July 2, 1999

Leslie Stahl
60 Minutes, CBS Television
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019

Dear Ms. Stahl:

Our 1,000 member organization would like to inquire into your rationale and/or motivations in producing the “60 Minutes” program televised June 27, 1999 which ostensibly dealt with monetary restitution for slave labour used by Nazi Germany during World War II. We note that your program went to great lengths to push particularly Jews as victims of this inhuman program, with Russians, Poles and a few others thrown in to make the thing look “balanced”. Balanced is the last adjective anyone could honestly use to describe this segment of the evening’s offerings.

Were you aware that it is a historical fact that one of the largest number of slave labourers forced to work in the German industrial complex during the Second World War were ethnic Ukrainians? If you were not aware of this, please, as a so-called responsible journalist, don’t you think you should check it out? When you do, we are confident that you will discover that Ukrainians were a primary target of slave labour at that time, and therefore, were primary victims. Therefore, in an upcoming telecast, why don’t you correct this incredible oversight and tell your viewers about the fate of Ukrainians -- yes, Leslie, Ukrainians -- that’s U-K-R-A-I-N-I-A-N-S, Leslie. Now, go ahead, and say it -- “Ukrainians!” That’a girl, I knew you could.

Yours truly,

Eugene Harasymiw, LL.B.
President

/eh