The Yaroslav Hunka case 2023
The Yaroslav Hunka case
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| Yaroslav Hunka united with his mother after 43 years, Ukraine 1989. |
Not love for Germans, but hatred of Soviets.....
My enemy's enemy is my friend....
In 2023 the Ukrainian people fought in a war against Russian occupation and invasion.
During 1939-45 the Ukrainian people fought in a war against Russian occupation and invasion.
In both instances it was a fight for freedom and independence. Many Ukrainian soldiers died, alongside innocent civilians, both Ukrainian (of all races) and eefugees, through accident or intent. The latter non-combatants were the tragic, yet ubiquitous and increasingly common, collateral damage of modern warfare, with, for example, the Jewish people specifically targeted by the Nazis, though other races and groups within the Ukraine and beyond suffered due to personal, political and societal discrimination, both in WWII and more recently. Just prior to WWII, in fact, some 5 million Ukrainians had died as a result of starvation brought on by the Soviets under Stalin (War Academy 2022). Ukrainian hatred of Russia ran deep leading up to 1939. NB: In this articles Ukrainians are any resident of Ukraine who identifies as Ukrainian, regardless of their heritage.
During WWII the Russians were responsible for crimes against humanity, including against those in the Ukraine region and the adjacent Poland and Galicia. For example, in March 1940 Stalin and other Soviet leaders put in place a decree which resulted in the murder of 22,000 Polish soldiers in what has become known as the Kaytn Massacre (Molski 2022). But it is the activities of the German Nazis and their atrocities and war crimes in association with the Holocaust program across Europe that are most often recalled. In any listing of barbarities and cruelties there is no doubt that the Holocaust is at the top of the list, seconded only by the actions of the Japanese in China southeast Asia. But below those two is a long list of unrelated atrocities, including massacres, killings, imprisonments and torture of both military personnel and civilians.
It is no easy task to identify the various factions at any given point in history, and outline the changing alliances and allegiances during the WWI and WWII decades. To do so in 2023 is almost impossible. In 2023 how does one, for example, define a Nazi? It is a loose term which is now thrown around more often, whether it be in reference to black-shirted, one-arm saluting young men protesting women rights rallies in Australia, or a 98 year old former Ukrainian WWII veteran in Canada. With traditional political divisions between the so-called Left and Right breaking down and becoming more diffuse in an era of Wokism and Cancel Culture, labels such as Nazi are being applied with scant reference to any precise definition. It is not as easy as it was for the Blues Brothers back in 1977, when you could simply tell Nazis by their Swastika paraphernalia, brown shirts, and Aryan supremacy rhetoric.
Jake & Elwood confront Illinois Nazis, The Blues Brothers, 1977.
Canadian Nazis
The political controversy involving the Canadian parliament on Friday, 22 September 2023 around the role of 98 year old Ukrainian Yaroslav Hunka (b.1925) in fighting against the Russians during World War II and supporting the Ukrainian independence movement through to the present day, reveals the complications of history and aspects of the distorted media presentation and reaction which is common in modern day journalism and society. Therein, history is not presented with any comprehensive context, giving rise to the spread of misinformation and, with it, dire consequences for all concerned (Martyniuk 2023).
The present author looked on with disinterest from afar as events played out and media reporting appeared full of truth, lies, and distortion, especially on the part of second-hand analyses through social media such as YouTube and Twitter / X. It soon became obvious that the truth was a victim to a story which happened to involve both Nazis and the Holocaust, and was therefore immediately heightened to a level of controversy prior to any specific evidence being raised against Yaroslav Hunka, the man at the centre of the controversy. His role during his youth as a Ukrainian freedom-fighter was ignored. It was a typical case of trial by media, and the assumption of guilt rather than innocence. The political turmoil involving the Canadian government overtook any attempt to reveal the truth behind the incident.
