Чтение онлайн

What Happened in Lviv?

Nazi Propaganda Film

Collective Guilt

Paralysis of the Comparative

Function

60 Minutes' Cheap Shots

Ukrainian Anti-Semitism

Jewish Ukrainophobia

Mailbag

A Sense of Responsibility

What 60 Minutes Should Do

PostScript

Ukrainian Homogeneity

In his every statement, Mr. Safer reveals that he starts from the assumption that Ukrainians are

homogeneously anti-Semitic and Nazi in their inclinations. In doing so, Mr. Safer does not stop

to wonder how it is that Ukrainians can be so entirely different in this respect from all other

peoples. Take Americans, for instance. Surely we all agree that among Americans, there are

some who would pitch in and help if they saw Nazis killing Jews, and others who would risk their

lives - and give their lives - to stop that very same killing, and of course the great bulk in

the middle who would consider immediate self-interest first, and look the other way and pretend

to see nothing. But Ukrainians, if we are to believe Mr. Safer, are a people apart - exhibiting

no such heterogeneity, clones one of another, genetically programmed to hate Jews.

To suggest such a thing is, of course, preposterous. The obvious reality is that Ukrainians do

exhibit a normal degree of heterogeneity. Had 60 Minutes wanted to, it could have found plenty

of evidence of this: (1) Since the city of Lviv was featured in the 60 Minutes broadcast, 60

Minutes could have mentioned - in fact, it was duty-bound to mention the heroism of

Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky's effort on behalf of Jews. (2) Since 60 Minutes was throwing

blanket condemnations over Ukrainians collectively not only for being the world's greatest

anti-Semites, but for the most extreme war crimes and crimes against humanity, it was incumbent

on 60 Minutes to notice the vast number of instances that can be found of Ukrainian sacrifices

to save Jews. (3) Since the city of Lviv was featured on the 60 Minutes broadcast, as were

Ukrainian auxiliary police units, as was Simon Wiesenthal, 60 Minutes should have mentioned that

in the city of Lviv, just such a Ukrainian police auxiliary by the name of Bodnar risked his

life - possibly sacrificed his life - to save the life of Simon Wiesenthal himself.

Let us consider each of these points in turn.

Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky

There is little doubt as to the almost saintly role of Ukrainian (Greek)

Catholic Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. Sheptytsky, Archbishop of L'viv and

head of the church, was widely known as being sympathetic to the Jews. ...

The elderly metropolitan wrote directly to SS commander Heinrich Himmler in the

winter of 1942 demanding an end to the final solution and, equally important to

him, an end to the use of Ukrainian militia and police in anti-Jewish action.

His letter elicited a sharp rebuke, but Sheptytsky persisted even though the

death penalty was threatened to those who gave comfort to Jews. In November

1942 he issued a pastoral letter to be read in all churches under his

authority. It condemned murder. Although Jews were not specifically

mentioned, his intent was crystal clear.

We can never know how many Ukrainians were moved by Sheptytsky's appeal.

Certainly the church set an example. With Sheptytsky's tacit approval, his

church hid a number of Jews throughout western Ukraine, 150 Jews alone in and

around his L'viv headquarters. Perhaps some of his parishioners were among

those brave and precious few "righteous gentiles" who risked an automatic death

penalty for themselves and their families by harbouring a Jew under their roof.

The towering humanity of Sheptytsky remains an inspiration today. (Harold

Troper Morton Weinfeld, Old Wounds, 1988, pp. 17-18)

Raul Hilberg adds concerning Sheptytsky:

He dispatched a lengthy handwritten letter dated August 29-31, 1942 to the

Pope, in which he referred to the government of the German occupants as a

regime of terror and corruption, more diabolical than that of the Bolsheviks.

(Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders, 1992, p. 267)

Unbiased reporting might have mentioned such details as the following:

One of those saved by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky was Lviv's Rabbi Kahane

whose son is currently the marshal commander of the Israeli Air Force.

(Ukrainian Weekly, June 21, 1992, p. 9)

Sheptitsky himself hid fifteen Jews, including Rabbi Kahane, in his own

residence in Lvov, a building frequently visited by German officials. (Martin

Gilbert, The Holocaust, 1986, p. 410)

Vast Ukrainian Sacrifices to Save Jews

And Sheptytsky's actions are not unique - Ukrainians risking their lives and giving their lives

to save Jews was not a rare occurrence. In the first Jewish Congress of Ukraine held in Kiev in

1992, "48 awards were handed out to Ukrainians and people of other nationalities who had rescued

Jews during the second world war" (Ukrainian Weekly, November 8, 1992, p. 2). References to

specific cases are not hard to find:

Prof. Weiss [head of the Israeli Knesset] reminisced about Ukraine, the country

of his childhood, and gratefully acknowledged he owed his life to two Ukrainian

women who hid him from the Nazis during World War II. (Ukrainian Weekly,

December 13, 1992, p. 8)

In the Volhynian town of Hoszcza a Ukrainian farmer, Fiodor Kalenczuk, hid a

Jewish grain merchant, Pessah Kranzberg, his wife, their ten-year-old daughter