War Criminality: A Blank Spot in the Collective Memory of the Ukrainian Diaspora (original) (raw)

Abstract

sparkles

AI

The paper addresses the contentious issue of war crimes committed by Ukrainians during World War II, particularly examining how these atrocities are overlooked in the identity consciousness of the Ukrainian diaspora. It critiques the defensive narrative within the diaspora that often portrays allegations of war criminality as unjust attacks, thereby avoiding a more introspective examination of historical events, such as the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's actions in Volhynia and the role of Ukrainian auxiliary police in the Holocaust. The work urges a shift in this discourse to foster honest reflection and acknowledgment of historical responsibilities.

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References (27)

  1. Ukrainian Weekly, 30 January 2000. Typical is a reference to "the commemoration of the so-called 1943 events in Volyn, during which the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) is accused of destroying Polish settlements and murdering from 30,000 to 60,000 Poles." Emphasis added. Oksana Zakydalsky, "Commemorations of 1943 Events in Volyn: Perspective of Ukrainians in Poland," Ukrainian Weekly, 8 June 2003. "In 2003 Polish authorities are planning to make [sic] the anniversary of what they refer to as the 'Slaughter in Volyn' -the alleged killings of a large number of ethnic Poles by the Ukrainian underground in the Volyn region of Ukraine in 1943." Emphasis added. "Treasure Trove of Ukrainain Historical Archives Discovered in Poland," E-Poshta, 19 February 2003.
  2. For an eminent Ukrainian political scientist in the 1980s it was still a question whether Ukrainians "served only as guards or also shot the Jews." Yaroslav Bilinsky, "Methodological Problems and Philosophical Issues in the Study of Jewish-Ukrainian Relations during the Second World War," in Ukrainian-Jewish Relations, ed. Potichnyj and Aster, p. 380. On the denial of the culpability of the Ukrainian police, see: John-Paul Himka, "Ukrainian Collaboration in the Extermination of the Jews During the Second World War: Sorting Out the Long-Term and Conjunctural Factors," in The Fate of the European Jews, 1939-1945: Continuity or Contingency, ed. Jonathan Frankel (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), Studies in Contemporary Jewry 13 (1997): 186 n. 11; also: 9 "Ukrainians during World War II," Ukrainian Canadian Congress position paper, 19 June 1999. 10 "Pro problemu antysemityzmu v Ukraini," Svoboda, 3 February 1960. 11 Classic texts are: S.O. Pidhainy, et al., eds., The Black Deeds of the Kremlin: A White Book, vol. 1: Book of Testimonies (Toronto: Ukrainian Association of Victims of Russian Communist Terror, 1953) and James E. Mace and Leonid Heretz, eds., Oral History Project of the Commission on the Ukraine Famine, 3 vols. (Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1990).
  3. Taras Kuzio, "Commemorating 1943 Events in Volyn," Kyiv Post, 10
  4. April 2003. Taras Kuzio, "How Poland is Commemorating the Volyn Events of 1943 the Wrong Way," Ukrainian Weekly, 25 May 2003. 13 This is rather cryptically put in Kuzio, "Commemorating 1943 Events in Volyn." Kuzio writes that "an important factor in the Volhynian conflict" was "when Ukrainian policemen who fled to Famine to Forgotten Holocaust: The 1932-1933 Famine in Ukrianian Historical Cultures," in Klas-Göran Karlsson and Ulf Zander, eds., Echoes of the Holocaust: Historical Cultures in Contemporary Europe (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2003), p. 242.
  5. Bilinsky, "Methodological Problems," p. 387. 17 "Round-Table Discussion," in Ukrainian-Jewish Relations, ed. Potichnyj and Aster, p. 486. 18 "Victor Borisow's Keynote Address at Commemoration," Ukrainian Weekly, 19 October 2003.
  6. Taras Kuzio, "Denial of Famine-Terror Continues Unabated," RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report, 4, no. 23 (12 June 2002).
  7. Peter Borisow, "So-called Omissions in the Ukrainian Famine Bibliography," E-Poshta, 22 May 2003. Borisow lumped these scholars together with pro-Soviet propagandists Douglas Tottle and Jeff Coplon. See the judicious comments of David Marples, "In Defence of the Ukrainian Famine Bibliography," E-Poshta, 22 May 2003.
  8. Mark B. Tauger, "The 1932 Harvest and the Soviet Famine of 1932- 1933," Slavic Review 50, no. 1 (Spring 1991). 22 "Pro problemu antysemityzmu v Ukraini."
  9. Joseph Iwaniv, "Documentation of Our Holocaust Needed," Svoboda, 30 March 1980.
  10. L. Stakhniv-Diachenko, "Novyny z Ligy proty zneslavlennia ukrains'koho imeni," Svoboda, 10 June 1980.
  11. Bilinsky, "Methodological Problems," p. 387. See also "Round-Table Discussion," p. 483. 26 "Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko's Address to Holocaust Conference," Ukrainian Weekly, 19 March 2000.
