ГУЛаг Палестины

began systematically to remove the Ukrainians from the local administration by

arrests and executions, replacing them with Russians, Poles, and Volksdeutshe.

(Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopaedia, Volume 1, pp. 881-882)

Major-General Eberhardt, the German Commandant of Kiev, on November 2, 1941

announced that: "Cases of arson and sabotage are becoming more frequent in Kiev

and oblige me to take firm action. For this reason 300 Kiev citizens have been

shot today." This seemed to do no good because Eberhardt on November 29, 1941

again announced: "400 men have been executed in the city [of Kiev]. This

should serve as a warning to the population."

The death penalty was applied by the Germans to any Ukrainian who gave aid,

or directions, to the UPA [Ukrainian Partisan Army] or Ukrainian guerrillas.

If you owned a pigeon the penalty was death. The penalty was death for anyone

who did not report or aided a Jew to escape, and many Ukrainians were executed

for helping Jews. Death was the penalty for listening to a Soviet radio

program or reading anti-German leaflets. For example, on March 28, 1943 three

women in Kherson, Maria and Vera Alexandrovska and Klavdia Tselhelnyk were

executed because they had "read an anti-German leaflet, said they agreed with

its contents and passed it on." (Andrew Gregorovich, World War II in Ukraine,

Forum, No. 92, Spring 1995, p. 21)

The notion of "collective responsibility" or "collective guilt" mentioned above by means of

which the Nazis justified murdering a large number of innocent people in retaliation for the

acts of a single guilty person is founded on a primitive view of justice which Western society

has largely - but not completely - abandoned, as we shall see below.

The Ukrainian opposition manifested itself primarily in the underground Ukrainian Partisan Army

(UPA):

The spread of the insurgent struggle acquired such strength that at the end of

the occupation the Germans were in control nowhere but in the cities of Ukraine

and made only daylight raids into the villages. ... They [the Ukrainian

guerrillas] espoused the idea of an independent Ukrainian state and the slogan

"neither Hitler nor Stalin." (Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopaedia, Volume 1, p.

884)

During the most intensive fighting against the Germans in the fall of 1943 and

the spring of 1944, the UPA numbered close to 40,000 men.... Among major

losses inflicted upon the enemy by the UPA, the following should be mentioned:

Victor Lutze, chief of the SS-Sicherungsabteilung, who was killed in battle in

May, 1943.... (Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopaedia, Volume 2, pp. 1089-1091)

Up to 200 innocent Ukrainians were executed for one German attacked by

guerrillas. In spite of this a total of 460,000 German soldiers and officers

were killed by partisans in Ukraine during the War. (Andrew Gregorovich, World

War II in Ukraine, Forum, No. 92, Spring 1995, p. 21)

Photograph of partisans

executed by the Nazis.

Photograph of young woman executed by the Nazis, and

young man about to be executed, for partisan activities.

If Morley Safer feels impelled to instruct 60 Minutes viewers that Ukrainians were loyal Nazis,

then he should also pause to explain how it is that the Ukrainians were able to reconcile their

loyalty with German contempt:

When the time came to appoint the Nazi ruler of Ukraine, Hitler chose Erich

Koch, a notoriously brutal and bigoted administrator known for his personal

contempt for Slavs. Koch's attitude toward his assignment was evident in the

speech he delivered to his staff upon his arrival in Ukraine in September 1941:

"Gentlemen, I am known as a brutal dog. Because of this reason I was appointed

as Reichskommissar of Ukraine. Our task is to suck from Ukraine all the goods

we can get hold of, without consideration of the feelings or the property of

the native population." On another occasion, Koch emphasized his loathing for

Ukrainians by remarking: "If I find a Ukrainian who is worthy of sitting at the

same table with me, I must have him shot." (Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A

History, 1994, p. 467)

Koch often said that Ukrainian people were inferior to the Germans, that

Ukrainians were half-monkeys, and that Ukrainians "must be handled with the

whip like the negroes." (Andrew Gregorovich, World War II in Ukraine, Forum,

No. 92, Spring 1995, p. 15)

If Morley Safer wishes to proclaim to the 60 Minutes audience that Ukrainians were enthusiastic

Nazis, then he should simultaneously explain how Ukrainians were able to maintain their

enthusiasm as 2.3 million of them were being shipped off to forced labor in Germany:

By early 1942, Koch's police had to stage massive manhunts, rounding up young

Ukrainians in bazaars or as they emerged from churches or cinemas and shipping

them to Germany. (Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History, 1994, p. 469)

If Morley Safer insists on announcing to 60 Minutes viewers that Ukrainians were devoted Nazis,

then he should explain to these viewers how Ukrainians were able to maintain their devotion when

the Kiev soccer team - Dynamo - beat German teams five games in a row, and then received the

German reward:

Most of the team members were arrested and executed in Babyn Yar, but they are

not forgotten. There is a monument to them in Kiev and their heroism inspired

the film Victory starring Sylvester Stallone and Pele. (Andrew Gregorovich,

World War II in Ukraine, Forum, No. 92, Spring 1995, p. 21)