No. 19
November 2023
Glorification of Nazis and Nazi Collaborators
Canada's Falsification of History and
Attempted Cover-Up
For Your Information
Anti-Communist Monument in Ottawa
• A Look at Who Is Funding Anti-Communist Monument
For Your Information
• About Tribute
to Liberty and Its Definition of
Victims of Communism
Letter to the Editor
Podcast
Glorification of Nazis and Nazi Collaborators
Official Canada's Attempts to Rewrite the History of How Canada Provided Refuge to Nazi Collaborators
Action on Parliament Hill, September 19, 2015, Canadians reject
the Harper government's attempt to impose an anti-communist
monument to glorify Nazism as an expression of Canadian values.
In the wake of the outrage of Canadians when the entire Parliament rose to its feet to salute a veteran of the Waffen-SS Galizien because he "fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians" during the Second World War, the Trudeau government is trying to divert attention away from Canada's official falsification of history based on virulent anti-communism and agenda to destroy Russia. In this vein, Nazi collaborators and war criminals are presented as heroes and their disinformation is repeated endlessly as historical truth.
The government's first failed attempt at covering up the truth of where it stands was the claim of Prime Minister Trudeau in the House of Commons that everyone in the house "unknowingly" paid homage to Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Jaroslav Hunka. He followed this with a warning to Canadians to beware against "Russian propaganda" using the incident to engage in disinformation about the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine.
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To present Nazi collaborators as heroes because they were allegedly victims of communism is one thing. It is integral to Canada's participation in Anglo-American attempts to overthrow Soviet Russia in 1917 and then the Soviet Union beginning before the Second World War ended. At that time, it supported actions of British and U.S. intelligence agencies, which incorporated members of the Nazi killing machine. Canada is lying about all of this by claiming that it is all done to defend democracy and oppose totalitarianism and like nonsense. Its attempts to cover up its stands in the past and present exposes the craven character of the Government of Canada and cartel parties in the Parliament who are joining the U.S. in committing heinous crimes against the peoples of the world today, in the name of freedom, democracy, human rights and peace.
Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Yaroslav Hunka
receives an ovation in Parliament, September 22. Among those
seated with him in the gallery is a delegation from the
Ukrainian Canadian Congress. Four seats to the right of Hunka is
Canada's Chief of the Defence Staff, General Wayne Eyre.
Parliament honoured Hunka on Friday, September
22 and it took Trudeau until Wednesday, September 27, to
"apologize." Trudeau said in a statement made in the House of
Commons: "On behalf of all of us in this House, I would like to
present unreserved apologies for what took place on Friday, and
to President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian delegation for the
position they were put in."
"For all of us who were present, to have unknowingly recognized this individual was a terrible mistake and a violation of the memory of those who suffered grievously at the hands of the Nazi regime," he added.
In a brief statement before he entered the House on September 27, Trudeau reiterated that House Speaker Anthony Rota was "solely responsible for the invitation and recognition" of Yaroslav Hunka on September 22, and has "wholly accepted that responsibility and stepped down." He said he nevertheless recognized that this mistake had "deeply embarrassed Parliament and Canada."
"All of us who were in the House on Friday regret deeply having stood and clapped, even though we did so unaware of the context. It was a horrendous violation of the memory of the millions of people who died in the Holocaust, and was deeply, deeply painful for Jewish people," he said.
In an afterthought he remembered
others but even then "forgot" to mention the millions of
Canadians who fought to defeat Nazi-fascism and Japanese
militarism during World War II. Soviet prisoners of war who were
dealt with ruthlessly in captivity by the Nazis are also not
worthy of specific mention. He said, "It also hurt Polish
people, Roma people, 2SLGTBQI+ people, disabled people,
racialized people, and the many millions who were targeted by
the Nazi genocide."
Trudeau immediately tried to switch attention elsewhere by claiming to address "Russian disinformation on the Canadian tribute," saying it is "extremely troubling to think that this egregious error is being politicized by Russia, and its supporters, to provide false propaganda about what Ukraine is fighting for."
And herein lies the irony because it is not just one individual, Hunka, that Canada honours but all those in the Ukrainian Canadian Congress it has all but integrated holus bolus into the Cabinet's decision-making apparatus when it comes to the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine. It is Canada, not Russia, which has been using disinformation about its relationship with Nazi collaborators in Ukraine to hide what it is fighting for in Ukraine. To now say it knows nothing about Nazi collaborators will certainly not wash. The evidence is far too overwhelming and those who attempt to backpedal furiously are sure to fall on their faces over and over again.
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Liberal House Leader Karina Gould on
September 25, 2023 called the recognition given by
Parliament to Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Jaroslav Hunka
on September 22 "deeply embarassing." She said that for
parliamentarians on all sides, "it is very important
that we collectively work together to strike this
recognition from the record." Her motion to do so was
defeated. For his part, Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre responded to Trudeau's apology by pushing his party's sectarian aims of defeating Trudeau and forming the next government. "The prime minister is now responsible for the biggest single diplomatic embarrassment in Canadian history. And what has he done with that responsibility? He's been hiding," Poilievre said.
This is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada whose very leadership itself has been in the hands of such Nazi collaborators time and again as well as of those who claim outright Nazis to be their greatest mentors, as in the case of Jason Kenney. In 2009, Kenney declared that one of his greatest heroes is Aloysius Stepanic, prelate of the wartime Nazi state in Croatia which, amongst its many crimes, slaughtered the Jews living in Croatia en masse. (For a video in which Kenney speaks about having a photo of Aloysius Stepanic on his office desk, click here.)
And it is thus that official attempts to rewrite history are being made in the present, based on the story that all those in parliament were "unknowing" or that things they did were "inadvertent" or caused "unintended" damage. But facts say otherwise and thus the lies and cover-ups will unravel. Attempts by official Canada to block Canadians getting at the heart of the matter will keep officials at various levels jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Meanwhile, those who bring the truth of the matter to light can expect to be increasingly accused of being "Russian propagandists," "foreign agents" and, eventually if Canadians do not put a stop to it now, "enemies of the state." It must not pass!
Speaking out against attempts to provide safe
haven to Nazi collaborators past and present is important,
including demanding that all monuments which glorify Nazism be
removed without further delay and that all funds given to
promote their causes be restituted in kind to all those who have
been victims in one way or another of the Canadian state's own
ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide, such as the survivors of
its residential schools system, the Sixties Scoop and other
abominations committed against the Indigenous Peoples over the
years. Canadians must make sure that the glorification of Nazism
is not done in their name.
Material in this TML Supplement reveals the lengths
officials are going to for purposes of covering-up the truth.
For their part, Canadians are demanding that all monuments which
glorify Nazi collaborators be removed forthwith, without
prevarication as to their intent, and that all those who are
part of this cover-up, not just in the past but also the
present, be removed from any positions of power, privilege and
influence.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland at a rally in Toronto,
February 27, 2022, with the banner of Ukrainian fascist
organizations which collaborated with the Nazis during World War
II. Despite having degrees in Russian history and Slavic
studies, on October 5, 2023, referring to the September 22
standing ovations in the Parliament, she claimed ignorance that
Jaroslav Hunka was a Nazi collaborator. "None of us understood,
none of us recognized what was happening," Freeland said. "That
compounds the very grave error and that makes it really painful
for all of us. [...] I would really urge all of us to understand
that Russian propaganda is real, that Russia right now -- even
as we speak -- is killing the brave people of Ukraine, and we
need to push back very, very hard against everything that
Vladimir Putin says and does."
