The Left Is Now Telling Us (Ukrainian) Nazis Aren't So Bad After All

 

On September 22, members of the Canadian Parliament provided a standing ovation for Yaroslav Hunka, a member of Nazi Germany's Waffen-SS during World War II. 

The event surrounded a visit to Ottawa by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. In their hysterical rush to praise all things anti-Russian in 2023, some of our social democratic elites in the West have taken to praising literal Third-Reich Nazis. Specifically, the Speaker of the House of Commons described Hunka as "a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service."

Shortly after Canadian politicians showered praise on Hunka, some observers on social media began to point out Hunka's Nazi past, and the matter became an embarrassment for Canada's PM Justin Trudeau and for the Speaker who resigned days later. Moreover, the affair has highlighted a longstanding pattern of tolerance for Ukrainian SS members demonstrated by the regimes in both the United Kingdom and Canada. 

These reminders of Ukrainian collaboration with the Third Reich has provided another Nazi-themed black eye for the Ukrainian regime which has already been accused—with good reason—of supporting neo-Nazi groups like the Azov Battalion which has long employed Nazi symbols such as the wolfsangel, the swastika, and the black sun. Ukrainian nationalists like those in the Azov battalion have also sought to dismiss criticism of Ukraine-Nazi collaboration while portraying pro-Nazi Ukrainians as mere innocent anti-Russian freedom fighters. Yet, Hunka's unit and other Ukrainian nationalist groups are notable for crimes inflicted against ethnic Poles and Jews, and reminders of such past crimes are likely to further raise tensions between the Polish and Ukrainian regimes. Warsaw and Kiev are presently denouncing each other over war funding and the importation of cheap Ukrainian grain into the EU. 

Current allies of Ukraine, however, have likely noted the danger posed to the pro-Ukraine narrative by the Hunka fiasco. Thus it is not surprising to see headlines from Western media attempting to excuse Ukrainian Nazi collaborators. On Monday, for example, the European version of Politico published an article titled "Fighting against the USSR didn't necessarily make you a Nazi." The article is by committed Russophobe Keir Giles and makes the case that at least some Nazi soldiers weren't really all that bad since they were fighting Russians. 

One of Giles's chief "arguments" is simply that "it's complicated" and Ukrainian SS members have been judged unfairly. Meanwhile, Canada's military history magazine Legion tells us to consider the "nuance of history" before casting aspersions on these Nazis. The CBC makes a similar claim that the Hunka situation "reveals a complicated past" and that Ukrainian Nazis were simply choosing what they perceived to be the lesser of two evils. 

Legacy-media journalists—many of whom spent the last three years denouncing any opposition to the establishment narrative as "racism" or "misinformation"—are now telling us that we must approach the nuances of Nazi volunteers with an open mind.  (more...)

The Left Is Now Telling Us (Ukrainian) Nazis Aren't So Bad After All