Volodymyr Kubijovyč

Volodymyr Kubijovyc was born 23 September, 1900 in Nowy Sącz, Poland. During the years 1928 to 1939, he taught at the University of Kraków. In 1940, he was appointed professor at the Ukrainian Free University in Prague. Since 1931, he was a full member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, heading its geographic commission.

During the Second World War he headed the Ukrainian Central Committee (UCC) in Kraków and in 1943 took part in organizing the Division SS-Galizien. In his role as head of the UCC, Kubijovyc revealed his exceptional ability as an organizer and statesman. The division was organized as part of a program of creating foreign formations of the Waffen-SS to fight on the Russian front. The organizer of the division was the German governor of Galicia, Otto von Wächter, and its formation was announced on 28 April 1943. Volodymyr Kubijovyč as the head of the Ukrainian Central Committee in Cracow, supported the division's formation, regarding it as a Ukrainian armed force and hoping to influence its character and organization as the core of a future national army. This committee was the officially sanctioned Ukrainian political and community organization under Nazi German administration during 1939-1945. The Committee was responsible for social services, veterans affairs, education, youth and economic activities.

After the war, Kubijovyc emigrated to Germany and to France. He was the Society's General Secretary from 1947 to 1963, and from 1952, President of its European branch. He became the Society's honourary member in 1981. In 1949, he became the chief editor of the Encyclopaedia of Ukraine later the editor of Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopaedia which was published in two volumes in English in 1963 and 1971. Volodymyr Kubijovyc died on 2 November, 1985 in Paris, France.

see also

Українська Дивізія Галичина