Press for Conversion! Issue # 70 Spring 202146

While millions of Jews, Poles and com-munists faced genocide, the Naziscreated a huge renaissance for

Ukrainian nationalists. Thousands of émigrés,who had fled Soviet Ukraine, happily receivedhomes, schools, businesses and other proper-ties and possessions stolen by the Nazis fromPolish Jews. The Ukrainians who profited fromthis Aryanisation or dejewification of Poland in-cluded Michael Chomiak, the maternal grand-father of Canada’s current deputy prime minis-ter, Chrystia Freeland. His publishing office,printing presses, two apartments and their fur-nishings were all stolen from Polish Jews.1

Uniting these émigrés was the Ukrain-ian Central Committee (UCC). It represented theMelnyk faction of the fascist, antisemitic, anti-Soviet Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists(OUN) which aided Nazi Germany throughoutthe war. When UCC president, Volodymyr Kubi-jovych, “the most senior Ukrainian collabora-tor with Nazi Germany,”2 urged Germany to cre-ate a Ukrainian army to fight the Soviets, theWaffen SS Galicia was born. It recruited throughthe Nazis, Ukrainian churches (Orthodox andCatholic) and UCC papers edited by Chomiak.

Thanks to Nazi largesse, the UCC print-ed millions of papers, magazines and books.Working under Kubijovych, Chomiak was theUCC’s chief news editor and oversaw Nazi prop-aganda. After WWII, Kubijovych began The En-cyclopedia of Ukraine to rewrite nationalist his-

(1) Germany’s Ukrainian Central Committee (UCC)Krakow and Ottawa, 1940: “A Tale of Two Cities” ... and two UCCs:

tory. In 1976, Kubijovych wentto Edmonton to sign a deal withthe University of Alberta to co-publish his encyclopedia. BothChomiak and Freeland work-ed on Kubijovych’s propagan-da effort.

D u r -ing WWII,the Naziscontrolled the UCC. It was housed in “ashared building” in Krakow, says Polish his-torian Pawel Markiewicz: “The Ukrainians

were headquartered there as well as the Ger-man military intelligence or Abwehr.”3

When Nazi Col. Alfred Bisanz was ar-rested at war’s end, he described the UCC’sutter subservience to its Abwehr masters:

“Kubijovych’s UCC was created by the Ab-wehr in Krakow in 1940. From the first dayof its existence, it was directly supervisedby ... the Second Department of the Abwehr-stelle-Krakow .... As an assistant to the headof the Department, I was charged with di-recting UCC activity. Without the Abwehr-stelle’s permission and my personal clear-ance, Kubijovych had no right to include anyperson in the Committee or take any ac-tion.... [F]inancing the UCC was also car-ried out through me. Each month through-out 1940, I personally handed Kubijovychand UCC Sec.-General Hlibovitsky ... 50-60 thousand zlotys.”4 (Emphasis added.)

The Abwehrstelle-Krakow was AbwehrHQ for occupied Poland. The UCC, being anasset of Abwehr’s “Second Department,” wasresponsible for “sabotage,” particularly the “di-rection of covert contacts” and “exploitation ofdiscontented minority groups in foreign coun-tries for intelligence purposes.”5 It also createdtwo Nazi-trained, -armed and -led Ukrainianbattalions (Roland and Nachtigall), which wereset up by Stepan Bandera’s faction of the OUN.The latter battalion’s Ukrainian commander, warcriminal Roman Shukhevych, is glorified as afreedom-fighting hero by Bandera-revering émi-gré groups that still receive very generous fund-ing from Canada’s government.

References1. Richard Sanders, “Aryanisation and the ‘Mighty

Wurlitzer,’” The Chomiak-Freeland Connection,Mar. 2017. bit.ly/FreeChom8

2. Tarik Cyril Amar and Per Anders Rudling, “WhatStandards Should be Applied when Deciding toAccept Funds?” April 15, 2015. bit.ly/Kubijovych

3. Personal email communication from PawelMarkiewicz with author, March 8, 2017.

4. Klym Dmytruk, “Who are the ‘Diviziynyks,’” TheirTrue Face, Pt.4, 1979, pp.16-17. bit.ly/BisanzUCC(This would equal $3 to $3.6 million/year in 2020.)