University of Alberta's
Attempt to Cover Up Its Role in Glorification of Nazi
Collaborators and
Historical Falsification
The University of Alberta is trying to distance itself from its significant role in the glorification of war criminals and Nazi collaborators. After it was revealed that the university accepted an endowment in the name of Yaroslav Hunka, the 98-year old veteran of the Waffen-SS Galizien division who received two standing ovations in the Canadian Parliament on September 22, the University issued a "Statement on the Disposition of an Endowment Fund" on September 27. The statement says that the University has reviewed a $30,000 endowment fund that existed in the name of Yaroslav Hunka, which had been provided in 2019 by Hunka's family to the University of Alberta's Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS).
"After careful
consideration of the complexities, experiences, and
circumstances of those impacted by the situation, we have made
the decision to close the endowment and return the funds to the
donor. The university recognizes and regrets the unintended harm
caused," the statement reads.
The University ingenuously says it "regrets the unintended harm caused" by accepting the donation from a member of the SS. This suggests that it would not knowingly accept such a contribution. Further, it says:
"On behalf of the university, I want to express our commitment to address anti-Semitism in any of its manifestations, including the ways in which the Holocaust continues to resonate in the present. The university's core values include a commitment to academic integrity and to inclusivity in its research, teaching, and community-building efforts."[1]
In other words, it does not even recognize the murderous activities of the Waffen-SS Galizien against not only the Jews, but also the Poles, the Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, partisan resistance fighters and others. To suggest that the donation from the Hunka family was an exception with regrettable unintended consequences, or that it has "a commitment to academic integrity and to inclusivity in its research, teaching, and community-building efforts" is untrue on a colossal scale.
The CIUS and its project, the so-called Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU) have accepted many donations from known members of the Waffen-SS Galizien. The University has highly praised these donors and those in whose name the endowments have been made. Even more significantly, the CIUS attributes its very conception and formation to Peter Savaryn, a member of the Waffen-SS Galizien whose Order of Canada the Governor-General has just decried and apologized for, also presumably unintended.
Savaryn was a Chancellor of the University of Alberta, from which he received an honorary doctorate. He was also president of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and vice-president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
The National Post reported: "In a statement, Rideau Hall said it regretted the award given to Peter Savaryn in 1987. Savaryn was Chancellor of the University of Alberta and President of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta in the 1980s. He also served with the Waffen-SS, a voluntary Nazi unit in Ukraine during the Second World War. [...]
"Savaryn died in 2017 and as part of the constitution of the Order of Canada his award was automatically rescinded. He was also awarded Golden Jubilee and Diamond Jubilee medals, and Rideau Hall is considering whether those can be rescinded."
To say the University of Alberta or the Government of Canada did not know who Peter Savaryn was is a stretch of the imagination because they did know. This goes to the heart of the problem of how Canada enlisted the Nazi collaborators to further the Cold War launched by the Anglo-American imperialists to destroy the Soviet Union and establish U.S. world hegemony.
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Volodymyr Kubijovyc
(circled) at recruitment ceremony for Waffen-SS
Galizien, 1943-44. One of the first projects of the CIUS was to sign a contract to launch the so-called Encyclopedia of Ukraine with Volodymyr Kubijovyc, the chief Ukrainian collaborator in occupied Poland who worked at the highest level with the Nazis to establish the Waffen-SS Galizien. Kubijovyc was head of the Ukrainian Central Committee (UCC) which collaborated with the Nazis in the occupation of Poland. Chrystia Freeland's grandfather was editor-in-chief of the newspaper of the UCC, known for its pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic content.
According to its description of itself, "The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine is the most comprehensive work in the English language on Ukraine, its history, people, geography, economy, and cultural heritage. This site was created and is updated/maintained by a team of scholars and editors from the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) (University of Alberta/University of Toronto). Hundreds of specialists from around the world have contributed and continue to contribute to the Encyclopedia.
"This site is an expanded and updated version of the five-volume edition (1984-93) of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine that was prepared by the CIUS in cooperation with the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies and the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) in Western Europe under the direction of Professor Volodymyr Kubijovyc (editor-in-chief in 1978-1985) and Professor Danylo Husar Struk (editor-in-chief in 1985-1999), and published by the University of Toronto Press. The current Encyclopedia team consists of Dr. Marko R. Stech, Director of CIUS Press and Scholarly Publications, Dr. Serhiy Bilenky, Consulting Editor, Tania Plawuszczak-Stech, Senior Editor, Dr. Larysa Bilous, Associate Editor, and a team of subject editors. This site was designed by Jaroslaw Kiebalo; Walter Kiebalo acted as consulting designer. The former members of the IEU team include Roman Senkus (formerly Managing Editor) and Andrij Makuch (formerly Senior Manuscript Editor). Maps were scanned and edited by Bohdan Skrobach and Jaroslaw Kiebalo. The work of the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine in Ukraine is made possible thanks to the organizational support of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.
"The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine is a work in progress. Many new entries need to be added, and many of the existing entries need to be expanded and updated in order to reflect the many changes that have occurred and continue to occur in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and in order to incorporate previously inaccessible information. The editorial staff and subject editors will be collecting and processing information systematically from a variety of sources and providing it to the international public in the form of a reliable, constantly revised and updated Internet publication. Unfortunately, the CIUS is able to dedicate only a small part of its annual budget to the project, and the editorial team's ability to update and expand the Encyclopedia's database is seriously limited by budgetary concerns.
"The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine is an ambitious and costly undertaking whose goal is to produce and maintain the best and most authoritative electronic source of information in English about Ukraine. In order to achieve this goal, the project needs financial support from sponsors and users. Become an IEU supporter today! All donations will be gratefully acknowledged, and receipts for tax purposes will be issued. The CIUS invites and encourages donors to create endowments designated for research in particular fields of study featured in the Internet Encyclopedia."
While the University of Alberta is attempting to be ingenuous by stating that it has carefully considered "the complexities" involved in its decision to return the Hunka family's donation, the University of Toronto is silent. Both are thinking they can hide the aim of the encyclopedia and its role in the revision of history to justify war crimes, crimes against humanity, and its glorification of Nazi collaborators. In fact, it is also known that Canada's Deputy Prime Minister collaborated on the encyclopedia, something which is downplayed today as if it was a youthful endeavour of no consequence.
An article by Andrew Lawton, published by True North notes:
"When Chrystia Freeland was a
young student, she contributed to an encyclopedia that played
down the 1st Galician Division's Nazi connections. In 1986, when
she was 18, Freeland worked on the second volume of the Encyclopedia
of Ukraine.
"The encyclopedia covers a range of subjects through a Ukrainian lens, including the Second World War. It frequently references the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, a volunteer Nazi-commanded army established in 1943 to aid the Germans' efforts against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. [...]
"The Encyclopedia of Ukraine was based largely on the original Ukrainian work of Volodymyr Kubijovyc, a Ukrainian nationalist and Nazi collaborator whose antisemitism and fondness for Adolf Hitler are well documented. Kubijovyc was one of the founders of the 14th SS unit.
"While Kubijovyc died in 1985, he's still listed as the editor of the volume to which Freeland contributed, which was published in 1988.
