Zelensky joins Canadian Parliament’s ovation for 98-year-old veteran who fought with Nazis
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The man was part of the SS Galichina, a unit whose history was hidden by veterans’ groups in the West.

By Lev Golinkin, in Before
September 24, 2023

The Canadian Parliament gave a standing ovation on Friday to a 98-year-old Ukrainian immigrant who fought in a Third Reich military formation accused of war crimes.

Elderly veteran Yaroslav Hunka was honored during a session in which Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy addressed lawmakers to thank them for their support since Russia’s invasion of his country, saying Canada has always been “on the positive side of history”. House Speaker Anthony Rota – who compared Zelensky to Winston Churchill – recognized a “World War II veteran who fought for Ukraine’s independence against the Russians and who continues to support the troops today, even at 98 years old.” »

The assembly then rose to applaud a man in a khaki uniform standing on the balcony, who saluted, according to this image from Canadian television.

The man was identified as Hunka by The Associated Press, which published a photograph showing Zelensky smiling and raising his fist during the ovation.

The AP caption described Hunka as having “fought with the Ukrainian First Division during World War II before immigrating to Canada.” The First Ukrainian Division is another name for the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, the military wing of the Nazi Party; the unit was also called SS Galichina.

This is the same unity that is honored by controversial monuments in Canada, Australia and, as the Forward recently exposed, the suburbs of Philadelphia and Detroit. Jewish groups have called for his dismissal.

After an article in the Forward in August, which was followed by coverage in the Philadelphia Inquirer, local television stations and other media outlets, the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia temporarily covered the monument located in a cemetery in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, pending discussions with local authorities. Jewish leaders. . The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and regional chapters of the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League expressed outrage over the monument.

Created in 1943, the SS Galichina was made up of recruits from the Galicia region of western Ukraine. The unit was armed and trained by the Nazis and commanded by German officers. In 1944, the division was visited by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, who spoke of the soldiers’ desire to massacre the Poles.

Three months earlier, SS Galichina subunits had carried out what is known as the Huta Pieniacka massacre, burning alive between 500 and 1,000 Polish villagers.

At the Nuremberg Trials, the International Military Tribunal declared the Waffen-SS a criminal organization responsible for mass atrocities, including “the persecution and extermination of Jews, brutality and murder in concentration camps, excess in the administration of occupied territories, of the administration of slaves.” work program and the mistreatment and murder of prisoners.

After the war, thousands of SS Galichina veterans were allowed to resettle in the West, including approximately 2,000 to Canada. At that time the unit was universally known as the First Ukrainian Division.

A veterans’ association blog, called “Combatant News” in Ukrainian, includes an autobiographical entry by Yaroslav Hunka who says he volunteered to join the division in 1943 and several photographs of him during the war . Captions state that the photos show Hunka during SS artillery training in Munich in December 1943 and in Neuhammer (now Świętoszów) in Poland, the site of Himmler’s visit.

In blog posts from 2011 and 2010, Hunka describes the years 1941 to 1943 as the happiest years of his life and compares the veterans of his unit, scattered across the world, to Jews.

Canada has two monuments to unity, one in Wayville, outside Toronto, and another in Edmonton. Canadian Jewish organizations have called for his dismissal.

It is unclear whether Zelensky knew that Hunka had fought with the unit. In 2021, the Ukrainian president joined the Israeli and German governments in denouncing a march in honor of the SS Galichina in Kyiv.