ГУЛаг Палестины - Лев Гунин

Collective Guilt

Paralysis of the Comparative

Function

60 Minutes' Cheap Shots

Ukrainian Anti-Semitism

Jewish Ukrainophobia

Mailbag

A Sense of Responsibility

What 60 Minutes Should Do

PostScript

The Galicia Division

60 Minutes' chief piece of evidence for Ukrainian anti-Semitism and predilection for Naziism

seems to be the official celebrations commemorating the Galicia Division. Elderly men in

civilian dress are shown wearing military insignia in a recent reunion in the city of Lviv,

Ukraine (Lvov in Russian, Lwow in Polish, formerly Lemberg). Mr. Safer informs us that

"Thousands of Ukrainians joined the SS and marched off to fight for Naziism," and that "Nowhere,

not even in Germany, are the SS so openly celebrated," and that "Many of the Ukrainian men of

Lvov who marched off as members of the SS never returned - killed fighting for Hitler."

The impression created in the viewer's mind is that these veterans are unanimously guilty of war

crimes and crimes against humanity, that they were once supporters of and now continue to be

admirers of Hitler, that they sympathized with Nazi ambitions during World War II, that they are

the remnants of a much larger group of Ukrainians who shared a similar orientation, and that as

their reunion was sanctioned by the Lviv City Council and the Ukrainian Catholic Church, similar

charges must apply to Ukrainians generally. To all this, however, I must echo Cardinal

Lubachivsky's words: "It is not true!"

The Galicia Division was recruited by the Germans only well into the war, in the summer and fall

of 1943 when they were beginning to experience setbacks on their Eastern front. That the

Galicia Division was considered an "SS" division does not bear the significance given it by 60

Minutes - it was a Waffen SS division, which is quite a different thing: "Like other German

volunteer units, the Division Halychyna [Galicia] was included in the 14th Grenadier Division of

the SS-Waffen." (Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopaedia, Volume 2, p. 1088.)

Five qualities of the Galicia Division make it a most atypical component of the stereotype of

the SS: (1) it was strictly a combat unit and so played no role in the management of

concentration camps or death camps, (2) its Ukrainian members wore a lion rampant instead of an

"SS" on their right collars during most of the life of the division, (3) it was accompanied by

Ukrainian chaplains who attended to the spiritual needs of the troops, (4) it was kept separate

from other German forces, and (5) it was created with the proviso that it never be used against

the Western Allies, but only against Soviet forces on the Eastern front. These five qualities

alone render the Galicia Division an entity unlike any that was being conjured up in the minds

of 60 Minutes viewers.

Photographs contrasting different insignia of

German and Ukrainian members of the Galicia

Division

Of course the members of any military unit will be required to swear oaths of obedience to the

Commander-in-Chief. No fighting force can function without such an oath, and the members of the

Galicia Division were unable to avoid swearing one. However, compare the differences in the

German SS oath and the Ukrainian Waffen-SS oath:

German SS Oath

"I swear to you Adolf Hitler, as Leader and Chancellor of the Reich, loyalty

and valor. I vow to you and all those you place over me obedience until

death, so help me God."

Ukrainian Waffen-SS Oath

"I swear by God this holy oath, that in the struggle against Bolshevism I will

give the Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces, Adolf Hitler, absolute

obedience, and if it be his will, as a fearless soldier, I will always be

prepared to lay down my life for this oath." (Richard Landwehr, Fighting for

Freedom: The Ukrainian Volunteer Division of the Waffen-SS, Bibliophile Legion

Books, Silver Spring, Maryland, 1985, p. 45)

Here are three revealing differences between the above oaths: (1) The German SS oath swears to

Adolf Hitler who happens to be leader, whereas the Ukrainian Waffen-SS oath swears to the leader

who happens to be Adolf Hitler. (2) The German SS oath does not restrict the Germans to any

limited role, but the Ukrainian Waffen-SS oath does restrict the Ukrainian role to the "struggle

against Bolshevism." (3) In the words "obedience until death," the German SS oath appears to

imply obedience for the rest of one's life, whereas the Ukrainian Waffen-SS oath limits the

duration of the obedience to the period of service "as a fearless soldier." These are not

insignificant differences - they constitute an affirmation that the Ukrainians had their own

goals, and that these overlapped with German goals only on the matter of opposing the Soviet

re-occupation of Ukraine. For the Ukrainians to have won an even greater variance from the

fundamental German SS oath would have been for the Germans to accept into their armed forces

members who were openly declaring recalcitrance and insubordination.