"The encyclopedia calls the 14th SS division 'Division Galizien,' referring to the Waffen's efforts in Galicia. While the main entry for the unit lies in the encyclopedia's first volume, it is referenced several times in the second volume, for which Freeland wrote.
"The encyclopedia opts to refer to 'German' forces rather than 'Nazi' forces, despite the unit being under SS command and not a regular military unit. It also attempts to frame the 14th SS as a predominantly Ukrainian effort that set the stage for Ukrainian independence. In fact, the project was spearheaded by high-ranking Nazi Otto Wächter with the support of Heinrich Himmler.
"'...a Ukrainian volunteer formation, the Division Galizien, was created as part of the German armed forces on the Soviet front; it was supported by the Ukrainians not as a German unit, but as the core of the armed forces in a future independent Ukraine.' One passage reads.
"'By spring 1944 the front was in Western Ukraine, and in July the Division Galician, a Ukrainian formation in the German armed forces created in 1943 and conceived by the Ukrainian organizers as the nucleus of the future army in an independent Ukraine, was largely destroyed at the Battle of Brody,' reads another.
"The encyclopedia makes no reference to Nuremberg's finding that the SS was a criminal organization. Also absent is the accusation of 14th SS Galizien involvement in the killing of 500 Polish civilians in the village of Huta Pieniacka.
"Freeland's contributions to the Encyclopedia of Ukraine came through a summer research placement she did with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, funded by the Government of Canada Summer Employment/Experience Development program.
"A CIUS newsletter says Freeland 'wrote entries' for the encyclopedia under the supervision of Prof. Bohdan Krawchenko, later the director of the CIUS. Her name also appears among dozens of contributors in the volume's front matter."
In the aftermath of the ovations given by Parliament to Hunka, various organizations have demanded that the government report on the full extent of the Nazi collaborators given safe haven by the Canadian government after World War II, including revealing the full report of the 1986 Deschęnes Commission (officially known as the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada). Minister of Immigration Marc Miller has said officials are looking into declassifying parts of the Deschęnes Commission report to make it public in a "less redacted" format. He said "Canada has a really dark history with Nazis in Canada ....There was a point in our history where it was easier to get in as a Nazi than it was as a Jewish person. I think that's a history we have to reconcile."
If Minister Miller wants to know who the Nazi collaborators are, he need go no further than the CIUS list of contributors to the encyclopedia and then add the names of all the Canadian prime ministers and officials who put them into positions of power and privilege in Canada.
But, of course, liberal apologetics are liberal apologetics. The article by Lawton confirms how Freeland's spokesperson tried to sanitize her role in the encyclopedia. The spokesperson confirmed Freeland's participation in the project but claimed she had no Nazi sympathies.
"'As a young woman, the deputy prime minister contributed to the writing of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine Vol. II. She worked exclusively on four entries in this text: hayfields, horsebreeding, the jute-hemp industry, and insurance,' the spokesperson wrote.
"'During this time, the deputy prime minister had no interaction with Volodymyr Kubijovyc. She categorically condemns Nazism, fascism, and far-right extremism in all its forms.'
"Freeland was 'super bright and super skilled,' Krawchenko said from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where he's serving as a senior research fellow at the University of Central Asia.
"Krawchenko said that despite the volume being based on Kubijovyc's work and crediting him as editor, much of its content was original and written with concern for 'academic integrity.'
"For his part, Krawchenko saw the recognition of Hunka in the House of Commons as a 'colossal tragedy.' 'Why anybody would single out that individual to be a Ukrainian hero is beyond imagination,' he said. He added that celebrating a veteran of this unit undermines the 'historical reckoning' Ukrainians have had to undergo regarding their history in the Second World War.
Yaroslav Hunka is recognized in the House of Commons,
September 22, 2023
"'That unit in history deserves to be discussed. The legacy of the Second World War in Ukraine is something that Ukrainians appreciate,' Krawcenko said. 'Who in the world would have taken that initiative? I was active in the Ukrainian community. Nobody in their right mind would have done this.'"[2]
Clearly, the Nazi collaborators are claiming they had no part in any of this which is also a colossal lie. What all this illustrates is that with the help of the Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta, Nazi collaborators have been able to worm their way into the highest echelons of power, as is the case with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) which Chrystia Freeland seems to have integrated into decision-making on the conduct of Canada's collaboration with the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine. A UCC delegation even met with Charles III during his official visit to Canada. Members were also in the gallery, on their feet loudly applauding when Hunka was presented as a "hero." To say nobody knew who he was is ridiculous.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia
Freeland and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal pose with a
UCC delegation, April 11, 2023.
Charles and Camilla meet with UCC during
their most recent visit to Canada, April 18, 2022.
Left:
Then UCC President Paul Grod with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
on April 5, 2017, to discuss the extension of Operation Unifier.
This is Canada's ongoing military training mission in which it
has knowingly trained Ukrainian neo-Nazis of the Azov Battalion
(shown at right, November 3, 2020), which the government has
also tried to deny.
Meeting
between Canadian officials and the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion,
June 18, 2020.
Notes
1. The full statement can be found here.
2. "Chrystia Freeland contributed to encyclopedia downplaying Ukrainian SS unit's Nazi ties," Andrew Lawton, True North, September 27, 2023.
For Your Information
Endowments to University of Alberta in Name of Members of Waffen-SS and Other Organizations with Nazi Links
The endowment received by the University of Alberta in the name of Yaroslav Hunka in the amount of $30,000 is now being returned to his family.[1] But this is not the end of the unsavoury business. Many other endowments have been identified. Dr. Per Anders Rudling, Lund University has researched these endowments and has estimated that endowments from or in the name of members of the Waffen-SS are worth more than $1 million. Clearly, there was nothing "unintended" about accepting a donation from Yaroslav Hunka.
One of the largest endowments to the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) at the University of Alberta amounts to around $430,000 (as of 2012) in the name of chief Nazi collaborator Volodymyr Kubijovyc.
The Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies (CFUS), the funding arm of the CIUS, has a General Pavlo Shandruk and Olha Shandruk Endowment Fund. This fund was established in 2011 with a donation from the Brotherhood of Veterans of the First Division UNA, i.e. the Waffen-SS Galizien. "The purpose of the fund is to support scholarly research that deals with Ukrainian military history, in general, and/or with the involvement of Ukrainians in World War II, in particular. For the first ten years, this annual grant is to be issued to the IEU (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine) Project at CIUS for such work. Subsequently, CFUS may continue directing the annual grant to the IEU Project or may identify another recipient that satisfies the fund's criteria."
The Peter and Olya Savaryn Award was established by the Savaryns. He was a proud member of the Waffen-SS Galizien given the Order of Canada.
The Roman and Halia Kolisnyk Endowment Fund, and Levko and Marika Babij Memorial Endowment Fund were both established in 2011, in the names and to honour the memory of two of the most prominent Ukrainian Waffen-SS veterans in Canada. There are thematic conditions: the latter is earmarked for "the study of twentieth-century Ukrainian history, especially Ukraine in World War II."
Roman Kolisnyk (b. 1923) was the editor of the journal of the Ukrainian Waffen-SS veterans Visti Kombantanta. The CIUS Press Release stated, "Roman Kolisnyk belongs to a generation of Ukrainian emigrants who, faced with the horrors of war and communist terror, had no choice other than to fight back and then leave their homeland."[2]
Levko Babij (1927-2010) was Canadian president of the veterans association of the Galizien Division. The CIUS stated that the Babij Memorial Endowment Fund "supports programs and grants related to the study of twentieth-century Ukrainian history, especially Ukraine in World War II. . . . In 1944 [Babij] joined the Galicia Division, later the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army. . . . He was Canadian national president of the Brotherhood of Veterans of the 1st UD UNA from 1986 to his death in 2010."