5. Abwehr, The Crypto Museum bit.ly/AbwehrUCC

Ottawa and Krakow were thecapitals of two colonies: Brit-ish Canada and Nazi-occupied

Poland. In 1940, both governments cre-ated anticommunist Ukrainian groupsto support their efforts. In Krakow, un-der Nazi Governor Hans Frank, Germa-ny spawned the Ukrainian Central Ct-tee (UCC). Meanwhile, in Canada,Mackenzie King’s Liberal governmentset up the Ukrainian Canadian Cttee.(UCC), now the Ukrainian CanadianCongress. Describing it, Royal MilitaryCollege historian Lubomyr Luciuk said:“few outside government circles real-ized the degree to which the Commit-tee could be labelled Made in Ottawa.”1

Frank and KingWhile the governments of King andFrank were clearly very different, theydid share some very extreme social pho-bias that were common among thewhite, power elites of European politi-cal, corporate, media and Chris-tian institutions. They were, forexample, all infected with viru-lent strains of antisemitism,Russophobia and anticommunism.

The Nazis banned the CommunistParty in 1933 and within a few monthshad arrested “100,000 Communists, So-cial Democrats, union officials, and oth-er ‘radicals.’”2 Canada’s government out-lawed the Communist Party in 1940, asit had previously done in 1917. When theRCMP arrested hundreds of Red activ-ists and leaders in 1940, leftwing émigrégroups like the Association of UnitedUkrainian Canadians were also outlawed.It had long been the dominant force inCanada’s Ukrainian diaspora. The gov-ernment outlawed all of its publications,literally burned many tons of its books,and confiscated 108 of its Labour Tem-ples. These centres, which were hubs ofactivity for other progressive activists aswell, were practically given away to thefar-right Ukrainian groups and churchesthat were loyal to Canada’s government.3

References1. Lubomyr Luciuk, Searching for Place:

Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Canada,and the Migration of Memory, 2000, p.48.bit.ly/Luciuk-2000

2. Margot Stern Strom, Holocaust and Hu-man Behavior, 1994. bit.ly/MS_Strom

3. Richard Sanders, “Left-Right Camps: ACentury of Ukrainian Canadian Intern-ment,” Press for Conversion, Spring 2016,pp.43-7. bit.ly/CdnUkr-LeftRight

ProNazi UCC newspapers, edited by MichaelChomiak, recruited for the Waffen SS Gali-cia. After WWII, Kubijovych began The Ency-clopedia of Ukraine, which Chomiak and hisgranddaughter Chrystia Freeland worked on.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....”So began Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

Some might say the same of Nazi Poland in 1940.

Created in 1940, the UCC wasa Nazi asset run by Abwehr

Colonel Alfred BisanzR

S

UCC president Volodymyr Kubijovych (left) andNazi Governor Hans Frank (right), ‘the Butcherof Poland,’ who was executed at Nuremberg.

Spring 2021 Issue # 70 Press for Conversion! 47

Ukrainian Catholic BrotherhoodThe longtime leader of this key UNF mem-ber was Father Wasyl Kushnir who promot-ed antisemitic beliefs in the 1930s. In 1940,he became the first UCC president and filledthat post for most of its next 30 years (1940-53 and 1959-71). Soon after WWII, Kush-nir led UCC efforts to aid the Liberal gov-ernment in bringing 40,000 largely antiSovi-et Ukrainian émigrés to Canada, including2,000 vets of the Nazi’s Waffen SS Galicia.

14th Division Waffen SS GaliciaFormed in 1943, this division was created,trained, armed, funded and led by the Na-zis. Its volunteers, who swore an oath to fightto the death for Adolph Hitler, battled theUSSR’s Red Army and fought partisans inUkraine, Slovakia, Yugoslavia and Austria.Recruitment was done by Nazi Germany, theUkrainian churches (Catholic & Orthodox)and the Ukrainian Central Committee. Itspapers, edited by Chomiak, told Ukrainiansit was their duty to enlist. Proud of these SSvets in Canada and those of Bandera’s UPA,their associations were listed as membergroups on the UCC website until mid-2016.

Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)The group representing UPA vets in Cana-da was also deeply engaged in the UCC. In2010, when Ukraine’s proNATO presidentdeclared UPA vets as “Heroes of Ukraine,”he was praised by UCC president Paul Grod.Grod, a former UYA leader, then called onCanada’s government to change the law sothat UPA vets who were still alive in Cana-da could receive military benefits.

UkrainianInsurgent

Army

League ofUkrainianCanadians Ukrainian Youth

Association

(2) Canada’s Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC)

In 1940, King’s Liberal government cre-ated the Ukrainian Canadian Commi-ttee (UCC). Although claiming to speak

for all Ukrainian émigrés, it is explicitlyanticommunist. The UCC helped the gov-ernment smash leftist groups that dominatedthe diaspora. It has cheerled governmentsupport for US and NATO wars since WWII.