  12. Lubomyr Luciuk, "Museum Must Recall All Who Were Killed," Ukrainian Weekly, 16 April 2000. Another letter on the same issue opined: "One of the last things the world needs is yet another Holocaust museum. It is also the very last thing Ukraine needs." Eugene Harasymiw, "Is Ukraine's PM Merely Being PC?" Ukrainian weekly, 16 April 2000. 35 "Strike While It's Hot," Svoboda, 27 April 1980. 36 The Ukrainian Canadian Congress issued a detailed analysis of this segment: "'The Ugly Face of Freedom': A Position Paper." See also: Terry Harasym, "60 Minutes: An Anti-Ukrainian Scandal," Ukrainian Canadian Herald, December 1994, p. 8.
  13. Ivan Lysiak-Rudnyts'kyi, "Natsionalizm i totalitaryzm (Vidpovid' M. Prokopovi)," Journal of Ukrainian Studies 7, no. 2 (13) (Fall 1982): 83-85. 38 "Round-Table Discussion," p. 491.
  14. Marko Tsarynnyk, "Til'ky i iest' u nas voroh -nashe sertse," Suchasnist', October 1984.
  15. Karel C. Berkhof and Marco Carynnyk, "The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Its Attitude toward Germans and Jews: Iaroslav Stets'ko's 1941 Zhyttiepys," Harvard Ukrainian Studies 23, no. 3-4 (1999):149-84.
  16. Sister Sophia's article originally appeared in Religion, State & Society 30, no. 4 (2002). The excerpts were circulated in E-Poshta of 21 March 2003. E-Poshta was alerted to the article by Taras Kuzio. The e-mail address of the editor of Religion, State & Society was provided so that readers could express their views directly to him. 42 Himka, "Ukrainian Collaboration."
  17. Nicholas Sawicki, "Ethnic Tensions and Wise Decisions," Ukrainian Weekly, 3 September 2000. Kuropas's article has been cited above.
  18. George A. Nestor, "Famine Terminology Is Problematic," Ukrainian Weekly, 18 May 2003.
  19. Dieter Pohl, Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941-1944: Organisation und Durchführung eines staatlichen Massenverbrechens (Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1997), pp. 148, 217-19, 260, 366.
  20. Martin Dean, Collaboration during the Holocaust: Crimes of the Local Police in Belorussia and Ukraine, 1941-44 (New York: St. Martin's Press, published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2000). But see my reservations about this book in a review forthcoming in Polin.
  21. Jeffrey Burds, "AGENTURA: Soviet Informants' Networks and the Ukrainian Rebel Underground in Galicia, 1944-1948," East European Politics and Societies 11, no. 1 (Winter 1997): 89-130.
  22. Jeffrey Burds, "Gender and Policing in Soviet West Ukraine, 1944- 1948," Cahiers du Monde russe 42/2, no. 3-4 (April-December 2001): 279-319.
  23. "In the village of Kuty, Shumsk raion, a whole Polish colony was burned down (86 households), and the population was destroyed for collaboration with the gestapo and German authorities… In Verba raion the Polish colony Nova Novytsia was burned down (40 households) for collaboration with the German authorities. The population was destroyed… For active collaboration with the Germans in this same village [Bihal, Derazhne raion] the Polish colony was destroyed." Volodymyr Serhiichuk, OUN-UPA roky viiny. Novi dokumenty i materialy (Kyiv: Dnipro, 1996), pp. 311-12. See also I.I. Il'iushyn, OUN-UPA i ukrains'ke pytannia v roky druhoi svitovoi viiny (v svitli pol's'kykh dokumentiv) (Kyiv: Natsional'na Akademiia Nauk Ukrainy, Instytut istorii Ukrainy, 2000).
  24. Andriy Zayarnyuk, "Framing the Ukrainian Peasantry in Habsburg Galicia, 1846-1914 (With a Focus on the Sambir Area"( PhD thesis: University of Alberta, 2003), chapter 8.
  25. John-Paul Himka, "Ukrainian-Jewish Antagonism in the Galician Countryside during the Late Nineteenth Century," in Ukrainian- Jewish Relations, ed. Potichnyj and Aster, pp. 111-58.
  26. 51 Shimon Redlich, "Jewish-Ukrainian Relations in Inter-War Poland as Reflected in Some Ukrainian Publications," Polin 11 (1998): 232- 46. 52 Berkhof and Carynnyk, "The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Its Attitude toward Germans and Jews." 53 John-Paul Himka, "Krakivski visti and the Jews, 1943: A Contribution to the History of Ukrainian-Jewish Relations during the Second World War," Journal of Ukrainian Studies 21, no. 1-2 (Summer-Winter 1996): 81-95. I refrained from naming Anatol Kurdydyk in that article because he was then still alive. (See p. 88.) An obituary of Kurdydyk appeared in Ukrainian Weekly on 15 July 2001and a warm appreciation by R.L. Chomiak on 2 September 2001. 54 Janusz Radziejowski, "Kształtowanie się oblicza ideowego radykalnego nacjonalizmu ukraińskiego (1917-1929)," in Ewa Grześkowiak-Turczyk, Polska -Polacy -mniejszości narodowe (Wrocław: 1992), pp. 317-18.
  27. Janine P. Holc, "Working through Jan Gross's Neighbors," Slavic Review 61, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 465.