German Forces

Massacred German Bicycle Company

Olyka Massacre

July 3, 1941 near Olyka/Ukraine. Burial place of a captured then bestially murdered German bicycle company. '...Slowly we're driving up the hill. The distinctive light spots on the plain are getting clearer. The next moment I'm dropping my binoculars, rub my eyes and watch again.My God! This is impossible! What I just saw just can not be true. Quickly we overcome the last hundred meters. The front platoon dismounts and runs towards the light spots. Our steps are getting slowlier. We stall and don't dare to walk any further. Helmets taken off and hold like in prayer. Not a single word desecrates the site, even the birds keep still. In front of us are lying the naked bodies of a bestially slaughtered company of German soldiers. Their hands tied with wire, wide, dead eyes gazing at us. The company's officers probably found an end much worse, they are lying several meters away from their comrades. Shred and trampled we find their bodies in the green clover. Still not a single word is spoken. Here speakes only the majesty of death. Quietly we march past the murdered comrades. During the conference at midnight, July 8, the Obergruppenfuehrer (=Dietrich) takes the opportunity to insistently conjure the commanders not to go eye for an eye for this would only cause a terrible chain reaction' - SS-Brigadeführer Kurt Meyer. This happened 11 days after the beginning of the Russo-German war.I wonder until this time how many Soviet POW's starved in German captivity. How many Russian families 'were thrown out of their houses in subzero temperatures after thoroughly stripping them of any semblance of winter clothing'? Maybe Beevor knows the answer...