On 2nd October, Politico published an op-ed by author Keir Giles defending Canada in the Yaroslav Hunka Controversy. Giles is the author of several books on Russia, including his latest one titled “Russia’s War on Everybody”. According to him, the Hunka controversy is an outcome of massive Russian propaganda. Giles called the whole controversy a lie; he argued that fighting against the USSR during World War II did not necessarily means that the unit was Nazi.
Giles noted that the outrage stemmed from Hunka’s association with one of the Waffen-SS units. Waffen-SS, where SS stands for Schutzstaffel (Protective Echelon), were the black-uniformed elite troops who self-described themselves as the “political soldiers” of the Nazi Party. Hunka was part of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS that, comprised Ukrainian volunteers.
Giles argued that the history of that time is complicated. As Hunka was in a unit comprised of foreign volunteers, they were, according to him, on administrative rather than ideological grounds. However, Giles said the contention is hard to sell to the audience who “believe” the main objective of the SS was genocide.
Citing several investigations, including the Nuremberg trials, Giles said the unit Hunka belonged to did not commit war crimes or atrocities. Targeting Russia, Giles claimed that Moscow “shouts” Nazis whenever they want despite their own history of aggression and atrocities during WWII. He further argued that Russians were never tried for the alleged “war crimes” they committed during WWII, unlike Nazis.
Giles further claimed that Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center’s statement that the atrocities committed by Hunka’s unit are well-documented was false and “doesn’t seem to have any more substance than the accusation by Russia”.
Citing the 1986 Commission report on War Crimes by the Canadian government, Giles argued that famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal himself was found to have made broad accusations against the unit in question, and the commission found them “nearly totally useless” and “put the Canadian government to a considerable amount of purposeless work.”
Interestingly, Giles cherry-picked the parts of the report that were accessed by OpIndia as well. Giles cited the second part of the report on page no 258 to make his point. However, In the same report, the commission concluded the division could not be charged with war crimes because of the “absence of the evidence of participation in or knowledge of specific war crimes”. Furthermore, the report only argued about the 217 members of the Galicia division, which was far less than the actual number, which was over 70,000.
The The Huta Pieniacka Massacre
Yaroslav Hunka was a member of the First Ukrainian Division, originally named the 14th Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS (Ukrainische Nr 1), also known as the “Galicia” Division, that was created during World War II in the western part of Ukraine. One particular incident involving the 4th battalion of the Galicia division is the Huta Pieniacka Massacre. Giles claimed that there is no “evidence” that the unit in question was involved in a war crime. Assuming his knowledge and understanding of World War II, as he has written book after book and article after article on Russia’s role in WWII, it can be assumed that he has done his homework properly. However, in order to defend Canada and Hunka, Giles conveniently skipped the Huta Pieniacka Massacre.
There is a research paper written by Per Anders Rudling that was published in The Journal of Slavic Military Studies’s September 2012 issue titled “‘They Defended Ukraine’: The 14 Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Galizische Nr. 1) Revisited“. The paper provided details of the unit in question in an elaborate manner.
According to the paper, during the OUN-UPA campaign of mass murder in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, Huta Pieniacka, a Polish village, served as a refuge to the Jewish and Polish survivors. The Waffen-SS Galizien and UPA became aware that the village cooperated with pro-Soviet partisans, leading to a well-orchestrated attack.
The fourth regiment under Sturmbannführer Binz led the Huta Pieniacka massacre, which resulted in the deaths of civilians, mostly women and children. Historians agree on Waffen-SS Galizien’s involvement, but the scale of the massacre is unclear among them. Ukrainian estimates put the death toll at nearly 500, while Polish sources suggest 700 to 1,500 victims.
The massacre occurred after locals in Pidhirtsiv informed Ukrainian police that Huta Pieniacka sheltered Jews, supported Bolshevik partisans, and stored weapons. When the Ukrainian SS arrived to inspect, there was an alleged conflict between the troops and the villagers, leading to the brutal massacre. Testimonies by survivors and UPA members confirm the village’s burning and the killing of its residents, with some accounts linking it to the sheltering of Jews and pro-Soviet partisans.
The paper cited multiple sources narrating what happened on 28th February 1944, the day of the massacre. One of the citations says:
“On February 27, 44 [sic] at 5.00 AM the 14th Division of the Ukrainian SS surrounded the village Huta Pieniacka from three sides, shooting at the houses from a distance, then set some buildings on fire and then entered the village, plundering all the belongings of the inhabitants. The people were gathered in the church or shot in the houses. Those gathered in the church—men, women and children—were taken outside in groups, children killed in front of their parents.
Some men and women were shot in the cemetery, others were gathered in barns, where they were shot. The village was completely burned down. The only people who saved themselves were those who on finding out about the approaching Ukrainian SS, managed to hide in the forests (only men) or those who pretended to be dead or managed to hide in potato holes in the basements. Right now it is difficult to establish how many survived as they spread themselves around the area. Many of the injured with burned arms and legs were being treated—impossible to say how many–by people from surrounding villages who took them to their homes after the SS division left.”
