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other Jews in the West; (4) Jews occupied positions of authority, and in fact can be said to
have administered the famine. Thus, Jews had ample opportunity to save Ukrainians simply by
giving them food or by sabotaging the food-confiscation process. Or, in the mass deportations
and executions, during which Jews again occupied positions of authority, there was again ample
opportunity for Jews to subvert the process and hide or save Ukrainians.
We have already seen above innumerable cases of Ukrainians saving Jews, but can we now locate a
single case of a Jew saving a Ukrainian? Simon Wiesenthal, for example, had his life saved by
the Ukrainian Bodnar, but did Simon Wiesenthal ever in his long life reciprocate by saving a
Ukrainian? We saw above that an entire Ukrainian family was shot by the Nazis for hiding a
Jewish woman, but can we find a single instance of an entire Jewish family being shot by the
Bolsheviks for hiding a Ukrainian woman? We saw above that the Ukrainian mayor of a town was
shot by the Nazis for helping Jews, but can we find a single instance of a Jewish mayor - and
there were many Jewish mayors in Ukraine - being shot by the Bolsheviks for helping Ukrainians?
We saw above Metropolitan Sheptytsky risking his life and the lives of other Ukrainians by
hiding Jews on church property, but can we find a single instance of a rabbi risking his life
and the lives of other Jews by hiding Ukrainians on synagogue property? We saw above
Metropolitan Sheptytsky writing to Himmler protesting the shooting of Jews, but can we find any
similar case of a rabbi writing to Lazar Kaganovich protesting the starvation of Ukrainians?
One would like to see a statement from Morley Safer as to the justification for this double
standard. When the most rudimentary and obvious comparisons indicate that Ukrainians have been
disposed to Jews much more favorably than Jews have been disposed to Ukrainians, how can Morley
Safer justify concluding the opposite?
CONTENTS:
Preface
The Galicia Division
Quality of Translation
Ukrainian Homogeneity
Were Ukrainians Nazis?
Simon Wiesenthal
What Happened in Lviv?
Nazi Propaganda Film
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
60 Minutes' Cheap Shots
60 Minutes peppered its broadcast with distortions and misrepresentations. Here are nineteen
miscellaneous instances:
(1) Doctoring the sound track to bring out the evil of torchlight parades. The torchlight
marchers are not a clear indication of anything, and without some enhancement, the scene would
have fallen flat, and so 60 Minutes overlaid an exaggerated, rhythmic tramping sound which added
an ominous militaristic flavor to the scene. In fact, given that it is dark and there is no
band and the marchers are not singing, it is impossible for any but local groups of them to keep
in step, and simple leather-soled or rubber-soled shoes could not have made such a sound - it
would have taken cleated boots. The rhythmic tramping superimposed by 60 Minutes continues to
be heard even when the paraders can be seen to be walking more than marching. One can see that
the added sound effects are only imperfectly coordinated with the movements of the feet.
(2) "Adolph Hitler Square". "The place they're marching in was once called Adolph Hitler
Square," Mr. Safer tells us, but does not add that it was so called by the Germans and that it
was not called that either before the Germans came or after they left.
(3) Gratuitous accusation of mimicking. Mr. Safer informs us of the marchers that "Their chants
and banners mimic another more fearsome time."
But this is absolutely gratuitous - neither the chants nor the banners are mimicking anything.
The marchers are not wearing swastika armbands and their banners do not contain Nazi symbols.
They are not chanting "Death to the Jews!" but only "Slava natsiyi!" which means "Glory to the
nation!" and is about as ominous in Ukrainian as "Vive la patrie!" is in French.
Mr. Safer's syllogism here seems to be: The Nazis sometimes held torchlight parades. These
Ukrainians are holding a torchlight parade. Therefore, all Ukrainians are Nazis.
(4) If it sounds like "Nazi," then it must be "Nazi." 60 Minutes broadcast the above-mentioned
"Slava natsiyi!" several times, but never provided a translation. But as "natsiyi" sounds like
"Nazi," this invites the listener who does not know any Slavic languages to think that something
is being said about Naziism, and the context supplied by Morley Safer suggests that this
something is complimentary.
