The discourse over the nationality question in Nazi-occupied Ukraine: The Generalbezirk Dnjepropetrowsk, 1941-3

This article is devoted to a description of racial and nationality policies under German occupation in the particular case of the Generalbezirk Dnjepropetrowsk. It will analyse the double-national (German-Ukrainian) rhetoric made up by the nazis and their local collaborators to justify the 'New Order' established in Ukraine. This rhetoric will be described through the analysis of forced Ukrainization of the Dnipropetrovsk city administration carried out by the mayor, Sokolovskyj, the reading of local newspapers (Dnipropetrovs'ka Hazeta and others) and the speeches at political celebrations (anniversary of the liberation from communism and Hitler's and Shevchenko's birthdays). This will allow illustration of how the nazis and their collaborators succeeded in creating a racial rhetoric that opposed two nationalities - the Germans and their younger brothers the Ukrainians - to another nationality, the Jews, who were accused of all the crimes and offences committed by the Soviets.