Ukraine Designates National Holiday to Commemorate Nazi Collaborator
Separately, the state banned 'Book of Thieves' which criticizes the anti-Semitic actions of a different national leader for 'inciting ethnic, racial and religious hatred'
Ukraine designated the birthday of a Nazi collaborator as a national holiday and banned a book on the anti-Semitic actions of another national leader.
The Ukrainian parliament last week declared January 1 as a national day of commemoration for Stepan Bandera, who briefly joined forces with the Nazi occupation of Ukraine. A nationalist, Bandera hoped the Germans would allow his country sovereignty from the Soviet Union, though the Nazis later arrested him.
To really understand Israel and the Jewish world - subscribe to Haaretz
Some of his supporters at the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which he headed, committed countless war crimes against Jews.
The region of Lviv, Bandera’s native city, this month declared 2019 “Stepan Bandera Year,” sparking protests by Israel. Tarik Youssef Cyril Amar, the former academic director of Lviv’s Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, this week returned an award conferred on him by the city in protest.
- Meet the Lonely Ukrainian Jew Fighting His Country’s New Fondness for Nazis
- Germany Allocates $1.1m to Create Museum at Former Nazi Extermination Camp
- Ukrainian City Commemorates the 75th Anniversary of Holocaust
>>Ukraine's Invented a 'Jewish-Ukrainian Nationalist' to Whitewash Its Nazi-era Past | Opinion
Separately, Ukraine’s State Committee on Television and Radio Broadcasting banned “Book of Thieves” by Swedish historian Anders Rydell, which includes critical analysis of the actions of Symon Petliura, an early-20th century nationalist whose troops murdered countless Jews in pogroms beginning in 1919.
The December 10 decree banning the book accused Rydell of “inciting ethnic, racial and religious hatred,” the Regnum news agency reported Wednesday.
A Russia-born Jew killed Petliura in Paris in 1929 as revenge for the pogroms.
“The whole book ban is very symbolic in itself,” said Ukrainian Jewish Committee Director Eduard Dolinsky. Both communist and Nazi authorities systematically banned books.
Click the alert icon to follow topics:
Comments
ICYMI
Three Years Later, Israelis Find Out What Trump Really Thought of Netanyahu
The Rival Jewish Spies Who Almost Changed the Course of WWII
What Does a Jew Look Like? The Brits Don't Seem to Know
'I Have No Illusions About Ending the Occupation, but the Government Needs the Left'
Russia-Ukraine War Catapults Israeli Arms Industry to Global Stage