Both the Nuremberg War Trials of 1945-6 and a 1985-6 Canadian War Crimes Tribunal had looked into aspects of this matter and generally came down on the side of individual Ukrainian patriots, whilst noting various atrocities which took place with the involvement of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, which was the special Ukrainian force put together in 1943 to fight the Russians. The division was ultimately found guilty of war crimes by the tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946, and later by the Head Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, and the Institute of History at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. However, no surviving members were ever declared war criminals or subject to conviction. This latter aspect was ignored when the Canadian Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs made accusations against Hunka on Monday, 25 September 2023 and, as a results, the politicians panicked. There was no push back against the Institute's allegations or inflammatory statements, despite evidence to the contrary. Why? Did the Institute members not know the facts or historic context, or were they merely seeking to inflame a situation in pursuit of their own political agenda? In seeking to ignore and hide historical facts, President Trudeau and the media simply exacerbated the problem - a problem which had been addressed in some detail during 1945-6 and 1985-6.
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| Presidents Zelensky and Trudeau recognize Ukrainian Canadians and Yaroslav Hunka. |
A chronological presentation of the known facts behind the case and the subsequent controversy is outlined below. It is clear that Ukrainian involvement in WWII was complex, and a brief media grab in 2023 cannot do it justice. Ukrainians, at various stages, worked with the Russians, the Germans, the Allies and independently, all with the aim of securing their independence upon cessation of the hostilities. Whose side were they on? Ultimately nobody's but their own, as is also the case in 2023.
Was Hunka a Nazi war criminal? As it stood on 22 September 2023, no evidence for that was presented. Was he a member of an SS regiment? Yes, alongside tens of thousands of fellow Ukrainians who signed on to fight the Russians between 1943-45. Did the division engage in the killing of people other than Russian? Yes, it appears so. Some of those were fighting alongside the Russians; others were not, or were associated, in some instances, with traditional rivalries within Ukrainian society. It should also be remembered that at the time the Poles were seen by some as the enemies of an independent Ukraine, having taken control of the country during 1921 in a pact with the Russians. In such a volatile political and social environment as existed during WWII, and its lead up, it is easy to see how, more than eight decades later, its complexities become incomprehensible to those seeking a simple 30 second media grab or line of Twitter text.
Did the Canadian politicians stuff up? Yes, they did, when they did not stand their ground and defend their actions based on historical fact, not on short-term, ill-informed media accusations and the emotive accusations of the Canadian Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs through the following statement:
We are deeply troubled & disturbed that a Ukrainian veteran of the infamous 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the Nazi SS - which actively participated in the genocide of Jews - was celebrated with a standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament. #Canada's Jewish community stands firmly with #Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression. But we can't stay silent when crimes committed by Ukrainians during the Holocaust are whitewashed.
The question must be asked: Why did the Centre refuse to accept the reality of Ukrainian nationalism during WWII, yet support it in 2023? Why would it make the above statement which was tantamount to declaring Hunka a war criminal when it had no specific evidence to back that up, just the general knowledge of the Holocaust and its horror, and of the role of the 14th Waffen-SS during WWII? You may say that the latter was all that is need. But it is not that simple, and will never be so.
There was no evidence at the time that Hunka committed any crimes, as stated. It may prove that Hunka has a case to answer. But, as it stood at the time of his presence in the parliament, there was no evidence for that, and therefore no need for a subsequent apology by the Speaker of the parliament. It was as though Trudeau and the Speaker were apologizing for the German Holocaust. The fact that Hunka happened to have been a member of a Ukrainian regiment which came under the auspices of the German SS does not, by default, make him a Nazi or a war criminal. The reality of the circumstances surrounding the formation and operation of that army division points to the special case against such a broad accusation. And this special case has been recognised by government and tribunals since 1945.