(5) The menace of boy scouts and girl guides. Desperate for any images that to a gullible 60
Minutes audience might be suggestive of undying Naziism within Ukraine, Morley Safer presents
film clips of Ukrainian boy scouts and girl guides.
(6) Censorship through muted translation. When a Ukrainian in Lviv says "A Russian shot my
brother!" 60 Minutes mutes the English translation to the point that it is almost inaudible.
The critical viewer is left wondering whether the operating principle might not be that when a
Ukrainian says something that might win sympathy for Ukrainians, omit it; in the case where the
image has some overriding appeal (that was a pretty craggy Ukrainian, he was pretty excited, and
the lighting was wonderful), then mute the translation to the point of inaudibility.
Furthermore, in the 60 Minutes transcript of The Ugly Face of Freedom, the statement "A Russian
shot my brother!" is entirely omitted, one might imagine following this same principle of
avoiding attracting sympathy to Ukrainians.
(7) Who welcomed the Germans? Mr. Safer says that "The same square greeted Hitler's troops
fifty years ago as liberators," making this seem like another symptom of a Ukrainian addiction
to Naziism.
Of course we understand that it was not the square which greeted Hitler's troops at all, but
rather people in the square, and it was smart on Mr. Safer's part not to draw attention to the
people, because there might follow the natural question of "What people?" and the honest answer
would have to be "All people - Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews." Jews welcomed Hitler's troops?
Yes, so it would appear:
The prevailing conviction [was] that bad things came from Russia and good
things from Germany. The Jews were historically oriented away from Russia and
toward Germany; not Russia but Germany had been their traditional place of
refuge. During October and November, 1939, that conviction, among other
things, drove thousands of Jews from Russian-occupied Poland to German-occupied
Poland. The stream was not stopped until the Germans closed the border.
Similarly, one year later, at the time of Soviet mass deportations in the newly
occupied territories, [there was] widespread unrest among Ukrainians, Poles,
and Jews alike. Almost everyone was waiting for the arrival of the German
army. When the army finally arrived, in the summer of 1941, old Jews in
particular remembered that in the First World War the Germans had come as
quasi-liberators. These Jews did not expect that now the Germans would come as
persecutors and killers. (Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews,
1961, p. 206)
Upon experiencing the impulse to blame Ukrainians for welcoming the Germans, the impartial
journalist might recognize that all groups had been traumatized by their exposure to Communism,
and all hoped for relief from the Germans.
(8) Chief Rabbi of Ukraine. Although Rabbi Bleich is introduced by 60 Minutes as the "Chief
Rabbi for the Ukraine," he is in fact an American from Brooklyn, New York, perhaps unqualified
to hold such an exulted title for several reasons: (1) Rabbi Bleich is a Hasidic Jew, and so
perhaps not authorized to speak for other Jewish sects. (2) Rabbi Bleich is newly-arrived in
Ukraine carrying his full load of American-engendered prejudices, and seemingly unaware of the
history of Ukraine, or even of the contemporary situation of Jews in Ukraine. (3) Rabbi Bleich,
as of the date of the 60 Minutes broadcast, spoke some Russian, but negligible Ukrainian. Some
Ukrainians might think that one prerequisite for the post of "Chief Rabbi of Ukraine" would be
fluency in Ukrainian.
The title of "Chief Rabbi of Ukraine," then, may be viewed as being self-proclaimed and
presumptuous, and as carrying no standing within Ukraine or anywhere else. In crediting the
title, Morley Safer was just blowing up Rabbi Bleich's credentials to give his words more
weight.
(9) An observation or a hypothetical case? Rabbi Bleich is shown saying, "Obviously, if someone
- you know? - screams 'Let's drown the Russians in Jewish blood!' there isn't too much love lost
there."
Yes, if anyone did scream such a thing, we might safely infer that the screamer was motivated by
a hatred of both Russians and Jews (even though we wouldn't be able to conclude much about
anybody other than the screamer). But in fact Rabbi Bleich does not claim that anybody ever did
scream such a thing. The 60 Minutes viewer is left with the impression that Rabbi Bleich was
reporting something that he witnessed, but his wording commits him to nothing more than
contemplating a hypothetical case.