After WWII, 40,000 Russophobic/antiSoviet Ukrainian émigrés boosted theUCC and its member groups. They broughtthe internal conflicts of the Organisation ofUkrainian Nationalists (OUN). Formed inVienna in 1929 by fascist/terrorist groups,the OUN assassinated Polish and Soviet of-ficials. Although united by fascist eugenics,Christian antisemitism and anticommunism,the OUN split in early 1940. Canada’s UCC,formed in late 1940, united the two factions.

Renamed the Ukrainian CanadianCongress in 1989, it still unites businesses,credit unions, churches and groups for vet-erans, women, youth, the arts and education.

Bandera’s OUN(B) and LUCLeague of Ukrainian Canadians

The strongest faction, led by Stepan Ban-dera (the OUN-B), worked with the Nazisuntil 1941 when they declared an “independ-ent,” fascist Ukrainian state. Their supportfor the Nazis began again in 1943, when theyformed what became the Anti-BolshevikBloc of Nations. Banderites, led in Canadaby the League of Ukrainian Canadians(LUC), have dominated UCC leadership fordecades. One LUC affiliate, the UkrainianYouth Association (UYA), like scouting out-fits across the former British empire, is struc-tured along military lines. LUC’s Banderayouth wear army-style uniforms, march information with battle flags and venerate fas-cist leaders of the OUN(B) and its Ukraini-an Insurgent Army (UPA) like Bandera,Yaroslav Stetsko and Roman Shukhevych.

Melnyk’s OUN(M) and the UNFUkrainian National Federation

The OUN(M) faction, led by Andriy Mel-nyk, was associated with the Ukrainian Cen-tral Committee. It led Ukrainian collabora-tion with the Nazis during WWII. DeputyPM Chrystia Freeland’s maternal grandfa-ther, Michael Chomiak, was the chief editorand office manager for this Committee’s pro-Nazi newspapers. This OUN(M) heritage isrepresented in Canada by the Ukrainian Na-tional Federation (UNF) of Canada whichwas pivotal in creating the UCC. The UNFwas founded, says its website, by OUN fig-ures whose “influences and vision remain avital part of the organization to this day.”

Waffen SSGalicia

Division

UkrainianNational

Federation

Canada’s UCC was formed in 1940 byMackenzie King’s virulently antisemitic,

anticommunist Liberal government.The UCC united groups loyal to

government, including those steepedin fascist traditions and ideologies.

Meanwhile, the government bannedantifascist Ukrainian groups, arrested

their leaders, expropriated their meetingcentres and burned tons of their books.

After WWII, Canada’s Cold Warstrategy was to give safe haven to

40,000 antiSoviet Ukrainians, includingthousands of veterans of fascist militaryformations, like the Waffen SS Galicia

and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.These émigrés soon dominated the

UCC, which still reveres them as heroes.

Ukrainian CatholicBrotherhood

Government funding

The Public Accounts of Canada show that far-right Ukrainian groups receive millions in

government grants. For example, UCC-Torontohas received $10.2 million to run language pro-grams since 1995. In addition, UCC HQ got$300,000 while local chapters and provincialcouncils (Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan)got $145,000 since 2008. During that same pe-riod, $983,000 was dispersed to ultranationalistUkrainian groups for mass public events in On-tario, Alberta and Manitoba. The largest of these,the UCC’s Toronto festival, which promoted far-right groups, received $667,000.

Major UCC member groups also benefit.For example, UNF got $141,000 (2012-19) andthe Ukrainian Women’s Assoc. of Canada (an Or-thodox affiliate of the World Ukrainian Congress)got $58,000 (2015-19). Banderite fronts likeLUC’s Echo paper, and its women’s group, got$114,000 (2010-19) while its UYA got $141,000(2015-19). Cultural centres of the LUC, UPA andUYA got grants for repairs in Winnipeg ($47,000in 2013) and Edmonton ($279,000 in 2015).

In 2008, the UCC-created ShevchenkoFoundation (SF) received $10 million to memo-rialize Canada’s internment of Ukrainians dur-ing the WWI/Red-Scare era (1914-20). Claim-ing this was based solely on ethnicity, SF ignoresthe fact that Canada targeted single, young, laid-off, urban, male Ukrainians whose protests werefeared might spark a leftwing revolution. (SeeRichard Sanders, “Rendered Captive by BarbedWire and Maple Leaves.” bit.ly/CapCda)

Provincial governments also give gener-ously. For example, Saskatchewan’s Public Ac-counts record that its government gave $1.6 mil-lion to the UCC (2007-16) plus $587,000 toUCC-Saskatchewan, $335,000 to UCC-Reginaand $1 million to UCC-Saskatoon (2013-19).

Since 2008, the leftwing Assoc. of Unit-ed Ukrainian Canadians received only $5,500.