Hopefully the truth will win out here, though the damage has been done. How can a 98 year old man explain to a modern audience the complexities of the situation he and thousands of other Ukrainians found themselves in during the war of 1939-45? It is easy for descendants of Holocaust victims to make accusations, and to remind the world of the horrors of WWII. But there were lesser horrors before and after WWII, and they continue to this day. It is important to reflect on historical events, but not to simplify or distort them or recast them in a modern day context. This is part of the problem with the Ukrainian issue, as there are still claims of Nazis in that country, and, as such, the wounds suffered by groups such as the Jews are still festering. Therefore, the raising of the Holocaust and the threat of Nazism is very common, and will remain so into the future. But there are Nazis, as existed during the period of the Third Reich, and there are Nazis. To say that every person who served in a German army regiment during WWII was a Nazi, and a war criminal, is not based on all the factual evidence. If Hunka is shown to be a mere patriot, fighting for the liberation of his country and comrades, as is believed by all the evidence at hand as of 22 September 2023, then apologies would be due, but no doubt will never be forthcoming. In fact, even the suggestion that Hunka was not a Nazi, but a patriot, was basically not even raised by the media in association with this issue. It was as though they were either ignorant or afraid to do so because of the backlash they know they would have received. Trudeau was in a similar position.
The Holocaust is an historical fact, as are the barbarities practices by the Germans under Adolf Hitler. That can never be denied. The existence of Yaroslav Hunka does not deny this. Hunka's own 2011 statement of his experiences during WWII is presented below. It is testimony which should have featured in the Canadian political scandal debate, but did not. When Justin Trudeau spoke to the world and associated Hunka with all the German atrocities of WWII, he was playing politics, with scant regard for the historical facts in this case. He was also a denier of Ukrainian nationalism at the same time as he was standing side by side with President Zelensky and supporting the same cause in 2023. What a spineless hypocrite! The fight of the people of Ukraine against invasion, oppression and atrocities leading up to, during, and after WWII at the hands of the Russians and Germans is just as much an historical fact as the Holocaust and the plight of the Jewish people and other groups identified by the Nazis for killing. Neither should be ignored or denied. Both sides have legitimate cases to bring, and neither side should cast aside the other. Millions died under the Germans, and a lesser, though significant number died under Stalin's Soviet regime. This should not be a fight as to which was worst. Whenever an individual innocent life was lost, then that is tragic and deserves recognition. War is hell, and outside of war there is hell as well.....
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A chronology of events
The following listing focuses on the fight by Ukraine for an independent state, and the experiences, where known, of Yaroslav Hunka.
1918
* The Second Polish Republic (1918-1939) was created, comprising Poland, Galicia and the western Ukraine.
1920-21
* The Polish-Soviet war results in the Peace of Riga of 21 May 1921 in which Poland takes control of western Ukraine and Russia takes control of central and eastern Ukraine.
1922
* Russia creates the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1922-1991).
1929
* A Ukrainian resistance movement is formed called the OUN - the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists. It seeks independence from Poland and Russia, and the creation of a Ukraine nation state.
1933
* Soviet-induced famine in the Ukraine kills 5 million people.
1939
* September 1939 - a German and Russian alliance invades the Second Polish Republic. Russian troops invade the Ukraine from the east, and Germans invade Poland from the west. Polish refugees flee to Ukraine.
- The Russians subsequently carry out mass killings, repression, and exile many Ukrainians - young and old - to prisons and work camps in Siberia. Atrocities are carried out by the Russians under the leadership of Stalin.
- Yaroslav Hunka is a 14 year old school boy at the time of the Russian invasion.
1941
* July 1941 - Russia breaks its alliance with Germany and joins the Allies.
- The Germans push the Russians out of the Ukraine / Galicia. They are initially seen by many Ukrainians as saviors, following the period of Russian occupation and Stalin's activities against the local people. Ukrainians are largely unaware of the atrocities being carried out by the Germans, especially against the Jews in Poland, though they soon come to know the barbarity of the Germans under Hitler. The OUN has specific right and left wing factions. Hitler considers native Ukrainians as related to the Aryan race and does not identify them as part of the Europe-wide Holocaust program.
- Between 1941-43 Hunka enjoys life as a young teenager, with the Germans not treating the Ukrainian people in a similar barbaric way as the Russians had done. The Germans nevertheless continued their Holocaust program throughout Europe, including against specific groups in the Ukraine, including Polish refugees and Jewish Ukrainians.