Edward Brodacky, 1926-2007, "in 1944 joined the Ukrainian 'Galicia' Division, the bulk of which surrendered to the British army at the end of World War II," the CIUS Newsletter said.
Although the CIUS shut down the site which listed the endowments, Alberta-based Progress Report[3] with the assistance of concerned scholars and the Student Union at the Univerity of Alberta, uncovered the following additional endowments from members of the Waffen-SS Galizien in the Internet Archives and by searching the financial reports of the CIUS:
- In the name of Petro Malofij, now worth $150,000. It provides funding for students in Ukraine's Sniatyn district to study at Chernivtsi Fedkovych National University. The Government of Alberta matched the donation with twice the amount.
- A $74,000 endowment in memory of Nestor Peczeniuk was donated by his family in December 1991. The endowment is now worth $87,000.
- Sylvester Remeza donated $100,000 to establish the Remeza Family Endowment Fund to support research and publication related to the work of Ukrainian poet and writer Bohdan Lepky.
- The 2003 CIUS newsletter acknowledges a $20,000 donation from the Rev. Marian and Dr. Roman Curkowskyj Foundation to assist in publishing an Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Dr. Curkowskyj was drafted as a medic in the German Army in 1945, but upon his insistence was transferred to the 14th Waffen "to fight the Soviet Red Army and liberate his homeland," according to the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation.
- The $28,700 Michael and Mary Yacyshyn Endowment Fund was created in September 2013. Michael Yacyshyn is described in the 2014 CIUS newsletter as having "fought for Ukrainian independence" during the Second World War.
- In March 2016, a $100,000 endowment was established by the estate of Dr. Demitrius Todosijczuk to fund CIUS scholarships, awards or bursaries, research grants, and scholarly publications. Todosijczuk, according to Rudling, joined the Waffen-SS in July 1943, leaving to conduct his medical studies in Giessen, Germany, in March 1944.
In addition, the search found donations from members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army, both known for their war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- The Celestin and Irena Suchowersky Endowment Fund was established by Celestin in September 1999 with $50,000 to fund MA and PhD students from Ukraine's Bukovyna region studying in Canada. It's now worth $100,000. Per Anders Rudling informed Progress Report that Celestin Suchowersky was a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) who partook in the negotiations that created the 14th Waffen-SS.
- In December 1998, a $50,000 endowment was established in the name of Dmytro Kupiak, who from 1943 to 1945 fought for the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the military wing of Stepan Bandera's Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) faction. The endowment provides scholarships for high school graduates in Busk, Ukraine, to study at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Nicknamed "Klei," Kupiak was a UPA commander, whom the Soviet Union attempted to have extradited in 1964 for allegedly massacring 200 people in a village near Lviv, according to an October 20, 1971 Globe and Mail article. Kupiak ran for the federal Tories in the 1972 election.
Notes
1. The full statement can be found here.
2. "Roman Kolisnyk's New Fund and Bequest," Mykola Soroka, CIUS Press Release, May 9, 2011.
3. "The University of Alberta's $1.4 million-dollar Nazi problem," Jeremy Appel and Duncan Kinney, Progress Report, October 4, 2023.
Nefarious Mission of Canadian
Institute of Ukrainian Studies and Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine
to Revise History
Nazi collaborators and members of Waffen-SS Galizien division, including the co-founder, have played a key role in establishing and funding the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) and its project, the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, with the aim of revising history.
The CIUS was established in 1976 in Edmonton and now has offices in Toronto and in Lviv, Ukraine. Its director from 1992 to 2012 states that the CIUS "pursued the goals of integrating and mainstreaming Ukrainian studies into North American and world scholarship and becoming the leading world research institution dedicated to the discovery, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge about Ukraine and Ukrainians."
Waffen-SS volunteer Peter Savaryn, who was President of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and Vice-President of the federal Progressive Conservatives, member of the Board and Senate, and later Chancellor, of the University of Alberta, is credited by the CIUS as being instrumental in the formation of the CIUS. The Governor-General has now apologized for the Order of Canada given to Savaryn.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, a major project of the CIUS, is replete with the highest praise for Nazi collaborators. Its basic tenet is that the most heinous crime can be justified by claiming that it was done "for an independent Ukraine." The CIUS has accepted funds from those who were members of the Waffen-SS Galizien, and also praised them to the skies.
The "Welcome to the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, hosted by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies" page states that Volodymyr Kubijovyc was the chief editor of Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopaedia (2 vols, 1963, 1971), and Encyclopedia of Ukraine (Vols One and Two, 1984-87). "His contribution in this regard cannot be overestimated. His conceptualization of the Entsyklopediia ukraďnoznavstva provided a sorely needed structure to Ukrainian scholarship in the West. Overcoming great obstacles, Kubijovyc organized the scattered intellectual resources in time to ensure that the rich knowledge of Ukraine carried out by the various scholars forced to emigrate during the Second World War be passed on to future generations."
Claiming that these "various scholars" were "forced to emigrate during the Second World War" is a deliberate falsification, just as Chrystia Freeland hid her Nazi grandfather's collaboration with the Nazi occupiers by saying "he fled" Ukraine in 1939.
This is how the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine describes the Ukrainian collaborator-in-chief: "During the Second World War he [Kubijovyc] headed the Ukrainian Central Committee (UCC) in Cracow and in 1943 took part in organizing the Division Galizien. In his role as head of the UCC, Kubijovyc revealed his exceptional ability as an organizer and statesman."
The Ukrainian Central Committee was the criminal Ukrainian collaborationist political organization in occupied Poland. It published Krakivski Visti (Krakow News) whose chief editor was Chrystia Freeland's grandfather, Michael Chomiak, responsible for fascist and anti-Semitic propaganda. Kubijovy took a leading role in organizing the Waffen-SS Galizien. The UCC was responsible for propaganda, for collaboration in ethnic cleansing, the plunder of food and raw materials, and for recruiting and filling quotas of youth and later elderly men to serve as slave labourers in Germany – 402,777 people in all. The Encyclopedia describes the UCC as carrying out "cultural and educational work."
The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine contains an item about the Brotherhood of Former Soldiers of the First Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army, noting without further comment that its headquarters moved to Toronto "in the mid-1960s." The items about the Waffen-SS Galizien are titled Division Galician and Military Board of the Division Galician, carefully omitting the words Waffen-SS. The Encyclopedia states, "The head of the Ukrainian Central Committee in Cracow, Volodymyr Kubijovyc, supported the division's formation, regarding it as a Ukrainian armed force and hoping to influence its character and organization as the core of a future national army." It goes on to state that the Germans promised the division would only fight the Red Army, making it clear that their aim was the defeat of the Soviet Union by bringing victory of Nazi Germany. In fact the Waffen-SS Galizien had only one battle with the Red Army, where it was almost wiped out. Its main role was to fight against the partisans fighting to liberate their countries from Nazi occupation in Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia and Austria, and to carry out horrendous torture and massacres of the general civilian population, burning down entire villages.
