Feds won’t commit to cutting alleged Nazi collaborators’ names from Victims of Communism memorial

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The Liberal government won’t make a firm commitment to keep the names of alleged Nazi collaborators and fascists off the Victims of Communism memorial to be unveiled in downtown Ottawa.

But Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge’s office told the Ottawa Citizen that it will make sure the memorial’s commemorative elements will remain compatible with Canadian values.

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The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, a holocaust education organization, wrote St-Onge on Oct. 10 to request the federal government make a firm and public commitment that the names of more than 300 individuals with suspected ties to the Nazis or fascist groups aren’t put on the memorial. The organization has yet to receive a response.

The memorial, which is located near the corner of Wellington and Bay streets, is supposed to honour those who suffered under communism.

But concerns have been raised over the years by Jewish organizations and historians that names of eastern Europeans who collaborated with the Nazis in the Holocaust have been put forward in an attempt to whitewash their past.

On Oct. 7, the Ottawa Citizen revealed that a report prepared for the Department of Canadian Heritage recommended more than half of the 550 names planned to go on the Memorial to the Victims of Communism should be removed. That is because of potential links to the Nazis, questions about affiliations with fascist groups or a lack of information about what the individuals did during the Second World War. A number of the entries should be removed because they had no direct link to Canada, the report noted. As originally planned, there were to be 553 entries on the memorial’s Wall of Remembrance.

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The department had already determined that 50 to 60 of the names or organizations were likely directly linked to the Nazis, according to the documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen through an access to information request.

The letter to St-Onge from the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center warned that honouring Nazis and collaborators in a public memorial in the nation’s capital “grossly undermines our collective memory of the Holocaust by recasting the perpetrators of genocide into heroic roles” and “is an affront to all Canadians of good conscience.”

Asked about the letter and whether St-Onge will follow through with the request to keep the Nazi names off the memorial, the minister’s office responded with this statement: ‘’The review of the commemorative elements is ongoing. We are still thoroughly reviewing the commemorative elements to ensure all aspects of the memorial remain compatible with Canadian values on democracy and human rights.‘’

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center official Jaime Kirzner-Roberts noted that her organization has been warning for years about problems with the memorial.

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In 2021, the organization revealed that Roman Shukhevych, a Ukrainian nationalist who collaborated with the Nazis and was linked to the massacres of Jews and Poles, was one of those being commemorated. After the group repeatedly raised the matter with the department, Shukhevych’s name was removed.

Kirzner-Roberts, who examined the Heritage Canada report which recommended excluding the names from the monument, said the document raises more concerns.

“After years of raising concerns with Canadian Heritage about the potential Nazi affiliations of those commemorated by the new memorial, this report calling for the removal of 332 names is the wake-up call our government desperately needs,” she said.

The memorial was supposed to be unveiled in November 2023 but that was put on hold after members of Parliament honoured Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian man who turned out to have been in the Waffen-SS Galicia Division during the Second World War. That unit was voluntary and under the command of the Nazis. The incident became an international embarrassment for Canada.

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Canadian Heritage spokesperson Caroline Czajkowski told the Ottawa Citizen that a new date for the memorial unveiling has not yet been set.

The main spokesperson for Tribute to Liberty, the organization which advocated for the memorial, did not respond to a request for comment.

Federal officials in other departments have continued to warn Canadian Heritage that the inclusion of Nazi collaborators on the memorial will cause international embarrassment.

“It is important to note that many anti-communist and anti-Soviet advocates and fighters were also active Nazi collaborators, who committed documented massacres,” Global Affairs Canada officials warned their counterparts at Canadian Heritage in 2021.

The Memorial to the Victims of Communism has already been the focus of multiple controversies over its exact purpose, location, size and cost over the last 15 years. The price tag for the project has ballooned to an estimated $7.5 million — including $6 million in public funds — from an original budget of $1.5 million that was supposed to be funded entirely through private donations from Tribute to Liberty.

David Pugliese is an award-winning journalist covering Canadian Forces and military issues in Canada. To support his work, including exclusive content for subscribers only, sign up here: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

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