1943
* In 1943 the Germans require more soldiers to fight against the Russians. They decide to form army and police divisions utilising Ukrainians and Galicians. Many young Ukrainians subsequently join this unit known as the 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division “Galicia” which was formed in the Ukraine and Galicia on 28 April 1943. 80,000+ Ukrainians volunteered for service under the Germans, of which 53,000+ served and 13,000+ within the 14th Waffen-SS division. Some also served in the 30th Waffen-SS division, which later defected to the French resistance early in 1944. With the support of the Ukrainian independence groups, those who served with the 14th Division largely comprised patriots seeking to ensure that Russia does not permanently occupy the Ukraine and that it becomes an independent country following the end of the war. The Germans made three concessions in setting up the army division:
- Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church chaplains were included, unlike every other SS division apart from the Bosnian.
- The division would not be used to fight Western Allies, but exclusively to "fight Bolsheviks".
- The division would not be subject to any Nazi indoctrination.
- Ukrainian historian Mykola Posivnych has noted the following:
They [the soldiers of the First Ukrainian Division] identified with the fight for an independent Ukraine. In 1943, [when they joined forces with Nazi Germany], the world was still unaware of the full extent of Nazi atrocities. Only later, when the Western Allies entered the Nazi concentration camps in 1945, the world discovered the full extent of Hitler’s crimes.
1944
- Ukrainian soldiers fought in a number of battles alongside the Germans against the Russian army. Many are killed.
1945
- 17 March 1945 - the division is renamed the First Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army.
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| Ukrainian WWII veteran Yaroslav Hunka in the 1940s, standing in the center. Photo: Visti Kombatanta. |
- 10 May 1945 - survivors of the First Ukrainian Division travelled west, away from the Russians, and surrendered to the British Army. They were placed in Italian prisoner of war camps. This included Yaroslav Hunka. An account of his activities during WWII are included below in 2011 reminiscences.
- The Ukrainians negotiated with the British to ensure that they were not turned over to the Russians. They agreed, and ensure their repatriation to Commonwealth countries such as Britain, Canada and Australia.
1945-6
* Nuremberg War Crimes Trials:
Although soldiers of the First Ukrainian Division faced accusations of killing civilian Poles and Jews, the Nuremberg Tribunal did not find the unit guilty of any war crimes (Martyniuk 2023).
- According to the Wikipedia entry for the First Ukrainian Division / 14th Waffen SS, it was involved in numerous murders, massacres, and atrocities.
1947
- Following release from the Italian prisoner of war camp at Rimini, a list of 8,000 ex-soldiers is drawn up and approximately 2,000 former First Ukrainian Division veterans subsequently emigrated to Canada, including Yaroslav Hunka. The American Jewish National Congress opposed this at the time, and subsequently.
1963
* John A. Armstrong, Ukrainian Nationalism, Columbia University Press, New York, 1963, 170–175. Notes the absence of Nazi indoctrination in the Galician Division of the SS regiment in which Hunka served.
1977
* Michael O. Logusz, Galicia Division: The Waffen-SS 14th Grenadier Division 1943-45, Schiffer Publishing, 1977, 592p.
1985-6
* Canada War Crimes Tribunal: Canada initiated an independent investigation into the alleged presence of Nazi war criminals who had immigrated to Canada after World War II. In 1985, the government established the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada, commonly known as the Deschênes Commission, to investigate these allegations. The Commission conducted extensive hearings over nearly two years, interviewing witnesses and reviewing evidence. Ultimately, the Deschênes Commission concluded that none of the members of the First Ukrainian Division who had settled in Canada were found guilty of committing war crimes during their service in World War II (Martyniuk 2023).
- The Canadian Deschênes Commission of October 1986 concluded [Report 1986] that the Galicia division should not be indicted as a group. (Wikipedia)
1991
* 🇺🇦 Ukraine declares independence from the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1922-1991) is dissolved.
2000
* Howard Margolian, Unauthorized Entry: The Truth about Nazi War Criminals in Canada, 1946–1956, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2000, 132–145.
2011
* Monday, 21 March 2011. Yaroslav Hunka publishes a reminiscences outlining his activities during WWII (the original is in the Ukrainian language. The following is a Google translation):
My Generation - Memories.
Yaroslav Hunka, Canada.
