hundred is insufficient to depict the entire population as participants, then Ukrainians should
be allowed a total of 360,000 criminal collaborators - a number never yet broached - without
Ukrainians being collectively condemned as Nazis.
The plea to avoid ascribing collective guilt is not new to Ukrainian-Jewish relations, and has
been put forward by both sides. It is time that the plea was heeded:
Even as we Jews justly disclaim responsibility for the acts of the Jewish
Bolshevist commissars and for the disgraceful actions of those Jews who
participated in the work of the Bolshevist chekas (Secret Police), the
Ukrainian people has a full right to disclaim any responsibility for those who
have besmirched themselves by pogrom activities. (Arnold Margolin, The Jews of
Eastern Europe, 1926, p. 124, in Andrew Gregorovich, Jews and Ukrainians, Forum
No. 91, Fall-Winter, 1994, p. 30)
Additional material on Jewish collaboration with the Nazis can be found in my discussion of the
Jewish Ghetto Police in my Letter 17 to Anne McLellan, Canada's Minister of Justice.
CONTENTS:
Preface
The Galicia Division
Quality of Translation
Ukrainian Homogeneity
Were Ukrainians Nazis?
Simon Wiesenthal
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
Paralysis of the Comparative Function
Positions taken by Morley Safer acquire meaning - can only be evaluated - following relevant
comparisons, but Mr. Safer fails to make these comparisons. For example, Ukrainian assistance
to Jews during the Jewish Holocaust acquires significance - indeed, may be thrown into a wholly
new light - when compared to Jewish assistance to Jews during the Jewish Holocaust, but Mr.
Safer does not make such a comparison. Ukrainian cruelty on behalf of the Nazis acquires
significance when compared to Jewish cruelty on behalf of the Nazis, but Mr. Safer does not make
this comparison. Ukrainians saving Jews (a possibility totally ignored by Mr. Safer) is given a
new significance when compared with Jews saving Ukrainians at times when such aid was possible
and of course Mr. Safer never reaches a point where he could make such a comparison.
Comparison 1: Ukrainians Helping Jews Compared to Jews Helping Jews
We have seen above that countless Ukrainians risked their lives and gave their lives to save
Jews. And what, let us now ask, were those who today level accusations of genetic anti-Semitism
against Ukrainians doing at the same time? What, for example, were American Jews doing? The
generous view is that they were doing little:
No American Jew appeared to have altered his life style once news of the