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gutters in front of the prison. The event lasted for a few hours.
"While the public humiliation of any female is deplorable, the other photos
in the series show that these women left the scene intact" ... says Katelynksy.
"Moreover," he adds, "this staged outburst of revenge was mild compared
with the "bloody reprisals of the liberated French."
"In 1944 and 1945, countless women were publicly humiliated and over 15,000
of their compatriots were tortured, hanged, or shot for Nazi collaboration in
France. Yet the photographs of these bloody events are, for reasons of
sensitivity, not published by the Western press and the events are rarely
mentioned by historians." (Ukrainian News, Edmonton, March 1993, No. 3)
In short, some and possibly all of the historical footage broadcast by 60 Minutes was not the
Ukrainian populace spontaneously attacking Jews, but rather was street criminals directed by the
Germans to rough up Communist collaborators among whom were probably Jews. It is, therefore,
misleading to represent the scenes as either spontaneous in origin or initiated by Ukrainians or
motivated by Ukrainian anti-Semitism.
What must be kept in mind is that the Nazis had their reasons for making this film: (1) they
were trying to convince Germans back home that Nazi attitudes toward Bolsheviks and Jews were
not uniquely German, but rather were universal; (2) they were demonstrating to the intimidated
Ukrainian population that Bolsheviks and Jews need no longer be feared and that they could be
attacked with impunity; and (3) they were taking a first step toward dragging a handful of
Ukrainians into complicitous guilt.
Bodies on the Ground
One photograph inserted into the middle of these "remnants of a film" was of bodies lying in
rows on the ground. Of course Morley Safer does not identify the photograph - he does not
attribute it to a source, he mentions no date or place. As the photograph is being shown, Mr.
Safer is saying that Simon Wiesenthal "remembers that even before the Germans arrived, Ukrainian
police went on a three-day killing spree." The impression left in the viewer's mind, therefore,
is that these must be some of the 5,000 to 6,000 victims of that killing spree.
Three details of this photograph, however, suggest otherwise: (1) The bodies are shown lying in
snow, whereas the killing spree was supposed to have taken place in the three days before the
German occupation of Lviv on June 30, 1941. (2) The legs of one of the bodies are visible, and
these legs are skeletally thin, which suggests a famine victim and not the victim of a pogrom,
or else suggests that this is an exhumed corpse. If these are in reality famine victims, then
they are more likely to be Ukrainians than Jews. (3) Most of the shapes on the ground resemble
small heaps rather than bodies, which suggests that the photograph is one of exhumed remains
from some old mass grave - and we may reflect that in June 1941 (if that was when this
photograph was taken), the inhabitants of Ukraine's many mass graves were predominantly
Ukrainians and not Jews. Thus, there is a very real possibility that Morley Safer is using a
photograph of Ukrainians killed by Jews as evidence of Jews killed by Ukrainians.
The Wallowing Photograph
The last scene of this Nazi propaganda footage that was presented by Morley Safer has a
notorious history of being presented in various publications with wildly different
interpretations - of which Time Magazine's "Wallowing Photograph" fiasco of 22Feb93 is but one
instance. In fact, this photograph is taken from the wallowing-in-the-gutter German propaganda
film that we have been discussing above. Whereas Time magazine editors did not go so far as to
concede this, they were able to muster enough integrity to express ignorance and confusion, and
also to retract and to apologize:
Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to pin down exactly what
situation the photograph portrays. But there is enough confusion about it for
us to regret that our caption, in addition to misdating the picture, may well
have conveyed a false impression. (Time, April 19, 1993)
And yet this same notorious photograph has been recycled yet again by 60 Minutes and broadcast
as if it had unequivocal significance. Time admitted that it was wrong, Morley Safer ca
escape having to do the same.
It is a curious incongruity that while professing to oppose Naziism, Morley Safer nevertheless
broadcasts a Nazi propaganda film and invites 60 Minutes' viewers to take it at face value. The
propaganda of one era is, half a century later, dredged up to become the propaganda of another
era, but with a switch from approval to disapproval - the Germans used the film to portray
Ukrainians as good anti-Semites, and so why shouldn't Mr. Safer use the same film to portray
Ukrainians as bad anti-Semites?
CONTENTS:
Preface
The Galicia Division
Quality of Translation
Ukrainian Homogeneity
Were Ukrainians Nazis?
Simon Wiesenthal
What Happened in Lviv?
Nazi Propaganda Film
Collective Guilt
Paralysis of the Comparative
Function
60 Minutes' Cheap Shots
Ukrainian Anti-Semitism
Jewish Ukrainophobia
Mailbag
A Sense of Responsibility
What 60 Minutes Should Do
PostScript
Collective Guilt
What was the rate of Ukrainian criminal collaboration with the Nazis during the Second World
War? I do not ask here for the rate of perfunctory and non-culpable collaboration - not, for
example, for a count which includes Ukrainian prisoners of war who, to save their lives, do
German uniforms and then found themselves serving out the war as reluctant camp guards, which
have been more accurately referred to as "prisoner guards" because even while serving as guards,
such Ukrainians continued to be themselves prisoners. No, not that low level of culpability,
but rather an active collaboration palpably greater than would have been necessary for survival,
well beyond the minimum that would be offered by all but the few saints and martyrs among us
in short, collaboration of a magnitude that could plausibly lead to criminal prosecution. Let
us imagine several possibilities. As the population of Ukraine at the time was 36 million,
different collaboration rates give us a different number of collaborators:
Rate of Criminal Collaboration
Number of Criminal Collaborators
1/100,000
1/ 10,000
1/ 1,000
360
3,600
36,000
Were there 360 Ukrainians known to have criminally collaborated with the Nazis during World War
II? Perhaps there were, though I do not know of any such definitive list, and wonder if one
exists. However, 360 criminal collaborators only makes for one criminal collaborator out of
every 100,000 Ukrainians.
Could there have been 3,600 criminal collaborators? I doubt it, and I challenge anyone to come
up with a credible list this long. Note that I do not challenge someone to pull a number out of
the air equal to or exceeding 3,600 - likely there is more than one researcher at 60 Minutes who
would find such a task not difficult - but rather, I challenge someone to come up with a
documented list of names of Ukrainians who criminally participated in Nazi war crimes, where the
list includes a description of the crimes, their locations, their dates, and credible supportive
evidence. I repeat - this has not been done and ca