His SS division’s history wasn’t about Ukrainian independence. It was formed by Nazis in 1943 when everyone knew that Nazis were slaughtering people. It was formed after all the ghettos inside Lviv, Galicia’s main city, and Ternipol, in this old man’s home oblast, were built and had been running for years. It was formed after Jews, who were 44% of Ternipol’s population, were dragged from their homes to be publicly shamed, beaten and evicted in the pogroms. It was formed after the Final Solution began. It was formed after mass deportations, slave labour, after the ill, elderly or orphaned were shot in the streets of the place he lived. It was formed after the mass graves of all those victims and more were exhumed and their bodies burned in open-air pits. This man had functional eyes and ears at the very least, because the Nazis did not like people with disabilities, and he knew what he was signing up for because he was living in the middle of it. Every major town surrounding his birthplace had ghettos and were already sending people by train to the death camps. He didn’t choose a charitable hypothetical peaceful Ukrainian autonomy, he and 53,000 other people volunteered to fight for the new unit of an army who were very publicly killing and torturing the majority of the people around him.
And, this wasn’t about a Ukrainian group allied to the Nazis to achieve long-term independence for Ukrainians. They were voluntary Nazis under direct Nazi control fighting for greater Nazi control in countries outside of Ukraine. This man could have changed allegiance at any point if he had been naive and somehow swindled into committing atrocities for Nazis instead of Ukrainian Independence. Atrocities like the Huta Pieniacka massacre where his division committed 500 murders of civilians by grenading the town. Where, assuming he was with his unit at the time and not in hospital, he murdered civilians too.
This is about the active celebration of Nazis to the point where the highest courts in Ukraine are granting exemptions to their own anti-Nazi laws because the Nazis didn’t “own” the symbols, as though they “owned” the Swastika. This indicates a huge systemic Nazi problem.
And for Canada to find itself failing to even check what the guy was actually veteran of, and applaud him on the world stage for his service… no. The Canadian government, the MP who invited him, the old man himself, the Ukrainian nationalists marching in the streets waving politely heiling Hitler during the embroidery marches, the judge granting exemptions, they all have agency and have freely chosen Nazis.
And you, for reasons I can’t fathom beyond “it’s important to consider the reason they chose Nazis”, are determined to give actual proven verified Nazis the benefit of the doubt and positing entire hypothetical storylines that might give an innocent explanation and plausible deniability to them choosing to be a Nazi and cheer on blatant Nazis.
Giving Nazis the benefit of the doubt is what got us a Holocaust in the first place.
It’s not about banning crowns or lions or the colours blue and yellow in that specific hue being combined. It’s about a symbol, specifically created in that configuration with those chosen elements by Nazis for the purposes of representing a Nazi military unit, being granted an exemption from laws banning the glorification of Nazis. When you share a parade with people wearing the Totenkopf, it’s possible you are voluntarily supporting actions other than Ukrainian independence and you’re not just a fan of an extinct 13th century empire’s symbol.
His SS division’s history wasn’t about Ukrainian independence. It was formed by Nazis in 1943 when everyone knew that Nazis were slaughtering people. It was formed after all the ghettos inside Lviv, Galicia’s main city, and Ternipol, in this old man’s home oblast, were built and had been running for years. It was formed after Jews, who were 44% of Ternipol’s population, were dragged from their homes to be publicly shamed, beaten and evicted in the pogroms. It was formed after the Final Solution began. It was formed after mass deportations, slave labour, after the ill, elderly or orphaned were shot in the streets of the place he lived. It was formed after the mass graves of all those victims and more were exhumed and their bodies burned in open-air pits. This man had functional eyes and ears at the very least, because the Nazis did not like people with disabilities, and he knew what he was signing up for because he was living in the middle of it. Every major town surrounding his birthplace had ghettos and were already sending people by train to the death camps. He didn’t choose a charitable hypothetical peaceful Ukrainian autonomy, he and 53,000 other people volunteered to fight for the new unit of an army who were very publicly killing and torturing the majority of the people around him.
And, this wasn’t about a Ukrainian group allied to the Nazis to achieve long-term independence for Ukrainians. They were voluntary Nazis under direct Nazi control fighting for greater Nazi control in countries outside of Ukraine. This man could have changed allegiance at any point if he had been naive and somehow swindled into committing atrocities for Nazis instead of Ukrainian Independence. Atrocities like the Huta Pieniacka massacre where his division committed 500 murders of civilians by grenading the town. Where, assuming he was with his unit at the time and not in hospital, he murdered civilians too.
This is about the active celebration of Nazis to the point where the highest courts in Ukraine are granting exemptions to their own anti-Nazi laws because the Nazis didn’t “own” the symbols, as though they “owned” the Swastika. This indicates a huge systemic Nazi problem.
And for Canada to find itself failing to even check what the guy was actually veteran of, and applaud him on the world stage for his service… no. The Canadian government, the MP who invited him, the old man himself, the Ukrainian nationalists marching in the streets
waving politelyheiling Hitler during the embroidery marches, the judge granting exemptions, they all have agency and have freely chosen Nazis.And you, for reasons I can’t fathom beyond “it’s important to consider the reason they chose Nazis”, are determined to give actual proven verified Nazis the benefit of the doubt and positing entire hypothetical storylines that might give an innocent explanation and plausible deniability to them choosing to be a Nazi and cheer on blatant Nazis.
Giving Nazis the benefit of the doubt is what got us a Holocaust in the first place.
I never claimed nor intended to give nazis any benefit of the doubt.