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support staff even the most superficial research prior to reading his proclamations, he would have discovered that in
at least three formal investigations, the Galicia Division has been judged to have been devoid of Nazi sympathies.
So, then, what was the evidence that Mr. Safer was basing his statement on? How could he have said something so
strikingly at variance with what was being shown on screen? This is the riddle that I wish you would help me solve.
Yours truly,
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE JORDAN 1535 hits since 23May98
Michael Jordan Letter 4 12Jul96 Levitas letter to Za Vilnu Ukrainu
July 12, 1996
Michael H. Jordan
Chairman, Westinghouse Electric Corporation
11 Stanwix Street
Pittsburgh, Pe
USA 15222
Dear Mr. Jordan:
I am sending you a translation from the Ukrainian of an open letter to Morley Safer
and the 60 Minutes staff, written by I. M. Levitas, Head of the Jewish Council of
Ukraine as well as of the Nationalities Associations of Ukraine, and published in the
Lviv newspaper Za Vilnu Ukrainu (For a Free Ukraine) on December 2, 1994. In this
letter, Mr. Levitas protests the 60 Minutes broadcast, "The Ugly Face of Freedom."
Mr. Levitas's letter is a cry both of anguish and of outrage, but its more
particular significance to us lies in its bringing to light fresh information
demonstrating the bias of the 60 Minutes broadcast, and as well in showing us that
Ukrainian Jews are foremost among those waiting for a corrective broadcast, and
foremost also among those who are offering their cooperation in the preparation of such
a corrective broadcast.
Mr. Levitas suggests that the severity of the bias combined with the total
suppression of contradictory information that is evident in the 60 Minutes story is
Bolshevik in style. I would go on to suggest to you that just as the countries of the
former Soviet Union ca
are inherently Communist in outlook, so CBS News ca
leadership of individuals whose attitude toward broadcasting is that it is a tool
placed in their hands for the totalitarian manipulation of mass opinion.
Sincerely yours,
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace
WHY DIDN'T YOU SHOW
THE UKRAINIANS AND POLES WHO RESCUED JEWS?
Esteemed Gentlemen! Esteemed program host, Mr. Safer!
It has come to our attention that on October 23, 1994, American television broadcast
a program about events in the city of Lviv and in the Western region of Ukraine. We
have acquainted ourselves with the contents of this program, and have also received
feedback from Jews who recently emigrated from Ukraine to the United States.
Our conclusion: from isolated and insignificant facts you created a broadcast in
which you overwhelmingly crammed distortions and emphasized the negative aspects of
Jewish life, while at the same time hiding the positive aspects which are
considerably more numerous.
Everything that you reported in your broadcast unfortunately exists, but exists only
as isolated events diluted in the normal flow of life in Lviv. By focussing on
these isolated events, you painted an unrelievedly negative picture, and that
constitutes your principal error - unless it wasn't an error at all but rather was
done intentionally.
We are a young democracy, and the unrestrained expression of democratic freedoms may
give birth to untoward manifestations, as is bound to happen in any country,
including the United States - a country of long-standing democracy.
Many bad things, including attitudes toward Jews, have been bequeathed to us from
the past, and it is difficult to wholly eradicate this from the consciousness of the
people.
In your broadcast, you mentioned streets that were renamed after Petliura and
Bandera, but didn't mention that Frunze Street, which before the war was called
Starozhydivska Street ["Ancient Jewish Street"], was also recently renamed
Staroyevreiska Street [also "Ancient Jewish Street" but without the negative
co
not to Starozhydivska Street, in deference to Jewish sensibilities.
You broadcast that contemporary Ukrainians don't know about the Yanivsky
concentration camp. Possibly so - but there has grown up a generation which has
already forgotten about even Auschwitz and Maydanek. But in fact in Ukraine, we do
know about the Yanivsky camp. Our Jewish Council has established a Yanivsky Camp
Foundation. Here in Lviv, we have held conferences dedicated to the memory of this
camp. Where your broadcast shows a woman carrying flowers, a stone memorial has
been erected bearing the Shield of David. I was present at the unveiling of this
memorial. Representatives of the Lviv City Council made presentations at this
ceremony, as did representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic
Churches. I have in my possession a photograph of this event which I could forward
to you.
Yes, the fence which you showed, and the dogs, unfortunately are there - but these
are remnants of the past. In any case, a decision has been made to get rid of them
and to build a memorial in the same location. You should have reported this. More
to the point, the very first monument in our new Ukraine dedicated to Jewish victims
was erected not far from Lviv, in the town of Chervonohrad. Following that, three
other monuments were erected in our region.
You reported that two Jews were robbed and beaten. This might have happened, but
most likely not because they were Jews. I imagine that in Lviv, Ukrainians are also
robbed (and significantly more often!), and yet nobody draws from this the sort of
conclusions concerning ethnic hostility that you draw from the robbing of these two
Jews.
Our Jewish Council constantly receives news concerning Jews in Ukraine, but during
the past five years, we have received not a single report of anyone being beaten
because he was a Jew. However, it must be admitted that such a thing may have
occurred without it coming to our attention - there are plenty of miscreants in
every country.
Because the facts selected for your broadcast were excessively biased and one-sided,
it is incumbent upon me to give you a view of the other side of Jewish life.
In Lviv, where seven thousand Jews live, there are thirteen Jewish organizations.
There are also active organizations in the rest of the region - in Drohobych,
Boryslav, Truskavets. I can send you all their addresses. Lviv was the first city
in Ukraine to have a Jewish Society (1988), the first Ukraine-Israel Society (1989),
and the first to publish a Jewish newspaper (1989). A Center for the Study of
Jewish History is functioning in the city. Two Jewish-Ukrainian conferences have
been held here. We have a Jewish ensemble, a Jewish theater, a philharmonic
orchestra which recently, at the opening of the season, performed the works of
Tchaikovsky and of two Jewish composers. A Jew, Kotlyk, head of the Jewish Society,
was elected as a member of the City Council.
Two years ago, in the center of the city, not far from "Hitler Square," a monument
dedicated to the victims of the Lviv ghetto was unveiled. This is the biggest and