My generation was united by two great forces: faith in God and love for Ukraine. We grew up on the glorious and proud land of Berezhansk. We trampled this land with our bare feet and breathed into our souls and hearts its magical aromas, and our eyes forever recorded the beauty of the cities, villages and landscapes of our native land on memory tapes. My generation became the heir of the glorious sons of this land, our predecessors. Her glorious sons and guests sowed the land of Berezhan with their powerful words: Fr. M. Shashkevich, Andrii Chaikivskyi, Fr. Sylvester Lepky, Lev Lepky, Roman Kupchynskyi, and Bohdan Lepky.
Who among us has not sung fighting songs by Roman Kupchynskyi, Levko and Bohdan Lepky since kindergarten? The song "How from Berezhan to the cadre" was probably sung by our mothers over the cradle. The battlefields of the [German army against the Russians] near the villages of Konyukha, Kuropatniki, Posukhiv, Vilkhovets and Potutory captured our young fantasies about the heroes of our people.
Mount Lysonya was a holy place for us teenagers. We not only went to her "barefoot", but stepped on her with bare feet out of a sense of holiness and boundless pride. The spirit of this mountain, like some strange radiation, permeated my soul and all my senses. I also had a native hero of whom I was very proud - this is my father's older brother, Hryhoriy Hunka, who fought in the ranks of the [German army] SSS.
My native village of Urman, it seemed to me then, was the most nationally conscious village in the district. The flame of national revival, in the years between the two wars [1918-1939], shone brightly over the village. The church and reading room "Prosvita" became the central engine of the national life of the village under the parental guidance of priests: fathers Omelyan Havryshko and Stepan Horodetskyi. The village had a "cooperative" consumer store, a library, a choir, a "Lug" youth society, a kindergarten and a drama club. The last group gave 4-5 performances a year in the reading room.
We all (Dorist) knew that there was also an underground organization of nationalists in the village - the OUN - but we did not know who belonged to it. We imagined that all the older boys and some girls must belong there, because they often whispered to each other.
The OUN had considerable influence on people's behavior and the general life of the village. When the OUN directive was issued not to buy either alcohol or tobacco, because this was a monopoly of the Polish state, none of the young people either smoked nor drank alcohol (would today's Ukrainian citizen achieve such a commitment?). Even my grandfather, who smoked all his life, stopped smoking. I have never seen alcohol in our house, nor in the house of my mother's relatives (the Yakims), and in the village - never a drunk person.
[Russian Occupation]
September, 1939 - I am fourteen years old. The Polish army and the civilian population are fleeing along the road in the direction of Berezhan in a continuous roll, and German planes are catching up with them from time to time. Every day we looked impatiently in the direction of the Pomoryans with the hope that those mystical German knights who give "bullets" to the hated cowards will appear. One day, instead of them, a column of [Russian] horsemen with red stars on their caps arrived from Berezhan.
Education at the school in Berezhany became free and my father sent me to school there. I stayed in a Polish bursa and started going to the fifth grade. The vast majority of young people at the school were, like me, from the villages of the district. The language of instruction at school was Ukrainian.
Russian language lectures were also taught by a Pole. He was old, tall, noble in character and carried himself proudly. He treated us like a good grandfather, and we soon fell in love with him. He was not with us for long. One very winter day in January 1940, he, one boy and one girl from the class were summoned and two Russian NKVD officers led them "under escort" directly to the railway station, where their families, who had been brought from the villages at night, were already loaded into the wagons. I did not know that my beloved aunt and uncle Kobrin from Konyukh with their children Stefa and Volodymyr were also on that train (Stefa, my age, died that winter near Irkutsk). This was the first demonstration of "father" Stalin's guardianship over us - the first exile of "enemies of the people" to Siberia. More and more new ones followed.
For the next school year, I moved to live in the Ukrainian Bursa on Raiska Street, where Professor Mykhailo Rebryk was the manager. In my sixth grade, out of forty students, there were six Ukrainians, two Poles, and the rest were Jewish children of refugees from Poland. We wondered why they were running away from such a civilized Western nation as the Germans.
Arrests by the Russians continued in the city and in the villages, and people - "enemies of the people" - were taken to Siberia. This did not escape the schools and bursa. One Saturday, the director of the Tkachuk school called three tenth-grade students from the bursa, and no one saw them again.