The aim of this entire project is to falsify the history of the Ukrainian collaborators by claiming that they were "freedom fighters" for an "independent Ukraine." This covers up that their mission was a Ukraine ethnically cleansed of Poles, Jews, Romani, communists, disabled people, those who fought against the Nazis, and others inimical to their project. Their aim was for this cleansed Ukraine to take its place in the "new Europe" established by a Nazi victory. Their aim today is the same with the likes of the Canadian government helping them realize their dream of becoming the Ukrainian Army. It has never been just about what happened in the past. It has always been about grooming the next generation of Ukrainian "freedom-fighters" in the neo-Nazi mould.
The falsification of history is for purposes of presenting the past in a manner that justifies their nefarious action in the present. Apologizing for them under the guise that there is no proof they committed crimes or that condemning their propaganda machine is to oppose freedom of the press and freedom of speech is typical liberal conciliation with Nazism and must be opposed.
Anti-Communist Monument in Ottawa
In the Name of Doing "Due
Diligence" Canada Postpones Unveiling of "Memorial to the
Victims of Communism"
Information picket at the Ottawa site of the anti-communist
monument, August 21, 2020
Following the exposure of the collaboration between the government of Canada and World War II Nazi collaborators in the Canadian Parliament on September 22, it has now been revealed that the government of Canada's official unveiling of its "Memorial to the Victims of Communism -- Canada, a Land of Refuge" -- a project inspired by Nazi collaborators and apologists in and outside of government -- which was to take place this fall, has been postponed.[1] Up till now, no matter how many Canadians decried the project or exposed who was funding it and its aim, the government has found ways to proceed with it. And seems to be up to the same thing once again.
According to Canadian Heritage, "The Memorial to the Victims of Communism -- Canada, a Land of Refuge will recognize Canada's international role as a place of refuge for people fleeing injustice and persecution and honour the millions who suffered under communist regimes." Canadians do not accept the idea that Canada's role in giving "refuge" to war criminals and Nazi collaborators is something to be celebrated and commemorated.
The Canadian
Heritage website states: "Important Note: Although the Memorial
to the Victims of Communism -- Canada a Land of Refuge was
scheduled to be inaugurated by the end of 2023, the Government
of Canada is doing its due diligence to ensure all aspects of
the Memorial remain compatible with Canadian values on democracy
and human rights."
Heritage Canada further states, "The Government of Canada is committed to complete this project. The Memorial will be inaugurated in 2024, at a date to be selected in consultation with the main proponent of the project, Tribute to Liberty."
The proposal for the Memorial has been opposed by Canadians since day one, just as the admission of war criminals was opposed vigorously at the time the Canadian government decided to allow and even encourage their admission to Canada. Those in whose name donations have been made include the Latvian SS, the Croatian Ustasha, members of the Hungarian puppet government established by the Nazis and responsible for the deportation of the Jewish population to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the fascist Slovene "Home Guard," and the Romanian Iron Guard -- and this is not a complete list. The list of donors seems to have been white washed but all the evidence shows that this project is established to glorify Nazism and give credence to a cause aimed at wiping out Russia today to "vindicate" what are called the "victims of communism." It has not gone unnoticed that the government of Canada has not expended this much money and effort to promote a memorial to the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world, or of colonial genocide, or to the children kidnapped into residential schools and the murdered and missing Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited persons.
Official Canada must be held to account for the criminals the memorial to the so-called victims of communism has been established to defend and "remember." The claim that Canada is doing its "due diligence" will come back to haunt all those who have been a part of this criminal project. No amount of attempts to sanitize the evidence that it was set up to honour the perpetrators of horrendous war crimes and crimes against humanity will give this project a pretty face. It is rotten to its very core and all attempts to sanitize it show what kind of democracy and human rights the government of Canada and cartel parties stand for.
What Tribute to
Liberty stands for cannot be condoned, no matter how much money
and acceptance they have received from U.S. and Canadian
official circles. Canadians sacrificed their lives in World War
Two to defeat the heroes who are being praised. Tribute to
Liberty's founders and funders are scum of the earth. Far from
convincing anyone that the monument is about "democracy and
human rights," or that its cause represents the security of the
state against communism or a Russian or Chinese threat, what its
promoters stand for tells the truth of the matter. First came
the Harper government and its minister Jason Kenney -- whose
avowed mentor, Aloysius Stepanic, was responsible for the
murder of thousands of Serbs. This was followed by the Trudeau
governments whose Deputy Prime Minister is herself integral to
the glorification of Nazi collaborators. Others in positions of
power and influence are also implicated and now is the time to
bring the entire sordid affair to light once again.
Demand that the Government of Canada do its "due diligence" in the light of day. When it took up the crusade of Tribute to Liberty to destroy the anti-fascist contribution and sentiment of Canadians, its imposition of an anti-communist, warmongering agenda was clear. Now the government is engaging in a cover-up. It may withdraw the information that the so-called victims of communism in whose name donations have been made include the fascist organizations and their leaders who fought with Hitler. It is making the claim that the receipt of donations in their names was some kind of "inadvertent mistake" with "unintended" consequences. It will not succeed.
This entire monument should be demolished. With or without the donations and names of these Nazis and their collaborators, the aim of declaring Canada a refuge to victims of communism is unacceptable because it is based on the cold war definitions of democracy versus totalitarianism which are being resuscitated today to foment divisions amongst the Canadian people, present those who do not conform to the ruling ideology on crucial issues like the war in Ukraine, the aims of NATO, the need for a new world order where all countries are equal, Canada's international role in supporting Israel and condemning those who support the Palestinian people and oppose the crimes of the Israeli state as anti-Semitic and terrorists, and so forth.
The organization Tribute to Liberty was an unsavoury organization from the get go. The government of Canada has a lot to explain as to why it is associated to such an organization and why it is allotting public land and public funds to realize its heinous project. Trying to sanitize this project will not succeed, no matter how hard the government tries. The monument should be condemned and demolished and the place allotted to it handed over to the Indigenous Peoples of Canada to do with as they decide, without government interference but at its expense.
Note
1. The idea of the monument is said to have originated with Jason Kenney in conversation with the Czech ambassador in 2007, in line with the anti-communist campaign taking place at the time in eastern Europe, the Balkans and Ukraine, included erecting monuments to the fascist forces, marches and open displays of Nazi symbols, rewriting of textbooks, renaming of streets, etc.
Meeting opposition from the start, the size, location and design of the monument -- now called a memorial -- has been changed time and again, all while first the Harper and then the Trudeau governments have poured public funds into this project of a private organization, cajoled the National Capital Commission into using the lands it holds in public trust for the project, paid for redesigns said to be more palatable to Canadians and the like. Enough!
A Look at Who Is Funding
Anti-Communist Monument
The anti-communist monument was originally to cost $1.5 million, to be funded by the private organization Tribute to Liberty. However Canadians did not support this project, and the fundraising campaign was a dismal failure. "The group behind a controversial memorial to victims of communism failed to meet its fundraising target last spring," CBC News reported on December 23, 2015.
|
"According to documents obtained through access to information, Tribute to Liberty, the proponents of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism, committed to raise $1.26 million as its share of the $5.5 million project in an agreement with the Department of Canadian Heritage.
"But by the April 2015 deadline outlined in that agreement, the group reported to a steering committee that it had only raised $900,000.
"'We are disappointed that to date only four of the eight pledges of $100,000 each have honoured their pledges,' the group's treasurer Alide Forstmanis wrote in an April 22 email to Lorraine Pierce-Hull, the coordinator of commemorations and public art at the heritage department."
