April 29, 2001
Toronto Sun ([email protected])

The Editor:

RE: "Ukrainian teens were Nazi victims," Peter Worthington, Toronto Sun, April 29, 2001.

In January 1941 a small but important Zionist organization known as the Lehi (or Stern Gang) submitted a formal proposal for a military-political alliance with Nazi Germany to German diplomats in Beirut. This proposal for "the active participation of the NMO [Lehi] in the war on the side of Germany" was tendered amid stories the Nazis were exterminating Jews in Europe. [1] Yitzhak Shamir, future Israeli prime minister, was a senior Lehi member at the time the offer was made. Unlike Wasyl Odynsky, the Lehi actively made overtures to the Nazis. Shamir, however, never had to answer for this in court; nor did the Canadian Jewish Congress declare the onetime Lehi operations chief unfit to serve as Prime Minister of Israel. A double standard, anyone?

1. Original document in German Auswartiges Amt Archiv, Bestand 47-59, E 224152 and E 234155-58. Complete original German text published in: David Yisraeli, The Palestine Problem in German Politics 1889-1945 (Israel: 1974), pp. 315-317. See also: Klaus Polkhen, "The Secret Contacts," Journal of Palestine Studies, Spring-Summer 1976, pp. 78-80.

Sincerely yours,

Orest Slepokura
Strathmore AB