Fear of the unknown enveloped us and the entire nation. The terror of Moscow Communism raged over the Berezhansk land. The NKVD had eyes and ears everywhere. Friend to friend and brother to brother could not speak sincerely for fear of betrayal. The worst thing is that the viper who terrorized us spoke our native language. Each time, a larger part of the population became "enemies of the people". At school, we had to sing praises to our executioners, and the monthly wall newspapers that each class had to publish praised Father Stalin and the Communist Party to the heavens.
[German Occupation]
In July 1941, the German army occupied Berezhany. We welcomed the German soldiers with joy. Narid felt a thaw, knowing that there would no longer be that dreaded knocking on the door in the middle of the night, and at least it would be possible to sleep peacefully now.
After entering Berezhan, the Germans occupied the new gymnasium under the administrative building, and our classes were moved to the old traditional place - the second floor of the town hall. The new "liberator" of the Ukrainian people - Führer Hitler - reigned over the Berezhansk land. Portraits of Hitler in a long overcoat with a raised collar covering his menacing face with small, as if artificially attached whiskers under his sharp nose, and with the inscription "Hitler-liberator" hung in each classes.
The Führer immediately revealed his plans for Ukraine, liquidating the provisional Ukrainian government in Lviv and imprisoning Ukrainian leaders in concentration camps. A new wave of arrests followed.
It was easier to confront the new enemy because: a) he was easy to recognize, b) he spoke a foreign language to us, and c) he did not permeate our society with politics, as the Muscovite did. In the gymnasium, science took place in a national spirit with lectures on religion. We could freely talk to each other about various topics, including politics, without any fear. Now Professor Mykhailo Rebrik became the strictest, who decided to raise us all to be perfect gentlemen, which was impossible to do!
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) organized its cells in the gymnasium and embraced many young people. I just turned 16, and the next two years were the happiest years of my life. I had no idea that what I experienced in those two years would fill me with love for my native city in such a way that it would be enough for me for the rest of my life. I didn't know then that dreams about those two years, about the company of charming girls, about carelessly cheerful friends, about fragrant evenings in the luxurious castle park and walks around the city would help me get through the anxious times of the following years. That the memories of the Berezhansk Gymnasium in the old town hall, with its professors and with its increasingly cheerful and noisy students, would support my heart and soul in a foreign land in the coming decades.
[1943] The forty-third year has come. The German armies "planned" retreating to the west. The thought of the return of those beasts in human form with a red star on their forehead became real. Time and events said that it was my generation's turn to follow in the footsteps of its predecessors. And it was for the sake of the idea of Cathedral Ukraine. Our roads were different - because that was the fate of our stateless people.
At the call of the OUN, many joined the ranks of the Ukrainian Insurgent Party (UPA). Others, at the call of the Ukrainian Central Committee, went as volunteers to the "Galichyna" division. In two weeks, eighty thousand volunteers volunteered to join the division, including many students of the Berezhan Gymnasium. None of us asked what our reward would be, what our provision would be, or even what our tomorrow would be. We felt our duty to our native land - and left!
Many students of the Berezhansk Gymnasium died a heroic death in the ranks of the UPA and in the "Galichyna" division. I do not want the reader to understand that my entire generation was ideologically motivated and spiritually conscious. "In a bag of healthy apples, there are also rotten ones." It will depend on the relationship between those two qualities of apples in the course of a given generation.
On the last day of the war, the "Galichyna" division broke contact with the Czech Republic in Styria (Austria) and surrendered to the British Army. In the prisoner of war camp in Italy, I met many boys from different villages of the Berezhan region. I remember that Yaroslav Babunyak, Stepan Kuzurusa, Yaroslav Lototskyi, Lev Baglai, Volodymyr Bilyk, Ostap Sokolskyi, Lev Babii, Yaroslav Ivakhiv were there from the Berezhan Gymnasium.
