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Danylo Struk    Letter to TIME     15-Mar-1993   TIME falsifies Struk letter
TIME deliberately falsified Professor Struk's position.  Specifically, Professor Struk denies that the country was Poland and expresses doubt that the girl in the photograph was Jewish, whereas TIME magazine portrays him as agreeing that the location was Poland and that the girl was Jewish.  Furthermore, Professor Struk expresses neither agreement nor disagreement with the possibility that the girl had been raped, whereas TIME magazine portrays him as agreeing that she had been raped.
The photograph being discussed below can be examined in any of three sizes by clicking on any of the three thumbnail images which appear on the WALLOWING page whose link can be seen at the very top and very bottom of the present page, or else by clicking on any of the following three links, which will take the user to images differing only in size: 300x428, 600x855, 949x1353.  Of course following inspection of the photograph, the user will be able to return to the present page by clicking BACK on his browser.

The two versions of Professor Danylo H. Struk's letter to TIME magazine (the one on the left published by The Ukrainian Weekly, and the other on the right published by TIME itself) that are compared below are presented as individual documents elsewhere in the WALLOWING section.

Two observations emerge from the comparison below.  The first observation is that TIME magazine omitted Professor Struk's last seven sentences, and that these contained his most concrete and devastating accusations, among them that a Russian name (Lvov) had been used for a Ukrainian city (Lviv) and that in 1945 the city of Lviv was in Soviet Ukraine and not in Poland; and contained as well his strongest condemnation of TIME magazine, captured in the words "shoddy research."

But the more significant observation to emerge from the comparison below is that TIME deliberately falsified Professor Struk's position.  To make clear where this falsification took place, I have highlighted the relevant words in red on both left and right.  Specifically, on the left below, Professor Struk denies that the country was Poland and expresses doubt that the girl in the photograph was Jewish, whereas on the right, TIME magazine portrays him as agreeing that the location was Poland and that the girl was Jewish.  Furthermore, on the left, Professor Struk expresses neither agreement nor disagreement with the possibility that the girl had been raped, whereas on the right, TIME magazine portrays him as agreeing that she had been raped.

The publication of Professor Struk's letter was TIME's first attempt at atoning for the Wallowing Photograph, and what this first attempt consisted of was to portray a Ukrainian complaining of pain and damaged Ukrainian-Jewish relations and of a possible malevolent motive on the part of TIME.  But TIME did not allow the Ukrainian to disclose TIME's errors and its irresponsibility, and in fact TIME put words into the Ukrainian's mouth which made him appear to agree with the gist of TIME's Wallowing Photograph caption, this in direct contradiction of what the Ukrainian actually had said.

Thus, TIME's first reaction was to continue on its course of duplicity, and of treating Ukrainians with contempt.  At no time since has TIME apologized for, or even acknowledged, its distortion of Professor Struk's letter.

Furthermore, on 19-Apr-1993, TIME acknowledged that it had received mail from "more than 750 readers so far," and yet the falsified Struk letter is the only expression that this massive mailing found on the pages of TIME.


Professor Danylo H. Struk's letter to TIME as it appeared in The Ukrainian Weekly of 28-Feb-1993. Professor Danylo H. Struk's letter to TIME as it appeared in TIME magazine of 15-Mar-1993.
Following are the texts of letters to the editor of TIME magazine written in reaction to a photo accompanying the article "Unspeakable" published in the February 22 issue.  
Shoddy research  
Lance Morrow's article "Unspeakable" (Time, February 22, 1993) deals with the horror of rape as a policy of war. Your article deals with the horrors of rape as a policy of war.
Why then illustrate this article with a photograph which, though striking and horrible, describes an act, repulsive to be sure, quite outside of Morrow's text? Why then illustrate this piece with a photograph of a Jewish girl raped in Poland, which, though striking and horrible, describes an act � repulsive to be sure � quite outside the text?
I find the photograph on page 28 an attempt to stir needlessly old animosities between Jews and Ukrainians. I find the photograph an attempt to stir needlessly old animosities between Jews and Ukrainians.
The governments of Israel and Ukraine have made strides toward forgiving and forgetting with intent to forge harmonious future relations. The governments of Israel and Ukraine have made strides toward forgiving and forgetting, with intent to forge harmonious future relations.
It seems that someone at Time is not too keen on Jewish-Ukrainian rapprochement. It seems that someone at TIME is not too keen on Jewish-Ukrainian rapprochement.
How else can you explain the apparently Ukrainophobic attitude of the person who selected a picture, tangentially, at best, relevant to the text, but full of reprehensible innuendo and inaccuracies? How else can you explain the apparently Ukrainophobic attitude of the people who selected a picture tangentially, at best, relevant to the text, but full of reprehensible innuendo and inaccuracies?
What we have in the caption is a Russian name for the city which is placed in Poland where Ukrainians commit the atrocities!  In 1945 the city was part of Soviet Ukraine, not Poland; it is called Lviv in Ukrainian, Lvov in Russian, and Lwow in Polish.  So perhaps it really was not 1945, nor Poland, nor Lvov, nor a Jewish girl, nor Ukrainians?  How does one know which of the five facts in the caption are really true?  And what does it have to do with rape as a policy of war?  Or is the point more in the emotional impact than in the accuracy?  Such shoddy research brings little credit to Morrow's excellent article and to Time.  

D. H. Struk
Editor-in-Chief
Encyclopedia of Ukraine
Toronto

Danylo H. Struk
Editor in Chief
Encyclopedia of Ukraine
Toronto




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