Ukrainian soldiers in UK face 'genocide' inquiry

A special meeting of the parliamentary war crimes group has been called to look into the possibility that as many as 1,500 Nazi murderers came to live in Britain in 1947.

A special meeting of the parliamentary war crimes group has been called to look into the possibility that as many as 1,500 Nazi murderers came to live in Britain in 1947.

The ex-soldiers were Ukrainian members of the 14th SS division Galizien - the Waffen SS - who were believed at the time to have been ordinary soldiers, according to a documentary by Yorkshire Television, shown on ITV last night.

New information uncovered by researchers for The SS in Britain has shown that members of a Ukrainian police unit called The Nightingales took part in the murder of thousands of Jews in Lvov in June 1941. This unit was incorporated into this SS division Galizien. In February 1944 Galizien's troops murdered more than 800 Polish civilians in the village of Huta Pienacka. And in August that year they massacred 44 unarmed civilians in the Polish village of Chlaniov, including children as young as three.

The programme's producer-director, Julian Hendy, said: "People in Poland were very surprised that these people were allowed to come into Britain. We have been able to provide documentary and eyewitness evidence that some members of this division were involved in terrible atrocities. We are not suggesting that every one of these 1,500 men was a war criminal but a small minority were - and they should be investigated."

Lord Janner of Braunstone, secretary of the all-party war crimes group, said: "I have asked the Home Secretary to open a full, new investigation. Those who are in Britain and were involved in genocidal murders should not sleep comfortably in their beds."