The monument has received letters of support from Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
former Green Party leader Elizabeth May, former NDP leader Tom
Mulcair and former federal justice minister Irwin Cotler.
Other letters in support of Tribute to Liberty from (top to bottom, left to right): Irwin Cotler, Elizabeth May, Stephen Harper, Thomas Mulcair, Jason Kenney, Wladyslaw Lizon (click to enlarge).
The fact is that five years after the project began, in 2013, the Harper government pledged $1.5 million to the project, and then pledged an additional $1.5 million in 2014, for a total of $3 million.
"By the end of 2014, the project's budget had ballooned to $5.5 million, with a taxpayer contribution of $4.3 million," the CBC reported in 2021. In 2022, a National Capital Commission (NCC) spokesperson said the estimated total cost of the monument had increased to $7.5 million. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland allocated an additional $4 million to Canadian Heritage in Budget 2021 "to support the completion of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism"[1] which meant that $6 million of the $7.5million was contributed by the federal government, while the Chairman of Tribute to Liberty Ludwik Klimkowski declared at that time that Tribute to Liberty would continue to solicit donations for the project. The webpage of Canadian Heritage now says fundraising is complete.
The Tribute to Liberty website indicates that it is still seeking $1,000 donations in exchange for official commemoration on the wall itself and on the website. A link on the charity's website labelled "donate today" leads to PayPal and an auto-loaded $1,000 donation.
But Tribute to Liberty's treasurer Alide Forstmanis said donations to the wall are no longer being accepted and the organization is only accepting $200 donations for virtual bricks now.
Klimkowski said in an email that Tribute to Liberty's fundraising was finished by the end of 2017 and that all the necessary funding was forwarded to the NCC, which is overseeing construction of the monument. A spokesperson for the NCC indicated that Tribute to Liberty sent $1 million in 2017 and another $500,000 in 2018, and has not transferred any additional funds.
In addition to at least $6 million from the Canadian government, the monument has received substantial funding from virulently anti-communist sources at home and abroad. Tribute to Liberty states that the government of Hungary contributed $121,000, while the governments of Latvia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Taiwan, and Lithuania each donated between $25,000 and $50,000. Four families made five donations of $100,000 or more. Former prime minister Stephen Harper purchased several commemorative bricks, as did then Premier of Alberta Jason Kenney, who was the project's champion while in Harper's cabinet. Senator Linda Frum is listed on the monument's donors page as a legacy donor, having committed over $100,000. Linda Frum and husband Howard Sokolowski raised $400,000 at a fundraiser in their home. Organizations which are known to be founded by and/or are apologists for Nazi collaborators and war criminals also committed substantial funding. They include the Latvian Relief Society of Canada, Ukrainian Canadian Congress, ($50,000-$100,000), Latvian National Federation of Canada, National Office, League of Ukrainian Canadians, General Committee of United Croats of Canada and other Croatian organizations, along with many others.
The General Committee of United Croats of Canada dedicated their contribution to Ante Pavelić, describing him as a "doctor of laws." As leader of the fascist Ustasha, Pavelić led the Nazi puppet regime in occupied Croatia in the former Yugoslavia, where 32,000 Jews, 25,000 Roma and 330,000 Serbs were murdered by the regime, killed in concentration camps, razing of villages, pogroms and massacres. The same organization purchased a brick dedicated to high-ranking Ustasha official Mile Budak, whom they identified simply as a "poet."
"References to Budak and Pavelić have been removed from the Tribute to Liberty website" a CBC report posted in July 2023, wrote. "It's not clear whether the donations were returned; when asked, Ludwik Klimkowski, Tribute to Liberty's chair, said it would be 'premature' to comment." Another Ustasha official, Ivan Orsanic, remains listed on the site, CBC added.
The Knightly Order of Vitéz purchased five bricks. Vitéz members included high-ranking members of the Nazi-puppet government in Hungary established late in the war, which organized the deportation of some 437,000 Hungarian Jews. "It was the biggest, fastest deportation action of the Holocaust," said László Karsai, a professor of history at the University of Szeged in Hungary." Several tens of thousands of Vitéz members got large lands [from] Jewish properties," Karsai told the BBC.
The League of Ukrainian Canadians' Edmonton Branch purchased five virtual bricks in honour of Roman Shukhevych. Shukhevych led the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during the Second World War and was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Belarusians, Jews, Poles and Ukrainians. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which had as its member organization the Brotherhood of Veterans of the 1st Ukrainian Division (Waffen-SS Galizien), also contributed. So did Paul Grod, former President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress who has accompanied both Trudeau and his predecessor, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on their trips to Ukraine, and who has openly celebrated the Waffen-SS Galizien.[2]
Orest Steciw, executive director of the League of Ukrainian Canadians, told CBC News that while his organization did sponsor bricks for the monument, he cannot name the individuals to whom they were dedicated because he was not the executive director at the time, CBC news reported.
In 2021, Canadian Heritage responded to the exposure of donations in the name of Nazi collaborators and perpetrators of massive war crimes and crimes against humanity by announcing that it would review the final list of names with Tribute to Liberty. While donors are listed (some are anonymous), the list seems to have been whitewashed.
"If Canada commemorates Ante Pavelić or Roman Shukhevych, it can throw its human rights record right in the trash." said Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem.
Zuroff said he's alarmed by efforts to present wartime Nazi collaborators as anti-communist patriots.
"From the beginning of their renewed independence, following the breakup of the Soviet Union, almost all the governments of Eastern Europe – and nationalist elements in diaspora communities – have promoted the canard of equivalency between the crimes of the Third Reich and those of Communism as part of a broader effort to distort the history of the Holocaust and the Second World War," he said.
Notes
1."Victims of communism memorial received donations honouring fascists, Nazi collaborators, according to website," Taylor C. Noakes, CBC News, July 23, 2021.
2."Trudeau Government in Collusion with Nazi Collaborators to Build the Anti-Communist Monument!" Louis Lang, cpcml.ca, July 24, 2021
For Your Information
The Design
Rendering of design concept for Arc of
Memory, winning design chosen for Memorial to the Victims of
Communism.
Heritage Canada writes: "The winning design chosen for the Memorial to the Victims of Communism is "Arc of Memory." This concept was submitted by Team Raff, a group of architects and landscape architects based in Toronto that includes Paul Raff (artist and architect), Michael A. Ormston-Holloway (designer and certified arborist), Brett Hoornaert (landscape architectural intern) and Luke Kairys (landscape architect). "Arc of Memory" is a sculptural array of over 4,000 bronze rods intended to express the vastness of communist oppression and invite visitors to reflect on Canada as a free and welcoming country."
The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada initiated a court challenge of the project, arguing that the National Capital Commission (NCC) violated its own procedures on public consultation and the rules set out in the National Capital Act. A poll from the spring of 2015 found that a majority of Canadians -- including nearly two-thirds of self-identified conservatives -- opposed the initial project.
List of Names
Below are excerpts from a CBC report:
Initially, the Wall of Remembrance was supposed to feature the names of 1,000 victims of communism, but by the end of 2015 a list of only 300 or so names had been compiled. The department said it is now looking at a list of 600 names for possible inclusion in the memorial.
Canadian Heritage hired Carleton University historian Michael Petrou to review those 600 names, but not the names listed on Tribute to Liberty's website or in its newsletters. Petrou told CBC News there is overlap between the list of names for the monument and the list on the website.