The Ukrainian motivation for permitting the formation of the Galicia Division was threefold: (1)

the existence of the division would serve to improve German treatment of Ukrainians in the

occupied territories, (2) the Division would form the nucleus of a national army which might

promote Ukrainian aspirations to statehood, and (3) the Division would be thrown into the fight

to oppose the Soviet re-occupation of Ukraine.

Even though both Canada and the U.S. have Nazi-hunting units within their respective Justice

Departments, not a single member of the Division has ever been convicted of any war crime and

none has ever been charged. The absence of evidence of any wrongdoing not only of the Division

as a whole, but also of any member of the Division, during his membership in the Division or

before or after, is widely recognized. Judge Jules Deschenes, heading Canada's Commission of

Inquiry on War Criminals, concluded that:

The members of the Galicia Division were individually screened for security

purposes before admission to Canada. Charges of war crimes against members of

the Galicia Division have never been substantiated, neither in 1950 when they

were first preferred, nor in 1984 when they were renewed, nor before this

Commission. ... In the absence of evidence of participation in or knowledge of

specific war crimes, mere membership in the Galicia Division is insufficient to

justify prosecution. (Jules Deschenes, Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals,

1986, p. 12)

Judge Deschenes cites a 1947 report of a British Screening Commission which was filed just prior

to the Galicia Division being moved from Italy to Britain (note that these are the words of the

1947 British Screening Commission, not of Judge Deschenes):

They probably were not, and certainly do not now seem to be at heart

pro-German, and the fact that they did give aid and comfort to the Germans can

fairly be considered to have been incidental and not fundamental. (in Jules

Deschenes, Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, 1986, p. 253)

A 1950 British Foreign Office report to the Canadian Department of External Affairs concerning

the Galicia Division was also cited by Judge Deschenes (note that these are the words of the

1950 British Foreign Office, not of Judge Deschenes):

While in Italy these men were screened by Soviet and British missions and

neither then nor subsequently has any evidence been brought to light which

would suggest that any of them fought against the Western Allies or engaged in

crimes against humanity. Their behaviour since they came to this country has

been good and they have never indicated in any way that they are infected with

any trace of Nazi ideology. ... From the reports of the special mission set

up by the War Office to screen these men, it seems clear that they volunteered

to fight against the Red Army from nationalistic motives which were given

greater impetus by the behaviour of the Soviet authorities during their earlier

occupation of the Western Ukraine after the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Although

Communist propaganda has constantly attempted to depict these, like so many

other refugees, as "quislings" and "war criminals" it is interesting to note

that no specific charges of war crimes have been made by the Soviet or any

other Government against any members of this group. (in Jules Deschenes,

Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, 1986, p. 252)

Judge Deschenes concludes:

It is an acknowledged fact that the members of the Division were volunteers who

had enlisted in the spring and summer of 1943, essentially to combat the

"Bolsheviks"; indeed, they were never used against Western allies. (Jules

Deschenes, Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, 1986, p. 255)

Although as we have just seen "no specific charges of war crimes have been made by the Soviet or

any other Government against any members of this group," Mr. Safer ventures to do what no one

has done before - where angels fear to tread, Mr. Safer rushes in to lay a specific crime at the

feet of the Galicia Division:

SAFER: Thousands of Ukrainians joined the SS and marched off to fight for

Naziism. In the process, they helped round up Lvov's Jews, helped march more

than 140,000 of them to extinction - virtually every Jew in Lvov.

