Crimean Tatars in WWII

In 1940, the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic had a population of 1,126,800, of which 218,000 people, or 19.4 percent of the population, were Crimean Tatars. In 1941, Nazi Germany and its allies invaded Eastern Europe, annexing much of the western USSR, including Crimea in November 1941. The peninsula fell under the administration of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Due to the devastating effects of Sovietization on the culture of the Crimean Tatars, many initially saw the German invasion of 1941 as a sign of hope. However, once the Germans established their administration in Crimea, it became apparent that although they had been allowed some new religious freedoms during the occupation, the Nazis could be just as oppressive in their rule as the Soviets.

Over 65,000 Soviet soldiers were captured by the Axis powers after their victory in the Crimean Campaign of 1941. Many of the captured Crimean Tatars serving in the Red Army were sent to POW camps. Though Nazis initially called for murder of all "Asiatic inferiors" (referring to the Crimean Tatars), they revised this policy in the face of determined resistance from the Red Army. Beginning in 1942, Germans recruited Soviet prisoners of war to form support armies. The Dobrucan Tatar nationalist Fazil Ulkusal and Lipka Tatar Edige Kirimal helped in freeing Crimean Tatars from German prisoner-of-war camps and enlisting them in an independent Crimean support legion for the Wehrmacht. This legion eventually included eight battalions. From November 1942, German authorities allowed Crimean Tatars to establish "Muslim Committees" in various towns as a symbolic recognition of some local government authority, though they were not given any real political power. Some of the Crimean Tatars were also organized into Schutzmannschaft (police battalions) brigades to protect Crimean Tatar villages from the attacks and to track down the Soviet partisans. According to both German and Crimean Tatar evidence, the Germans persuaded between 15,000 and 20,000 Crimean Tatars to form self-defense battalions. However, rather than uniformly support German forces, these units frequently sided with whoever was the strongest in an area. Soviet partisans also raided Tartar villages as punishment for perceived collaboration.

However, not all Crimean Tatars aided in the collaboration. 25,033 Crimean Tatars served in the Red Army during the war, including at the Battle of Berlin. Many Crimean Tatar communists strongly opposed the occupation and assisted the resistance movement to provide valuable strategic and political information. Other Crimean Tatars also fought on the side of the Soviet partisans, such as the Tarhanov movement of 250 Crimean Tatars. Six Crimean Tatars were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union medal.

The Nazis implemented a brutal repression against the civilian population of Crimea, destroying more than 70 villages that were together home to about 25% of the Crimean Tatar population. Thousands of Crimean Tatars were forcibly transferred to work in German factories under the supervision of the Gestapo in what were described as "slave workshops". 

It has since been recognized that Crimean Tatar participation in the German battalions was not necessarily voluntary, often being secured at gunpoint. It must also be added that severe hunger and disease in the Soviet ranks led people of many ethnicities, including Russians, to desert. It is estimated that the total number of Tatars assisting the Germans reached 20,000. These numbers, however, are believed to be distorted and exaggerated by the NKVD, with modern historians placing the number of Crimean Tatar “collaborators” at around 3,500.

During the German retreat, those Crimean Tatars associated with the Schutzmannschaft were evacuated to Germany by the Wehrmacht where they joined the Eastern Turkic division. Thus, virtually all of the collaborators had been evacuated from Crimea by the retreating Wehrmacht. Many Soviet officials had also recognized this and rejected claims that the Crimean Tatars had betrayed the Soviet Union en masse. However, with the German retreat, voices demanding punishment of the Crimean Tatars grew louder.