I think that it was God's will that we should travel around the world like the tribe of Israel, tell the world about Ukraine, and forty-five years later come to it with help. Our mission was difficult, because the world knew very little about us, and what it did know, it was falsely presented by our neighbors. For a Westerner, all the way east from Warsaw to Japan was a lonely "Russia". Slowly, through hard work, personal contacts and cultural behavior, we attracted the general opinion of the Western peoples to "our side". Being separated by an iron curtain from one's native land for almost half a century is a very long time in a person's life. A foreigner, and how friendly, rich and humane she is, has a great power of attraction. One could even forgive those who lost their identity in such circumstances and got "lost". She went through Western Europe, England and Canada.
My first trip to Ukraine was in September 1989. No one and nothing can prepare a person for those emotionally shocking experiences that he has to endure when he comes face to face with his native land and earth after such a long time of separation. "Berezhany - You are the best city in the world! "- for many who spent their youth there. - "You were their dream for years in distant foreign lands. Who brought You to such decline and ruin? Who destroyed our dreams?"
The paths of our childhood were overgrown with weeds, and the roads became impassable. The castle, which was the pride of the city for many generations and a lure for lovers, lay abandoned in ruins. From the famous Berezhansky pond, a big smelly calabanya remained. The same fate befell my beloved Urmansky pond. Out of desperation, I wanted to go to Mount Storozhysko and weep at the top of my voice over the shattered long-term dreams and over the ruins of Lepkov's "Best City in the World". What evil force has been walking here for the past half century?!
This obvious ruin of the environment, however, pales in comparison with the spiritual decay of the people. The commanding Godless Communist system drove a person into a hopeless situation and it was visible in her sad eyes. The "Soviet" person surrendered to his fate, believing that he was powerless to have any influence on his life. In such a helpless situation, this person surrendered to extreme indifference. This indifference was observed at every step of life. Man became indifferent to his environment, to the needs and pains of his neighbor - "one's neighbor".
It was not easy for me to leave Ukraine, both after my first visit to my native land in 1989 with my eldest son Martyn and daughter-in-law Tereza, and after my second visit with my younger son Peter in 1991. A profitable and affluent life in Canada has become not very attractive. The soul gravitated to its own, albeit impoverished, native nest, to its land.
"I love you, my native land
As if to my mother, I am angry,
You cry - and I cry,
You laugh - and I laugh."
(Vasyl Grange-Donsky)
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2016
* Michael James Melnyk, The History of the Galician Division of the Waffen SS, Volume I - On the Eastern Front, April 1943 to July 1944; Volume II - Stalin's Nemesis, Fonthill Media, 2016, 400p & 368p.
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2020
* In 2020, the Ukrainian Supreme Court ruled that symbols of the SS Division Galicia do not belong to the Nazis and were not banned in the country. (Wikipedia)
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2021
* Sol Littman, Pure Soldiers or Sinister Legion: The Ukrainian 14th Waffen SS Division, Black Rose Books, 2021, 264p.
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2022
* Ukrainian SS Mutiny - France 1944, Mark Felton Production, 26 February 2022, YouTube, duration: 8.57 minutes.
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* Ukrainian Waffen-SS: the Galician division, History Hustle, 23 April 2022, YouTube, duration: 16.31 minutes.
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* Hitler's Ukranian Division: 14th Waffen SS Galizian Grenadier Division, War Academy, YouTube, 10 October 2022, duration: 11.27 minutes.
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* David McCormack, The Galician Division 1943-45 - Ukrainian Volunteers and Conscripts in the the Waffen-SS, Fonthill Media, 2022.
* Felix Molski, Katyn - Siberia - Smolensk: Lessons from History - Truth, Liberty, Tyranny, The Author, Sefton, 2022, 177p.
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2023
* Myroslav Shkramdrij, In the Maelstrom: The Waffen-SS Galician Division and its legacy, McGill-Queens University Press, April 2023, 488p. Interview with Shkramdrij, YouTube, duration: 49.37 minutes.
* Ukrainian SS in Britain - Postwar SS-Galizien Division Refugees, Mark Felton Productions, 14 June 2023, YouTube, duration: 14.39 minutes. 8,000 Ukrainian division refugees settled in Britain after the war. Reveals the complicated social, political and nationalist circumstances of the Ukrainians who served during the German occupation. Following their arrival in the UK many subsequently served as spies in Eastern Europe and Russia.