(10) Lenin's Jewish ancestors. After interviewing the editor of Lviv's daily For a Free
Ukraine, 60 Minutes cuts to Rabbi Bleich saying "There's an article that came out just two weeks
ago where they tried to prove that Lenin was really Jewish...." The impression created is that
this article was published in For a Free Ukraine, and that For a Free Ukraine is a major
newspaper in Western Ukraine's major city.
In fact, however, "there's an article that came out" does not precisely inform us where the
article was published. Perhaps it was published in Ukraine's equivalent of a supermarket
tabloid. Perhaps it wasn't published at all, but only circulated in pamphlets. Perhaps it's
just a rumor and nobody can produce such an article. But even if published in For a Free
Ukraine - so what?
A higher standard of journalism than that exhibited by 60 Minutes would have reported who was
the author of this article, what position he holds in Ukrainian society, how good were his data
and his arguments, where was the article published, about how many people may have read it, does
anyone believe it, does it alter anybody's attitudes toward contemporary Jews even if they do
believe it? - But of course such questions weren't answered, and we are left able to conclude no
more than that Rabbi Bleich wishes us to believe in the existence of a virulent Ukrainian
anti-Semitism.
The Bleich statement is representative of a large number of statements in which events are
referred to obliquely, indirectly, vaguely - and on this basis, the viewer is invited to jump to
some strong conclusion. "I get the impression from people...." says Mr. Safer. Now there's a
lazy substitute for investigative reporting! What people? Why can't we see these people for
ourselves? Perhaps they are just a couple of cronies of Mr. Safer's whose company he prizes
because they are as bigoted as himself. And what do we care what one or two of Mr. Safer's
friends think? 60 Minutes should show its viewers the data on which these people are basing
their conclusions and let the viewers draw their own conclusions. But this is not what 60
Minutes did - its broadcast was short on data and long on instructions on how to feel.
(11) Morley Safer, genetic theorist. Mr. Safer tells us that "The Church and Government of
Ukraine have tried to ease people's fears, suggesting that ... Ukrainians, despite the
allegations, are not genetically anti-Semitic."
Here we see a new escalation in the level of irrationality with Mr. Safer now divulging to us
the existence of the allegation that Ukrainians are genetically anti-Semitic. For an
anti-Semitism which Mr. Safer failed to document, he now suggests a cause from the fairyland of
pseudoscience, and suggests furthermore that the Church and Government of Ukraine have dignified
this charge by denying it. That Ukrainians are pronouncedly anti-Semitic, Mr. Safer takes as a
given requiring no corroborative evidence, and so he shifts attention to speculating as to how
they could have gotten that way.
Perhaps Morley Safer will appreciate how bizarre and inflammatory his statement is when its
direction is reversed: "The World Jewish Congress has tried to ease the growth of
anti-Semitism, suggesting that Jews, despite the allegations, are not genetically predisposed to
usury." Now if Mr. Safer had heard that on Ukrainian television, he could have brought it back
as very good evidence not only of Ukrainian anti-Semitism, but of Ukrainian irrationality as
well - but he didn't hear any such thing during his visit to Ukraine, and he brought back
nothing. To encounter that degree of hatred and that level of irrationality, you have to leave
Ukraine for the United States and tune in to 60 Minutes.
(12) Church of Ukraine. But even while rebutting Mr. Safer's main point, I have been carelessly
adopting his slovenly terminology. "Church of Ukraine"? What "Church of Ukraine"? There is no
"Church of Ukraine" any more than there is a "Church of Canada" or a "Church of the United
States." Ukraine has more than one variety of Orthodox church, more than one variety of
Catholic church, more than one variety of Protestant church; and Ukraine has as well a full
slate of non-Christian religions. It even has agnostics and atheists just like a real
country.
Thus it is not only in his big lies, but also in his small misstatements that Mr. Safer reveals
to us that his perception of Ukraine is uninformed, indeed wholly stereotypical. To him,
perhaps all Ukrainians conform to some archetypal image - wielding a saber, hard-drinking,
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