Ukrainian population that Bolsheviks and Jews need no longer be feared and that they could be
attacked with impunity; and (3) they were taking a first step toward dragging a handful of
Ukrainians into complicitous guilt.
Bodies on the Ground
One photograph inserted into the middle of these "remnants of a film" was of bodies lying in
rows on the ground. Of course Morley Safer does not identify the photograph - he does not
attribute it to a source, he mentions no date or place. As the photograph is being shown, Mr.
Safer is saying that Simon Wiesenthal "remembers that even before the Germans arrived, Ukrainian
police went on a three-day killing spree." The impression left in the viewer's mind, therefore,
is that these must be some of the 5,000 to 6,000 victims of that killing spree.
Three details of this photograph, however, suggest otherwise: (1) The bodies are shown lying in
snow, whereas the killing spree was supposed to have taken place in the three days before the
German occupation of Lviv on June 30, 1941. (2) The legs of one of the bodies are visible, and
these legs are skeletally thin, which suggests a famine victim and not the victim of a pogrom,
or else suggests that this is an exhumed corpse. If these are in reality famine victims, then
they are more likely to be Ukrainians than Jews. (3) Most of the shapes on the ground resemble
small heaps rather than bodies, which suggests that the photograph is one of exhumed remains
from some old mass grave - and we may reflect that in June 1941 (if that was when this
photograph was taken), the inhabitants of Ukraine's many mass graves were predominantly
Ukrainians and not Jews. Thus, there is a very real possibility that Morley Safer is using a
photograph of Ukrainians killed by Jews as evidence of Jews killed by Ukrainians.
The Wallowing Photograph
The last scene of this Nazi propaganda footage that was presented by Morley Safer has a
notorious history of being presented in various publications with wildly different
interpretations - of which Time Magazine's "Wallowing Photograph" fiasco of 22Feb93 is but one
instance. In fact, this photograph is taken from the wallowing-in-the-gutter German propaganda
film that we have been discussing above. Whereas Time magazine editors did not go so far as to
concede this, they were able to muster enough integrity to express ignorance and confusion, and
also to retract and to apologize:
Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to pin down exactly what
situation the photograph portrays. But there is enough confusion about it for
us to regret that our caption, in addition to misdating the picture, may well
have conveyed a false impression. (Time, April 19, 1993)
And yet this same notorious photograph has been recycled yet again by 60 Minutes and broadcast
as if it had unequivocal significance. Time admitted that it was wrong, Morley Safer cannot
escape having to do the same.
It is a curious incongruity that while professing to oppose Naziism, Morley Safer nevertheless
broadcasts a Nazi propaganda film and invites 60 Minutes' viewers to take it at face value. The
propaganda of one era is, half a century later, dredged up to become the propaganda of another
era, but with a switch from approval to disapproval - the Germans used the film to portray
Ukrainians as good anti-Semites, and so why shouldn't Mr. Safer use the same film to portray
Ukrainians as bad anti-Semites?
CONTENTS:
Preface
The Galicia Division
Quality of Translation
Ukrainian Homogeneity
Were Ukrainians Nazis?
Simon Wiesenthal