Petrou filed his report to the department back in the spring. He said he red-flagged the names of individuals in that list of 600 who collaborated with the Nazis or were associated with fascist organizations that were active in Eastern Europe and the Balkans during the Second World War.
Petrou said he also flagged names of individuals who could not reasonably be described as "victims of communism."
The Pathways to Liberty list seems to embrace a very broad definition of "victims of communism" that extends to other apparent victims of political violence and veterans of Cold War era conflicts.
The list on the website also includes people who don't seem to be victims of persecution by communist regimes -- such as Tara Singh Hayer, a Sikh journalist and activist assassinated in Vancouver in 1998, and Jagat S. Uppal, a successful BC businessman who was one of the first Sikhs to attend public school in Vancouver.
Tribute to Liberty's website and newsletter say that the Pathways to Liberty project features stories about victims of communism, while the Wall of Remembrance will display the names of victims and survivors of communist regimes.
"... Visitors will see names ranging from donors' own names or those of their ancestors to the names of historical figures and events that are important to these donors," says a statement from Canadian Heritage, which declined a request for an interview. "These names will be linked to a planned website to be developed and hosted by Tribute to Liberty that will share the stories of these individuals, groups and events."
Some war memorials in Canada have inspired controversy over their ties to wartime collaborators. A cenotaph dedicated to the veterans of the Waffen-SS "Galicia Division" in an Oakville cemetery made headlines in 2020 when Halton Region police opened a hate crimes investigation after a slogan against Nazism was written on the monument -- indicating opposition to Nazis, not support of them, is a "hate crime."
The
memorial to Nazi collaborators from the 1st Ukrainian Division
of the Ukrainian National Army in St. Volodymyr Ukrainian
Cemetery in Oakville, Ontario is spray-painted, October 13,
2023. The memorial previously had the words "Nazi war monument"
sprayed on it, in July 2020.
A bust of Roman Shukhevych outside the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in Edmonton was tagged with the words ''Nazi scum" in late 2019. Because it was suggested that the act may have been motivated by hatred toward an identifiable group, the Hate Crime and Violent Extremism Unit of the Edmonton Police was tasked with investigating. It ultimately concluded the action against the Nazis didn't meet the standard of a hate crime.
Top: Slogans painted on the bust of Roman
Shukhevych in 2019 and again in 2021 expose him as a Nazi
collaborator, the bust is situated at the Ukrainian Youth Unity
Complex in Edmonton. Bottom: Also in 2021, the monument to the
14th Waffen-SS Division in St. Michael's cemetery in Edmonton
was spray-painted.
About Tribute to Liberty and Its Definition of Victims of Communism
Alide Forstmanis (nee Brodelis) is the Treasurer and former Chair of Tribute to Liberty (2008 to 2012), an organization established in 2008 to lobby the Canadian government to build a public "Memorial to the Victims of Communism" in the capital, Ottawa. She is one of nine members of the Board of Directors and one of two with identified positions, including Chair Ludwik Klimkowski. The listed address and contact information of Tribute to Liberty, according to the Canada Revenue Agency, matches that of Forstmanis and her personal e-mail address is listed as the charity contact e-mail. Alide Forstmanis' husband is Talivaldis (Talis) Forstmanis.
Forstmanis was the initiator in March 2008 of a petition to the Parliament of Canada to support the building of the "Memorial to the Victims of Communism," one of the first public calls for such an effort.[1] The thrust of the petition made clear that the purpose of the monument is not to commemorate victims, but make criminalization of communism official state policy and continue the cause of the Hitlerites to eradicate communism from the face of the earth. Forstmanis wrote, "the Cold War victory remains incomplete and we must do our best to make everyone recognize the true nature of this mad ideology. A free society must not allow itself to be content until everyone recognizes Communism is a road to terror and oppression. [...] Communism is not a thing of the past, but rages in many countries today, and poses a threat to the free world of the future."
Alide Forstmanis and her husband are from Sweden, born to Latvian parents. Both cite their family history as "victims of communism" in their support for the anti-communist monument project. In a parallel with the story of Chrystia Freeland, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs who has not come clean about her grandfather's role as a Nazi collaborator, Alide's mother was a nurse in Nazi-occupied Latvia and later in Germany treating German soldiers, and Talis Forstmanis' father was an editor in a fascist publishing house and for a Nazi newspaper in occupied Latvia.
Alide Forstmanis noted her mother's wartime activity on the Tribute to Liberty website along with a donation to the project in the name of a "victim of communism," someone called Katie Subins. Forstmanis states, "During WWII Katie and my mother nursed wounded [Nazi – TML Note] soldiers in Latvia and later in Germany."[2]
Talivaldis Forstmanis' father was Fricis Forstmanis, aka Fricis Dziesma.[3] During the Nazi occupation of Latvia from 1941 to 1944 Fricis was technical editor at an anti-Semitic, anti-communist publishing house called Zelta abele and like Freeland's grandfather Michael Chomiak, he also worked for a Nazi newspaper called Tevija (Fatherland).[4]
Tevija was the only daily newspaper published in Nazi-occupied Latvia from July 1, 1941 (the day Latvia was captured by fascists) to October 1944. Its first issue bore on its cover a photo of Adolf Hitler along with the announcement "Henceforth Latvia is free from communists and Jews."[6] The issue announced to Latvians the occupation of the capital, Riga with the words, "The glorious German army had the pleasure of liberating the old gray Riga from the yoke of the Bolsheviks. We promise that we will fight together with the Latvians until we drive the last Bolshevik from this land. God bless Latvia!"
Issues regularly featured prominent anti-Semitic, anti-Soviet and anti-communist propaganda and quotes from Hitler and Goebbels.[7] Like Kravivski Visti, which Chomiak edited, Tevija played a major role advertising for the recruitment of groups such as "Arajs Kommando," a volunteer unit of Latvian fascists responsible for pogroms against Jews, Roma, communists and others. Later, it promoted the creation of the Latvian divisions of the Waffen-SS Nazi paramilitary. These included the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian) created in 1943 and 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian) in 1944, together making up the "Latvian Legion." The volunteer units that carried out atrocities were later integrated into the "Legion."[8]
A characteristic editorial in Tevija reads, "Finally, the time has come when almost all the nations of Europe learned to recognize their common enemy – the Jew. Almost all the peoples of Europe have begun a war against this enemy, both on the battlefields and in internal construction."[9]
The publishing house, Zelta abele, was owned by Mikelis Goppers, who like Forstmanis fled to Sweden to escape justice following the defeat of the Nazis in Latvia. Goppers and Zelta abele published, in 1942, the infamous anti-Semitic fraud Latvia: Year of Horror (Baigais Gads) which, using photos of Nazi atrocities and fraudulent accounts, presents communism as a Jewish conspiracy to dispossess the Latvians. The book falsifies the history of Latvia and its membership in the Soviet Union on the eve of the war and presents the mass actions of Latvians as a conspiracy of Jews to "annihilate nothing less than the soul of the Latvian nation."
