Public blasted Trudeau, other politicians for honouring Nazi division veteran, documents show

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Canadians from across the country blasted the Liberal government and federal leaders for honouring in the House of Commons a Ukrainian veteran who fought for a Nazi SS division.

The more than 1,000 pages of documents released under the Access to Information law provide a glimpse at the intense anger sparked last year by the decision by all members in the Commons to give two standing ovations for Waffen SS soldier Yaroslav Hunka.

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Holocaust survivors wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about friends killed by Hunka’s division, the 14th SS Galician, while families of Canadian soldiers killed fighting the Nazis during the Second World War peppered MPs with questions about why they honoured a soldier who had sworn allegiance to Adolf Hitler.

Hunka, a resident of North Bay, Ont., has not commented on the Sept. 22, 2023, event in which he was introduced to the Commons as a Ukrainian-Canadian war veteran and a hero. House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota thanked Hunka for “his service.”

But news quickly emerged that Hunka had served in a Ukrainian SS unit.

The incident became an international embarrassment for Canada as Holocaust historians, Jewish groups and the Polish government pointed out that Hunka’s unit had been involved in war crimes, including massacres of women and children. The division was also used by the Nazis to crush a national uprising in Slovakia, again prompting allegations of war crimes.

There is no evidence Hunka, now 99, was directly involved in those incidents.

After the outcry, Rota was forced to resign as speaker and Trudeau issued an apology.

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The documents, sent to various MPs and the prime minister and collected by the Privy Council Office, outline the extent of Canadians’ ire at MPs and party leaders.

The emails pointed out the stupidity of the parliamentarians for not realizing that Hunka had fought against allied forces during the Second World War.

One Holocaust survivor pointed out to Trudeau that the 14th division of the Waffen SS murdered their friends in Slovakia in late 1944. “Please check the pictures of the discovery of these mass graves of people that I knew personally,” that person wrote.

The names of those who sent messages were removed from the documents because of privacy rules.

“You ennoble the Waffen-SS (a criminal organization per the Nuremberg Trials), and you spit in the faces of our surviving Canadian veterans as well as besmirching the memories of those who died fighting tyranny,” another wrote.

Others questioned how members of the Waffen SS were allowed into Canada after the war or pointed out that other Waffen SS members executed Canadian soldiers they had taken prisoner.

Families of captured Canadian soldiers who were also held in Nazi concentration camps also expressed disgust. “All you government people who gave a standing ovation to someone who was associated with the Nazis during WW2 would be really funny if it wasn’t so tragic,” one letter writer noted. “My dad spent years in Buchenwald concentration camp. I still remember all the stories he told me, and it wasn’t pretty. You clowns all look ridiculous after such a big blunder.”

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Another suggested sarcastically that Parliament also honour SS leader Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Eichmann, both major perpetrators of the Holocaust.

A small number of correpondents, around 10, defended the honour bestowed on Hunka, citing claims that, after the war, all members of the Galician division were carefully screened before being admitted into Canada.

Those claims, however, have been undercut by declassified government records

In 2005, the release of new documents from British government archives outlined warnings about the members of the unit and efforts to dump them in Canada. “The Division was an SS division and technically all of its officers and senior NCOs are liable for trial as war criminals,” one report noted.

In another report from 1948, British government official Beryl Hughes talked about efforts to send SS members to Canada. “What little we know of their war record is bad,” wrote Hughes, who was handling the issue for Britain’s Home Office. “We’re still hoping to get rid of the less-desirable Ukrainian PoWs either to Germany or Canada.”

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Some nationalist Ukrainian-Canadians see members of Waffen SS division as heroes since they fought against Soviet forces that were, along with Canada, the United States and Britain, part of a coalition to defeat Nazi Germany.

But some critics point out that every Ukrainian Waffen SS soldier who was in battle against the Soviets, freed up a German soldier who could be used to fight Canadians, British and Americans who were pushing towards Berlin.

Others point out that approximately 40,000 Ukrainian-Canadians fought in Canada’s military against the Nazis and none have been honoured in the House of Commons.

David Pugliese is an award-winning journalist covering Canadian Forces and military issues in Canada. To support his work, subscribe: ottawacitizen.com/subscribe

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