For me, the evidence is clear that Third Reich Nazis are making a comeback in Ukraine, backed by both governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Yet, it seems fair to ask, if this is so, why have the Jews, Israel, AIPAC, and the Anti-Defamation League (the ADL) been very quiet about it? Why aren't the rabbis pulling out their beards and sitting in ashes?
I have taken issue with calling the Nazis in Ukraine "Neo-Nazis," and the same goes for the UCCA (Ukrainian Congress Committee of America) groups, NGOs, and governmental organizations that support them. The term NEO-Nazi is the reason Jewish groups are silent. It removes from today's Nazis in Ukraine the direct historical link to Hitler's Nazis and their crimes against humanity. The Waffen SS Galician division, for example, which was trained at the German Auschwitz death camp, was one of three Waffen divisions that emigrated after the war to the provincial district of Lviv in western Ukraine. They have lived there since in total impunity.
Who Is Insuring the "NEVER AGAIN" of Jewish Persecution?Ukraine has a long history with intolerant ultra-nationalist movements, and of finding support for them in the U.S.
In 1929, Evhen Konovalets, a leader in the Ukrainian national liberation movement, toured America and started the groups and NGOs that would eventually become the UNA (Ukrainian National Congress) and the UCCA. Konovalets is best known for his crimes against humanity. During the war he attacked villages filled with women and children, and slaughtered them.
In 1936, the B'nai B'rith ADL (Anti-Defamation League) was not silent. They informed the FBI that the organization from which the ultra-nationalist UCCA directly evolved was both pro-German and Nazi--that they performed Nazi drills and wore Nazi uniforms. Their leadership was composed of Waffen SS officers from Ukraine.
The same laws that Congress enacted to bar those who later filled the death camps and became Holocaust victims from immigrating to the U.S., gave this right instead to tens of thousands of members of the far-right Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
In 1938, the Ukrainian National Socialists organized the CUN (Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists) at the Hippodrome in New York. OUN leaders from Germany gave speeches and the crowds raised their right hand and repeated three times: "Slava Ukrainy, Slava Heroim!" This is still the chant of Ukrainian Nazis today.
In 1939, the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee stated that the Ukrainian NGOs were nothing more than spy organs for Adolf Hitler. In this year, also, the leader of the OUN and founder of the Ukrainian National Socialists, Evhen Konovalets, was assassinated. He is one of the most celebrated heroes of the Ukrainian Nationalist movement. After his death, leadership of the Ukrainian Nationalists fell to Andrew Melnyk and Stepan Bandera, respective leaders of the (M) and (B) divisions of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
In 1940, John Metcalf, a reporter and investigator for the Dies Committee (later the House Un-American Activities Committee) informed the FBI that the UCCA (Ukrainian Congress Committee of America) was a Nazi outfit. Both Melnyk and Bandera became leaders of the Ukrainian Waffen SS divisions.
In 1941, Time Magazine ran a story: "Ukrainians Were Trained in Espionage and Sabotage by the Nazis."
In 1945, the New York Herald Tribune ran an article entitled "Pro-Nazi Ukrainians Seek Funds to Bring Storm Troopers to the U.S."
American Receptivity to Ukrainian National Socialists
According to Allan Ryan's book Quiet Neighbors: Prosecuting Nazi War Criminals in America, the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 "was blatantly discriminatory to Jews that survived the Nazi death camps and instead favored as many Baltic, Ukrainian, and German nationals as it could get away with. Ukrainian National Socialists (Nazis) poured into the U.S. by the hundreds of thousands."
Ryan based his statement on an article ("Anti-Communist Minorities in the US: Political Activism of Ethnic Refugees," by Myron B. Kuropas) that was favorable in its conclusions about the role of Ukrainian Nazis in general and especially about their connection with the politics of America. We learn that:
In the 1970s, [representatives of the Ukrainian ultra-nationalist movement] gained the full acceptance of the Republican Party. Today, this very large lobby group has the continual support of 51-53 U.S. Senators.
Israel is stating its fears very clearly. Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken to the administration for the last few years about it. The thought of another Nazi state scares Israel.
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