After all Cohen is not a historian nor is he
particularly learned in the period of World War II. He relies on dubious
Ukrainian sources like John Paul Himka and Marco Carynnyk, both of Canada. The
best thing that one can say about Himka is that he is a historian. Carynnyk is
not even that.
Cohen refers to at
least three other so-called experts: Jeffrey Burds, who does not impugn the
OUN-UPA but the methodology used by Viatrovych. My purpose is not to defend
a man’s methods. Cohen also refers to little known Ukrainian historian
Stanislav Serhiyenko who “slammed”
Viatrovych for restricting access to archives and Jared McBride, a
fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum who by virtue of his
position is obliged to speak on the subject of the Holocaust and seek out
possible demons who may or may not have been responsible.
With all due respect
to the victims of the Nazi atrocities and my father was an inmate for some three
years at the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp, the Holocaust has become
much more than the tragic killing of Jews during World War II. It has become an
industry, a constant appeal for supporting Israel and it requires constant
input and regeneration.
My problem with Cohen is that he throws the anti-Semitic label around with such levity and with
no personal research or knowledge, support or evidence, thus rendering the
accusation itself almost meaningless. He also exposes a bias when he laments that
Viatrovych, Serhiy Kvit and others in Ukraine are involved in a “telling of World War
II history that amplifies Soviet crimes…” No one in history except maybe Mao
Tse Tung’s China killed more than the Soviets.
Even the Nazis paled by comparison.
Ukrainian-Jewish
relations have been and even now are afflicted with a mutual dislike and
accusation. There is no need to cover this up, but mutual forgiveness today
would be a good idea. Many Ukrainians in Ukraine disliked Jews because many
Jews were the underpinning of colonial rule in Ukraine, under Poland, Czarist
Russia and the Soviet Union. In fact Jews constituted the majority of the
secret services of the Communist Party in Ukraine and those services were
responsible for carrying out the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 when some 7
million Ukrainians starved to death.
During the Soviets’
initial occupation of western Ukraine from 1939-41, they perpetrated heinous
crimes and in many instances the perpetrators were young Jewish Ukrainians who
joined the Soviet ranks in 1939.
It was perfectly reasonable that when war
broke out in 1941 between Germany and the USSR, the Ukrainian population of
Western Ukraine sought a respite from
Soviet killing as well as an opportunity to proclaim its freedom in the
midst of the conflict. Yet prior to the Nazi’s invasion in June 1941, the
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists submitted a memo to the Nazis informing
them that if they opposed Ukrainian independence Ukrainians would be their
worst enemies.
When the Nazis
entered Lviv, the prisons were opened and all the massacres
perpetrated by the Soviets and their accomplices were exposed. It would be reasonable to assume that the
surviving families of those massacred would turn on those who were responsible.
Since the Soviets had fled, only their accomplices remained. Many,
unfortunately, were Jewish. There was a retaliatory action. The nationality of
those who retaliated is very difficult to identify from photographs which is
the only existing evidence. There were Ukrainians among them. But it is
important to note that in the Lviv at that time Ukrainians constituted
only a small percentage. The bulk of the population was Polish and Jewish.
There were Poles and Jews among the Soviet victims. Similarly there were Poles
and Jews among those who retaliated.
The OUN or the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army were not anti-Semitic ”explicitly” as Cohen
exaggerates. In fact there were Jews in both formations. Their mandate did not
reference any activity against Jews in Ukraine. Some members on their own acted
against Jews, or simply against an enemy who just happened to be Jewish. Other
members tried to save Jews.
I can assume that
Josh Cohen is not personally knowledgeable of the history of Ukraine during
World War II. He is unfair in his
treatment of that history, that unfairness being the product of his ignorance.
Mr. Viatrovych is and should be dedicated to pursuing the truth in Ukraine’s
tragic history, tragic mostly for the
Ukrainian people. Other countries have
institutes of national memory.
Their purpose is to unearth and teach the truth
about the history of their nation. No one, and, certainly, no American has the
right to accuse them of wrongdoing and falsification unless he has evidence of
such. Not surprisingly Cohen refers to several persons accusing Ukraine of
falsifying its history and insisting that they possess evidence of this, but no
one identifies the evidence itself. I am not a historian, but as an attorney, I
know that without an identification of evidence there is no case.