This was reported by Uta WSK from Huta Pieniacka who survived, badly burned. The action of the SS was to be in revenge for the killing of 4 SS men on February 23. “About 60 men entered the village in the evening and began to plunder the houses. Since they wore German uniforms and spoke Ukrainian, they were taken for a disguised group of criminals. Thus the local defense action started, killing two for sure, and wounding several others. Seeing that the Ukrainian SS came to the area, it is possible that such cases may repeat themselves in every Polish village”.
Another citation noted:
“On 28 February 1944 around five and six in the morning Ukrainian nationalists together with troops from the division “SS-Galizien” surrounded the Polish village of Huta Pieniacka in the Ponikovestkii raion of the L’viv oblast, opening fire upon the village. After they entered the village, they gathered all of the residents of said village on the square in front of the church, forced them into groups by beating them, led the groups into the barns, locked the barns, then poured gasoline and burned the barns with the people inside. Anyone trying to escape was shot and thrown into the fire. In this way, more than 700 Polish people were shot and burned, and 120 houses with adjoining structures were also burned. Livestock, bread and other property were taken away by the bandits.
The Huta Pieniacka resident Franko Iosifivich Kobelianskii explained that “early in the morning on 28 February 1944, two rockets were fired upon our village, thereafter our village came under fire. After the shooting, our village was surrounded from all sides by Germans and civilians, emerging from the forest, all of whom were armed with machine guns and rifles. They entered the village and began to gather the entire village population on the square in front of the church. After gathering the men, women, old people and children, the Germans and the civilians drove them into groups of 20–30, chased them into barns, closed the buildings and burned the buildings together with the people inside. Those who tried to run were killed.
In this way 600–700 people were killed and burned, all livestock was taken away, as was footwear and clothes.” The Huta Pieniacka resident explains: ‘On 28 February 1944 our village came under fire, and soon after the shooting ended the SS’ troops and Germans arrived, including many men in civilian clothes on horse carts. The SS men were Ukrainians, they entered all the houses and gathered all the old people, children and youth on the square in front of the church, chased part of the people into the church, and thereafter some sort of Kommendant of the SS men—he spoke Ukrainian—took the old people and the children and in groups sent them into the barn, locked them up and burned the people together with the barn. I was in the church and was afraid to leave, and an SS man called me out of the church.
They gathered us in groups, there were children, old people and women among us, and about 40–50 people marched us into one of the barns, and in it people screamed with inhuman voices—at this point we realized, that they will burn us alive. The people began to run, and the SS men opened fire on them with machine guns. I fell between two rocks and remained alive. Then they gathered us who were still alive and forced us back into the barn, closed the doors and put it on fire. When the barn was burning I broke two planks and ran out of the fire, into the forest. The rest were all burned alive.”
These are just two verbatim citations, and there are several others that narrate the same story. There are enough citations, papers, reports and other evidence to prove that Hunka’s unit was involved in atrocities during World War II. However, the likes of Giles feel that it is more important to ridicule Russia than criticise those who house and celebrate Nazis.
Standing ovation to Nazi soldier in Canadian parliament and the aftermath
On 22nd September, the Canadian House of Commons gave a standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka, a World War II veteran who fought for “Ukrainian independence” against Russian aggressors. This is how the speaker of the House, Anthony Rota, introduced him. The 98-year-old war veteran, however, was a member of a SS unit established in 1943 by the Nazis. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was also present during the occasion.
The First Ukrainian Division, originally named the 14th Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS (Ukrainische Nr 1), also known as the “Galicia” Division, was created during World War II in the western part of Ukraine. Soon after Hunka’s links to Nazi SS were revealed, Canada faced criticism worldwide.
In the aftermath, on 26th September, Canada’s Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota, resigned. Rota said he had made a mistake. Interestingly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and all the Canadian MPs threw Rota under the bus after being globally criticised for celebrating a Nazi in the Parliament despite the fact that Canada has a long history of housing Nazi war criminals.
The funny thing was that Trudeau blamed ‘Russian propaganda’ after Canada’s parliament faced global shame for celebrating Nazis. He called the incident deeply embarrassing and somehow managed to blame Russia for the goof-up his government did by celebrating the Nazis.
He said, “Obviously, it is extremely upsetting that this happened. The speaker has acknowledged his mistake and has apologised. But this is something that is deeply embarrassing to the Parliament of Canada and, by extension, to all Canadians. I think particularly the Jewish MPs and all members of the Jewish community across the country commemorating Yom Kippur today. I think it’s gonna be really important that all of us push back against Russian propaganda and disinformation and continue our steadfast and unequivocal support for Ukraine as we did last week by announcing further measures to stand with Ukraine in Russia’s illegal war against it.”