However, the rounding up of Lviv's Jews was begun in 1941 and was largely completed in 1942, so

that by 1943 when the Galicia Division was formed, there were not 140,000 Jews left in Lviv to

round up. In truth, the Galicia Division never participated in the rounding up of Jews in Lviv

or anywhere else. To repeat: the Galicia Division was a combat unit. More particularly, the

Galicia Division saw action on only a single occasion - in facing the Soviets in the Battle of

Brody in July 1944.

Talk of the Galicia Division Induces Paralysis of the Comparative Function

The broad topic of "Paralysis of the Comparative Function" is discussed within its own larger

section below, but such a paralysis becomes evident in other places throughout this essay, as

for example in discussions of the Galicia Division. In such discussions, the comparison - the

elementary and obvious comparison - that is not made is that between the Ukrainian contribution

to German armed forces of Waffen SS troops and the similar contribution made by other peoples.

Below, I reproduce a quote from an interview by Slavko Nowytski of Professor Norman Davies,

historian at the University of London, and author of the recent Europe: A History, published by

Oxford University Press:

In discussing the question of collaborating with Germany Prof. Davies noted

that, "A large number of the volunteers for the Waffen SS came from Western

Europe. The nation which supplied it the largest number of divisions was the

Netherlands [four]. There were two Belgian divisions, there was a French

Waffen SS. To my mind, it's rather surprising that Ukraine, which is a much

larger country [than the Netherlands or Belgium] supplied only one Waffen SS

Division.... It's surprising that there were so few Ukrainians [in the German

Army]. Many people don't know, for example, that there were far more Russians

fighting alongside the Wehrmacht or in the various German armies than there

were Ukrainians.... Thanks to Soviet propaganda, the Russian contribution to

the Nazi war effort has been forgotten, whereas the Ukrainian contribution has

been remembered, I think, too strongly." (Andrew Gregorovich, Forum, No. 95,

Spring, 1997, p. 34)

And so the information in the above quotation leads to several questions:

(1) As the population of The Netherlands is small, and as The Netherlands contributed the

largest number of Waffen SS divisions, this gives The Netherlands the largest per capita

contribution to the Waffen SS of any country. Would Mr. Safer conclude from this that the

people of The Netherlands are the most anti-Semitic in the world? And following the same line

of reasoning, would he conclude that the people of Belgium are the next most anti-Semitic? And

also that as the population of France is approximately equal to the population of Ukraine, and

as each of these contributed one Waffen SS division, that the French are approximately as

anti-Semitic as the Ukrainians?

(2) As Mr. Safer attacks the former members of the Galicia Division as war criminals, I wonder

why he does not attack former members of The Netherlands, Belgium, and French Waffen SS

divisions in the same way? Why does he single out the Galicia Division? How is the Galicia

Division different from the other Waffen SS divisions?

(3) If in comparison to several other countries, Ukraine contributed proportionately fewer

numbers to the Waffen SS, or to any of the German armed forces, then why didn't Mr. Safer

commend Ukrainians for their relatively small contribution to the German war effort?

(4) It would have been instructive of Mr. Safer to inform 60 Minutes viewers whether the Waffen

SS divisions of other countries were created under the same proviso that they not be used

against the Western Allies, but only against the Soviets on the Eastern Front? Perhaps

Ukrainians are to be commended again for limiting the role that their Waffen SS troops played

within the German military.

(5) Finally, given that Canada's Deschenes Commission on War Criminals failed to identify even a

single member of the Galicia Division as calling for further investigation; and given that not a

single member of the Division has ever been convicted of any crime, or even tried for any crime;

and, most importantly, given that nobody has ever specified any crime of which the Galicia

Division as a whole, or any member of the Galicia Division, might have been guilty - given all

this, it would have been instructive of Mr. Safer to inform 60 Minutes viewers whether the

Waffen SS divisions of The Netherlands, Belgium, and France have proven to be as free from blame

as has the Ukrainian Galicia Division.