contradicts a version that you published five years earlier in 1989.
I look forward to hearing your clarification of this discrepancy.
Sincerely yours,
Lubomyr Prytulak
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE WIESENTHAL 2113 hits since 18Jan98
Wiesenthal Letter 18 Sep 11/97 Questions concerning the Waffen SS
September 11, 1997
Simon Wiesenthal
Jewish Documentation Center
Salztorgasse 6
1010 Vienna
Austria
Dear Mr. Wiesenthal:
Your accusation that Canada harbors a large number of war criminals has been
incessant over the years, and at one point led to the creation of Canada's Deschenes
Commission on War Criminals. This accusation seems to be based primarily on Canada's
presently being home to some former members of the Ukrainian Galicia Division, combined
with the fact that the Galicia Division was categorized by the Germans as belonging to
the Waffen SS.
The first question that I would like to put to you, Mr. Wiesenthal, is whether you
are aware that the Waffen SS was a combat unit that played no role in the management of
concentration camps, and carried out no SS functions? I wonder if you are aware of
this, as you typically - perhaps always? - drop the qualification "Waffen" and refer to
members of the Galicia Division simply as members of the "SS," which gives the
misleading impression that combat soldiers were administrators of concentration camps.
If you are already aware of the distinction between the SS and the Waffen SS, then I
wonder that you would allow yourself to present the misleading picture that you have
been presenting. If you are unaware of this distinction, then I wonder how it came to
be that you are accorded the status of an expert witness on World War II events, as you
were on the 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom on October 23, 1994. Would
you be able to throw any light on this question?
But on top of that, you must have become aware during your long career as a Nazi
hunter that Ukraine was not unique in providing the German armed forces with Waffen SS
troops. Below, I reproduce a quote from an interview by Slavko Nowytski of Professor
Norman Davies, historian at the University of London, and author of the recent Europe:
A History, published by Oxford University Press:
In discussing the question of collaborating with Germany Prof. Davies
noted that, "A large number of the volunteers for the Waffen SS came
from Western Europe. The nation which supplied it the largest number
of divisions was the Netherlands [four]. There were two Belgian
divisions, there was a French Waffen SS. To my mind, it's rather
surprising that Ukraine, which is a much larger country [than the
Netherlands or Belgium] supplied only one Waffen SS Division.... It's
surprising that there were so few Ukrainians [in the German Army].
Many people don't know, for example, that there were far more Russians
fighting alongside the Wehrmacht or in the various German armies than
there were Ukrainians.... Thanks to Soviet propaganda, the Russian
contribution to the Nazi war effort has been forgotten, whereas the
Ukrainian contribution has been remembered, I think, too strongly."