The myth of Baigais Gads created by the Nazis, continued to be repeated by exiled Nazi collaborators and their descendents after the war and then was given official status by the post-Soviet Latvian government. The blog Latvian History in a June 13, 2016 entry explains the origins of the myth:
"The needs for this myth can be explained for Nazi goals in Latvia on 1941-1942. Nazi political directives set by Adolf Hitler was [to] clear [the] Soviet Union [of] Jews and Bolsheviks. However, the Nazi policy was to create the image that the extermination was done by the locals as revenge against the Soviets. Germans would only instigate the actions with propaganda and assist the locals. [...] Ultimately the myth creates an idea of Latvian genocide, that must be avenged ... [The book Latvia: Year of Horror]contained selected or faked documents and images many of them highly graphic. [...] The book's narrative was that[the]Republic of Latvia because of its weakness and mistakes led itself to Soviet occupation that was carried by Jews according to their plan of world domination. All main repressions were carried out by Jewish Bolsheviks. Nazi Germany came as liberators and rescued Latvians from the danger of Jewish Bolshevism and now Latvians must do their part for creation of the New Europe. There was never talk of restoration of Latvian independence – Latvian future only lies with Nazi Germany. [...] After the defeat of Nazi Germany the 'Horrible Year' lived on through Latvian exiles. It was mentioned in their publications and often became part of their identity."[5]In the 1990s, an English translation of the book was produced with a new, anonymous introduction written in Canada, approvingly citing Toronto Sun articles repeating Hitlerite lies about the "predominance of Jews among Bolshevik leaders."
The Year of Horror tract contains photo after photo with captions such as:
- "Prisoners, accompanied by largely Jewish crowd and the coerced crowd of demonstrators, enter the street. A prisoner addresses the crowd. His face is clearly contorted with hate and a desire to destroy."
- "Deported or escaped anti-government Bolsheviks returned from Sweden. It is not necessary to note that most of them were Jews."
- "The former Spanish Civil War Red Front volunteers are greeted by Jewish functionaries."
- "Most Jews were ecstatic. The [pro-Soviet] demonstrations on August 5 turned into Jewish national celebrations."
- "Jews request the annexation of Latvia to the Soviet Union."
- "The organizer of the Workers' Guard and People's Militia, a man with a lengthy criminal record, was a Jew Izak Bucinskis."
- "Jews used radio contacts with Moscow."
- "They lined up for kosher meat. They worshiped the cruel Jewish God who demands that animals be slaughtered slowly and tortured according to religious ritual."
Talis Forstmanis wrote a pro-Nazi rendering of his father's and Latvia's history in a December 28, 2015 letter to the National Post. In it, he presents the huge loss of life in Nazi-occupied Latvia, including of the vast majority of Latvian Jews, as the fault of the Communists. He said, "My father always carried a camera with him. His best man was tortured to death by the Communists. Many friends' families 'disappeared,' never to be seen again. Latvia lost around 25 per cent of its population during this time. Those who are still alive, and who have knowledge of these tragic events, are supporters of the Victims of Communism memorial to be built in Ottawa. It has become clear that many in Canada are ignorant of history."[10]
Canadians know well the history of the anti-fascist struggle and are proud of their contributions. Today, Talis Forstmanis is also the treasurer of the Canadian branch of Daugavas Vanagi, an organization founded by and for Latvian veterans of the Waffen-SS who fought for Nazi Germany during the Second World War and escaped to areas of Nazi Germany later controlled by the U.S. Among the founders of Daugavas Vanagi were Vilis Janums, a Regiment Commander in the 15th Waffen Grenadier division of the SS and Nazi Iron Cross recipient. Another founder, Andrejs Eglitis was a war correspondent in Berlin for Tevija. All served in one way or another in the Nazi Latvian Legion.[11]
Like Freeland's grandfather, the "victims of communism" identified by the founder of Tribute to Liberty were active participants in the Nazi-fascist enslavement of Europe and the holocaust. Both played key roles in the inhuman propaganda campaign that directly facilitated the genocide of European Jews. Both identified their cause as synonymous with the Hitlerite cause to wipe communism off the face of the earth, which Tribute to Liberty espouses today and seeks to make the official policy of Canada and a preoccupation of Canadians.
In this, they will never succeed. Canadians, who hold their anti-fascist contribution and their democratic sentiments dear, now have a clear example that the ruling elite would like to extinguish both and have the people accept a warmongering, anti-communist agenda that was rejected by humanity. To pass off fascists and Nazi collaborators as victims of communism is a charade that could not last. Canada should officially repudiate this fascist anti-communist monument project and all attempts to revive fascism today, in Ukraine, Latvia and Canada.
Notes
1. "Monument to the Victims of Communism in Ottawa," petitiononline.com , addressed to Parliament of Canada.
2. See here
3. "Fricis Forstmanis (Dziesma)"
4. "Fricis Dziesma," Nekropole.
5. "The Myth of The Horrible Year," Maris Goldmanis, Latvian History, June 13, 2016.
6. A list of editors identifies Fricis Forstmanis as illustrations editor. Anti-Semitic, anti-Bolshevik cartoons were a regular feature of the newspaper. See "Anti-Semitic Nazi Propaganda in 'Tevija' Newspaper in July 1941: The Discourse of Latvian Participation," Didzis Berzin, Latvian National Archives, 2009.
7. See digitized newspaper archives via Latvian National Library here.
8. For more information about the murder of Jews in Nazi-occupied Latvia, see,"Mass murder of Jews in Latvia," Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team, as well as the book by Gertrude Schneider, Journey Into Terror: Story of the Riga Ghetto. Praeger, 2001.
9. Translated from Russian, found here.
10. During the fascist occupation of Latvia from 1941 to 1945, around 400,000 Latvians were killed according to postwar Soviet statistics. This included 70,000 of Jewish faith at the hands of Nazi death squads and many Roma and those of Russian and other ethnic backgrounds. More than 150,000 soldiers died in the battles to liberate Latvia from Nazi rule including Latvian troops in the Red Army.
According to estimates of the OSS, U.S. precursor to the CIA in a confidential 1944 study, at the time of the Nazi invasion of Latvia in 1941, 75,000 Latvians sought refuge in the Soviet Union and from June 1941 to July 1944, 60,000 Latvians were taken as slave labourers to Germany, while a similar number of Latvian Jews and others were executed. The OSS repeated claims of the Latvian Red Cross made under Nazi occupation that from 1939 to 1941, 1,488 Latvians were executed and 34,340 relocated within the Soviet Union.11. For more information, see E. Avotins, J. Dzirkalis, V. Petersons, Daugavas vanagi: who are they? Latvian State Publishing House, 1963.
(This article was originally published with the title "Tribute to Liberty's Definition of Victims of Communism.")
Letter to the Editor
Phony Apologies
The world has seen the entire Canadian Parliament rise to its feet to applaud Hunka. The Deputy Prime Minister has been exposed for first covering up and then apologizing for her grandfather's crimes. She along with government ministers and members of all the cartel parties shout the slogans of the fascist Bandera wing of the "Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists" and Ukrainian Insurgent Army -- Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes! The extent to which Canadian universities are mired in the project to revise history and glorify support for fascism as "necessary" in order to "fight communism" is also being further revealed.
Phony apologies and sanctimonious declarations of denial don't cut it.
A reader in Winnipeg
Podcast
Nazis in Canada
The Spark is a podcast produced by Youth for Democratic Renewal for purposes of going to the heart of the matter of current events and drawing warranted conclusions.
This episode looks into the what lies behind the standing
ovation given to Jaroslav Hunka in the Parliament on September
22, 2023, so that listeners can draw their own conclusions about
its significance.
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca