Anne McLellan:

According to statistics available online at http://www.uwm.edu/People//jpipes/stats.html, it would appear that the number KIA/MIA in the German armed forces in WW II on the Eastern Front � that is, in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia � was 2,415,690.  The KIA/MIA on all other fronts � including Poland, Norway, France, the Balkans, North Africa, Italy, and NW Europe was a mere 264,356.  In other words, the Eastern Slavic lands accounted for more than nine times the German KIA/MIA as the rest of the world combined.  The Ukrainian contribution to this Eastern Slavic resistance to Naziism was selfless and costly.

Of course if we make individual comparisons, then the ratio becomes even more startling.  For example, we have all seen depictions of Patton's and Montgomery's beginning the invasion of Italy through Sicily, and yet the Eastern Slavic lands saw 40 times the number of Germans killed as in all of Italy.

We all know of the D-Day Allied invasion of France beginning at Normandy, and yet the Eastern Slavic lands saw 56 times the number of Germans killed as in all of France.

We all know of the Allied defeat of Rommel, the Desert Fox, in North Africa, and yet the Eastern Slavic lands saw 188 times the number of Germans killed as in all of North Africa.

We have heard something in recent days of how the invincible Serbs defeated twenty German divisions during WW II, and yet the Eastern Slavic lands saw 658 times the number of Germans killed as in all of the Balkans.

One must note that the ratios above have to do only with where the casualites were inflicted, but not with who inflicted them.  This, in turn, has the effect of under-representing the contribution of the Eastern Slavs to the German losses.  Specifically, many of the casualties categorized above as having taken place in NW Europe (which I take to include Germany itself), would also have to be credited to the Eastern Slavs.

Had you staffed your war crimes unit with competent researchers, they would have told you all this, and instead of singling Ukrainians out for persecution as Nazis, your government would today be building monuments to them in recognition of their contribution to defeating Naziism.  Were you fit to occupy the position of Minister of Justice of Canada, then you would today be prosecuting immigrants who just recently had been breaking the hands of Palestinian children, and would not have placed the Department of Justice at the service of those interested in portraying the people who defeated Naziism as Nazis.



Lubomyr Prytulak

cc:  Yitzhak Arad, Yaakov Bleich, Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft, Andy Rooney, Morley Safer, Neal Sher, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace, Elie Wiesel, Simon Wiesenthal.