frederick County Fruit Growers Association; Social Security Tax Returns—contains tax return forms and information 1949-1959; unnumbered leaves, typescript. German Prisoners of War Camp (Bills), 1944-1947, Extension Account-F&M National Bank—contains POW Accounts for Farmers and Merchants, POW Camp requests for goods and services, and POW Camp statements/receipts; unnumbered leaves, typescript. Invoices/Bills Paid (1954-1958)—contains receipts and invoices of past bills to various individuals and companies, along with correspondence regarding the payment; unnumbered leaves, typescript. Migratory Labor Camp Bills (1946)—contains a list of individuals who use Bahaman works as well as a list of the 1946 rules and regulations governing the use of the workers; 7 leaves, typescript. Paid Invoices, 1958—unnumbered leaves, typescript/manuscript. Reimbursable for German POW Camp—contains receipts for reimbursable bills, reimbursable bills on statement, and statements of cost; unnumbered leaves, typescript. BOX 2—POW Camp Workers/Labor Bahamian Labor Administrative Instructions of Bahamas Governments and Frederick County Fruit Growers (1956-1958)—contains the administrative instructions as well as the Bahamian Work Agreements; 24 leaves, typescript. Bahamian Labor, 1947—contains correspondence, employment agreements/requests, employment/worker requests and responses, payroll information, and weekly payroll information; unnumbered leaves, typescript Bahamian/White Labor Accounts and Inventories, 1946—contains Bahamian account/payroll, disbursements/deposits, inventory lists/receipts, receipts/bills of payment, white labor camp account/payroll; unnumbered leaves, typescript Farm Labor Program, 1945—contains employment agreement/contracts, rules and regulations of employment as well as lists of individuals who use prisoners of war for labor purposes; unnumbered leaves, typescript Forms for Petition of Non-Immigrants/Aliens/Correspondence (1958)—11 leaves, three blank forms, two completed forms, typescript German Prisoner of War Camp-Weekly Summary (1945-1946)—contains daily contract time records, contract of labor statement/weekly summary, statements of account, transportation allowances; unnumbered leaves, typescript German POW Camp Sale, March 29, 1947—contains correspondence, statements/distribution of cost and public sale notice poster; unnumbered leaves, typescript German POW Labor-Service Fee—contains contract labor statements, farm labor needs/peach and apple survey, information on fruit growers in the area, and listed service fees for POW labor; unnumbered leaves, typescript. News Articles—2 leaves, printed/typescript. BOX 3—Financial Reports/Payroll Building Specifications and Contract Prices (1958-1962)—unnumbered leaves, typescript. Frederick County Fruit Growers, Inc. Treasurer Reports—contains financial reports/statement 1943-1947; unnumbered leaves, typescript. German POW Camp Daily and Weekly Payroll (October 1-31, 1946); unnumbered leaves, manuscript on printed form. German POW Camp Daily and Weekly Payroll (September 16-30, 1946); unnumbered leaves, manuscript on printed form. German POW Payroll forms (1946-1947)—contains individual rate of pay information and POW employer’s assignment sheet; 13 leaves, manuscript on printed form. German POW Camp Fund—contains correspondence/receipts of payment and distribution of cost construction for April 10, 1947 and June 30, 1947 and information on the German POW camp fund; 25 leaves, typescript. Prisoners of War-Mileage, Statements, Correspondence (1945)—contains POW camp accounting, orchardist information including bills/notices of payment, statements/receipts and information on mileage; unnumbered leaves, typescript. Mileage Reports for POW Camps/Labor—contains correspondence, mileage reports for May-September 1945; 17 leaves, typescript. Statistical Reports/Treasurer’s Report, 1957-1959—31 leaves, typescript/manuscript.
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Prisoners of War – News articles on POWs in Winchester during World War II,
Prisoners of War – POWs in Winchester, Winchester Star, may 30, 1990,
Nazis in Winchester, Winchester Star, February 5, 1980, 2 items, printed
Prisoners of War – Use on Farms, 6 leaves, manuscript, 1 leaf, typescript
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Link broken. Will try to find its new location:
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Sunday Word 1
posted 730am 6/25/2023
Ukraine. While the building of Fort Loudoun is going on, the word is used to refer to the borderlands, a land barely controlled by the House of Wettin who "ruled Poland–Lithuania and Saxony simultaneously, dividing power between the two states," covering the time of 1697–1771. . By WWII Winchester VA has what is called a German Prison Camp on Smithfield Ave and Kern Street.
But they weren't all Germans.
They were Russians. But they might not have been Russians. They were Ukrainians. This is surprising. Weren't we allied with the Russians against Germany in WWII? We were. But the Germans conscripted many Russians and Ukrainians to collaborate to fight for them. Those were the so-called German prisoners of this POW camp in Winchester VA. . The Christ Episcopal Church on Boscawen and Washington Streets has a reference to Russian workers building and fixing things in its church. This claim was made in a Winchester Star article, the author of this blog will be adding as a link.
