Despite Chrystia Freeland’s denials, her grandfather was complicit in the Nazi genocide

 

A new book provides the most authoritative study of Mykhailo Chomiak and the history of Ukrainian Nazis in Canada

The standing ovation accorded to a Second World War Ukrainian Nazi unit veteran in Canada’s House of Commons in the autumn of 2023 shocked Canadians—and the world. 

I was not surprised because I had already spent three years learning about two people, Mykhailo Chomiak and Ann Charney, whose parallel lives during and after that war highlight the complex and disturbing story of Ukraine and Canada’s post-war Ukrainian Canadian community. 

Ann Charney was two years old when she and her Jewish mother evaded their certain death by hiding out in a hayloft in the Ukrainian countryside. Ann spent two long years in that attic. She and her mother survived the war, and ultimately made their way to Montreal. There, Ann has had a brilliant career as a novelist and journalist. 

Mykhailo Chomiak, Chrystia Freeland’s grandfather, spent the war working for German military intelligence as the editor of an influential Ukrainian newspaper celebrating Hitler and promoting a virulent form of antisemitism. After the war, Chomiak and his family were easily accepted as postwar immigrants to Canada, along with thousands of other Ukrainian Nazi collaborators and former SS men. Chomiak settled in Alberta, where he continued to work for extreme right wing causes.

In Family Ties: How a Ukrainian Nazi and a living witness link Canada to Ukraine today, I tell the stories of these two during the war, and afterwards, bringing their stories up to date through research in Ukraine today.  When I visited Chomiak’s relatives in Ukraine, I found the themes of ethnic hatred and antisemitism strongly in play today in public support for the war with Russia.  (more...)

Despite Chrystia Freeland’s denials, her grandfather was complicit in the Nazi genocide