This article appeared in the Jerusalem Post on 12/27/15. It's hard to believe that a member of the Parliament of Ukraine could be so brazen in his blame of the Jewish people for Stalin's murder of millions of Ukrainians by a forced famine. Shalom. David Schneier
Ukrainian legislator toasts Adolf Hitler
By SAM SOKOL
Sun, 27 Dec 2015, 05:51 AM
Photo by: screenshot
Leader of Radical Party condemns President’s apology for Holocaust collaboration
A
video of a Ukrainian opposition lawmaker saluting Adolf Hitler made its
way online this weekend, only days after his country’s president
apologized for Ukrainian collaborators’ role in the Holocaust during a
state visit to Israel.
In the video, Artyom Vitko, the former
commander of the government backed Luhansk-1 Battalion and now a member
of Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party, can be seen sitting in the back of a
car wearing camouflage fatigues and singing along to a song by a
Russian neo-Nazi band extolling the virtues of the Nazi dictator.
“Adolf
Hitler, together with us, Adolf Hitler, in each of us, and an eagle
with iron wings will help us at the right time,” Vitko sang, saluting
the camera with his water bottle as the car’s sound system blared “Heil
Hitler.” Vitko’s pro-Nazi sentiments emerged immediately on the
heels of party leader Lyashko’s denunciation of President Petro
Poroshenko for his recent apologizing for Ukrainian complicity in the
Holocaust.
Speaking before the Knesset last week, Poroshenko
said “we must remember the negative events in history, in which
collaborators helped the Nazis with the Final Solution. “When
Ukraine was established [as an independent state in 1991], we asked for
forgiveness, and I am doing it now, in the Knesset, before the
children and grandchildren of the victims of the Holocaust... I am doing
it before all citizens of Israel,” he added.
Lyashko lashed out at the president on Facebook on Thursday. “This kind of humiliation of Ukrainians has not been recorded in our history yet. During a visit to Israel, President Poroshenko apologized for the ‘Ukrainian participation in the Holocaust,’” Lyashko posted.
“This
is exactly [the] situation if we would accuse Georgians and Jews in
the Holodomor, appealing to the atrocities of Dzhugashvili, Beria,
Kaganovich, etc,” he said, referring to a massive famine, and those
responsible for it, that resulted from the forced collectivization of
farms in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. The Holodomor, as it
is known in Ukraine, killed millions and is seen by many in that
country as a genocide on par with the Holocaust.
“The Knesset
has not recognized the Holodomor as the genocide of the Ukrainian
people. That is a goal for Ukrainian authorities visiting the Holy Land
rather than belittling Ukrainians [and] proclaiming inferiority of his
people on the international level,” Lyashko added.
Poroshenko’s
comments were laudable and he “acted correctly and courageously when
he spoke in the Knesset about the Holocaust the Jewish people endured
on Ukrainian soil,” Colette Avital, chairwoman of the Center of
Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, told The Jerusalem
Post. “Even though we are not surprised by the comments of the
radical leader, Oleh Lyashko, we are nonetheless shocked by the kind of
strange and irrelevant comparisons he brings up and by his negation
historical facts.
By now even leaders like Mr. Lyashko
should understand that the tragedy which befell the Jewish people in
Europe in general, in Ukraine in particular, should be condemned by
all, including by him.” “I would say that this is the reason
Poroshenko is president and not Lyashko. Lyashko is a populist only
saying what he thinks people want to hear,” said Ukrainian Chief Rabbi
Yaakov Dov Bleich.
The Jewish community, Bleich said, disagrees
with the populist politician’s definition of humiliation, seeing
disgrace as when “one cannot face up to history.” “Pride is to
look back, and learn from mistakes. No one accused the Ukrainian people
of causing or creating the Holocaust. However, the fact is that there
were Ukrainians who participated in the murder and persecution of Jews. They are worthy of condemnation.”
“The
sight of a member of the Ukrainian parliament singing a song praising
Hitler, underscores the extremely deep problem in today’s Ukrainian
democracy regarding the ongoing efforts in that country (and elsewhere
throughout post-Communist Eastern Europe, especially in Lithuania,
Latvia, Estonia and Hungary) to rewrite the narrative of World War II
and the Holocaust,” said Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
“The
fact that the Ukrainian authorities honor groups which actively
participated in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust and glorify
their leaders sends a message that delegitimizes the accurate
historical narrative, and paves the way for disgusting scenes like this
one. The Ukrainian leadership should not feign surprise or
astonishment, they’re the ones at least partially responsible.”
Earlier
this year Ukraine’s parliament has extended official recognition to a
nationalist militia that collaborated with the Germans during World War
II. However, many Ukrainian Jews have appeared rather sanguine,
explaining that they believe that such moves are more likely the
result of a need to build up a national ethos and raise up heroes during
a time of conflict rather than a celebration of such figures’
anti-Semitic attitudes.
Despite that, such moves have been
widely panned by Jewish organizations worried about the long term
effects of the glorification of anti-Semites. Asked about the
decision to honor such groups, Poroshenko told the Post that the
government was paying tribute to those who fought for national
independence. “Let’s not try to find the black cat in the black room, especially if there is nothing there,” he said.
