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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.
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