The fact that some Ukrainians collaborated with Nazis is no secret, but it’s been whitewashed and even celebrated in Canada
Canadian officials have spent the past week apologizing for accidentally honoring a 98-year-old man who fought in a Nazi division during World War II as a Ukrainian nationalist hero.
While most Ukrainians battled against Germany during the war, it’s well known that the western region of the country collaborated with the Third Reich — and that thousands of those involved were allowed to resettle in Canada.
Yet politicians and institutions are professing shock that Yaroslav Hunka — an old man who got a standing ovation from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Volodomyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine on Sept. 22 — was part of a unit armed and trained by Nazis.
That unit, the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as SS Galichina or SS Galizien, was created in 1943, commanded by SS officers, and is believed responsible for war crimes including the 1944 Huta Pieniacka massacre, where hundreds of Polish villagers were burned alive.
In the week since the Forward first reported on Hunka’s problematic past, a university announced plans to return an endowment funded in Hunka’s honor and the parliamentary leader who invited him resigned, under pressure, from his post as speaker. Yet that politician has connections to institutions tied to Hunka’s family, and the University of Alberta has publicized past support from other SS Galichina veterans. In a 2011 news release, the school described another donor as having “joined the Galicia Division, later the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army.”
Here’s some of what we’ve learned about Hunka and his family, how he came to be honored in Parliament, the history of SS Galichina and its veterans, and the spiraling fallout. (more...)
Background:
Zelenskyy joins Canadian Parliament’s ovation to 98-year-old veteran who fought with Nazis
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