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Friday, 22 September 2023
- Ukraine president Boris Zelensky speaks to the Canadian House of Commons.
- Yaroslav Hunka is invited to the event by the Speaker of the House, Anthony Rota, along with other Ukrainian Canadians. He is to be used to show the historic link between the Ukrainian fight against Stalin's Russia during WWII and the present Ukrainian war against Russian under Vladimir Putin.
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| Ukrainian WWII veteran Yaroslav Hunka in the Canadian Parliament with Speaker Rota. |
- Following Zelensky's speech, the Speaker makes the following reference to Hunka in the gallery, at which point he and the other Ukrainian Canadians present receive a standing ovation from the floor of the parliament:
We have here in the chamber today Ukrainian Canadians, and a Ukrainian Canadian veteran from the Second World War who fought the Ukrainian independence from the Russians and continues to support the troops today, even at his age of 98..... He's a Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service.
Canadian parliament gives standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka and others, 22 September, YouTube, duration: 1.34 minutes.
- President Trudeau and President Zelensky both participate in the ovation.
Monday, 25 September 2023
- The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Canada, makes the following posting on Twitter / X:
We are deeply troubled & disturbed that a Ukrainian veteran of the infamous 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the Nazi SS - which actively participated in the genocide of Jews - was celebrated with a standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament. #Canada's Jewish community stands firmly with #Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression. But we can't stay silent when crimes committed by Ukrainians during the Holocaust are whitewashed.
- Speaker Rota apologises regarding the Hunka incident.
- Euhenia Martyniuk, The complicated truth about Yaroslav Hunka / Fact Check: Did the Canadian parliament really invite a NAZI?, Euromaiden, 25 September 2023. This article outlines in some historical detail the background to the Hunka issue and the argument for Hunka as a Ukrainian patriot. It pushes back against the Institute's accusations.
Tuesday, 26 September 2023
- Claudia Chiappa and Kyle Duggan, Poland seeks extradition of Ukrainian SS veteran who was applauded in Canada, Politico, 26 September 2023. The Polish government launches an investigation into the discovery of any information which may support the extradition of Hunka from Canada for war crimes. There is no known specific information at present.
- Alexander Pope, Polish minister launches attempt to extradite Yaroslav Hunka from Canada, Jewish Chronicle, 26 September 2023.
- The Speaker of the House of Commons resigns, taking full responsibility for the Hunka Affair.
- President Trudeau declares that the Hunka affair is part of a Russian media campaign. No evidence is presented.
- Trudeau blames Nazi ovation on Russian propaganda, The Hill - Rising, YouTube, 27 September 2023, duration: 11.12 minutes.
Thursday, 28 September 2023
- The Redacted YouTube channel presents Hunka as a Nazi war criminal, with no obvious knowledge of the historical background. All subsequent commentary is based on this assumed guilt.
Trudeau disappears from Ottawa, 28 September 2023, YouTube, duration: 12.04 minutes.
- How did a Ukrainian who fought for a Nazi unit end up in Parliament?, CBC News, 28 September 2023, duration: 19.52 minutes. Historical analysis of the issue, with a decided bent towards the Nazi element of the Ukrainian division's actions, and no reference to the fight for Ukrainian nationalism as the overriding factor.
Friday, 29 September 2023
* University of Alberta closes down a $30,000 Hunka fund which supported Ukrainian studies, due to the publicity surrounding him.
University of Alberta closes Hunka fund, YouTube, 29 September 2023.
- Myroslav Shkramdrij, What is the Waffen-SS Galicia Division?, Canadian Institute of Ukranian Studies, YouTube, 29 September 2023, duration: 16.00 minutes.
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* Saturday, 30 September 2023
- Ashley Burke, Family of man who fought in Nazi unit unaware Hunka would be honored in parliament, friend says, CBC News, 30 September 2023.
- Nazigate, The Grayzone, YouTube, 30 September 2023, duration: 87.34 minutes.
Last updated: 12 October 2023
Michael Organ, Australia
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