Kyiv Post | 28Jan2010 | Associated Press
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/58268/

Wiesenthal slams Ukraine award to nationalist

A prominent Jewish human rights organization has criticized the Ukrainian president's decision to give a posthumous award to a nationalist leader it describes as a Nazi collaborator.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement Friday that Stepan Bandera and his followers were linked to the deaths of thousands of Jews in World War II's early stages.

President Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday bestowed the Hero of Ukraine award to Stepan Bandera for his role in fighting for an independent Ukraine. Wednesday was Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Mark Weitzman, the center's government affairs director, says it was a travesty to grant the honor as the world paused "to remember the victims of the Holocaust on Jan. 27, 2010."

A Yushchenko spokesman declined comment.

[W.Z. I have previously written very critically of the late Mr. Wiesenthal, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Efraim Zuroff. Their Ukrainophobia was/is unbounded. The visceral hatred toward Ukraine and Ukrainians is illustrated by some of the comments reproduced below.]

COMMENTS:

Guest, Guest | Yesterday at 22:19

Nationalism blinds!

Leo the lion, Guest | Yesterday at 22:14

My goodness, I never expected so much poor knowlegde about history here and such a hate with right wing background. Wiesnthal was accused by Bruno Kreisky, former chancellor of Austria, that he was a Nazi collaboratuer, but Kresiky couldn't prove this in court as there was evidence for it. Folks, if you don't know anything about Wiesenthal's bio, then better shut up. Making him an actor and not a victim of the Nazi politics is a late beat in his face in which he was beaten by Nazis. And the discussion here that Bandera was not a collaborateur - well, that Hitler threw him into a concentration camp is no proof he wasn't. Have you heard about Röhm, his former "comrade" that established the SA in Germany? Röhm was murdered by Hitler later when Hitler found Röhn was getting too much power in the state. THAT was Hitler, search for cooperating and supporting people and then send them to hell if they weren't useful any more.
Did you know that Ukrainian militionists detached Wiesenthal in L'viv in July 1941? You see, if the Simon Wiesenthal Center critizises the decision of Juschenko, they know what they do. I see that Ukraine has still to do lot to get a clear view on the past. There were not only Saints in Ukrainian history as well as there weren't many Saints in German history. Both our histories contain blood and blame. Ukraine mainly was a victim by two sides, but everybody should accept the fact that there were people lending a helping hand against Jews, that there were collaborateurs all over Europe, see the Vichy Regime in France. Understanding is healing and preventing that this can be repeated. Ukrainians should better concentrate in the Hetmanship if searching for positive aspects of history than of people like Bandera. He is not at all an archetype for a democratic and human society.

Wiesenthal Was Also a Forger, Guest | Yesterday at 06:39

An expose of Wiesenthal's taking a photo out of Life Magazine (issue of June 11, 1945, p. 50) that showed three honest-to-goodness German spies executed by Americans, and slyly turning the pic into a rendering of three imaginary Jews in identical poses allegedly executed by Germans, as if it were for real (scroll down to the bottom).

http://web.archive.org/web/20040213174357/ukar.org/24life.html

simon, Guest | Yesterday at 06:33

Most of the comments here expose Simon Weisenthal as the original huckster and flim flam man. Any cursory study of his biography pitted against historical events...and it is evident the man was a complete fraud with the moral scruples of shylock. The SWC is just another phoney money generating machine using all means possible to throw slime on anything they may not like. Perhaps they should first examine the life history of their founder who was a Nazi stooge and consummate liar. If ever there was a bottom feeding scavenger...simon weisenthal was it.

War Criminal Wiesenthal, Guest | Yesterday at 05:51

It seems that Simon Wiesenthal worked for the Soviet Communists AND the Gestapo and the Polish Fascists...a fantastic opportunist! and "survivor" and "Nazi Hunter"....and teller of fantastic tales!
see the new book about him below and the interesting articles below:

"Hunting Evil: The Nazi War Criminals Who Escaped and the Quest to Bring Them to Justice" by Guy Walters (Hardcover - May 4, 2010)

Simon Wiesenthal: Fraudulent 'Nazi Hunter'
http://www.ihr.org/leaflets/wiesenthal.shtml

The Simon Wiesenthal Center: A Bastion of Jewish-Zionist Power
http://www.ihr.org/other/swcpower.html

An Overview of The Simon Wiesenthal Center
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v15/v15n4p-2_Weber.html

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v09/v09p439_Weber.html


http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v13/v13n3p-9_Staff.html


How the Simon Wiesenthal Center Falsifies History
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v18/v18n5p-4_SWC.html

The War Years of Simon Wiesenthal -- New Light on a Dark Past
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v21/v21n1p15_okeefe.html

http://www.ihr.org/conference/beirutconf/010212swc.html 

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v20/v20n1p-7_Paine.html

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v08/v08p489_OKeefe.html

EyeSore, Guest | Yesterday at 04:30

In its Spring 1991 issue of Response, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s own magazine reported German firms were producing Zyklon B gas in Iraq, "the chemical used by the Germans to murder millions of Jews during the Nazi Holocaust." Iranian prisoners of war, the Wiesenthal Center claimed, were being killed with Zyklon B "in gas chambers specially designed for the Iraqis by the German company Rhema Labortechnik.” Those outrageous claims were, in fact, patently false, crude propaganda.

Then in 2006, a widely circulated story put out by the Wiesenthal  Center - and repeated, for example, by Canada’s National Post -falsely claimed that all Jews in Iran were being forced to wear yellow badges as a matter of Iranian government policy, in a way that was reminiscent of Nazi-era Germany, in order to make Jews easily able to be identified as Jews. Again those outrageous claims were, in fact, patently false, crude propaganda.

The Wiesenthal Center has shown that it has no moral authority in commenting on contemporary affairs.

Guest, Guest | Two days ago at 21:56

Maybe the Simon Wiesenthal Center should ask itself why it is so eager to accept the Russian smear campaign against Bandera who fought against those who commited the Holocaust against the Jews, ie. the Nazis? Didn't the Soviets also persecute religious Jews as well as Ukrainian Christians? Is it because there were so many Jews with Ukrainian blood on their hands? You know, the likes of Lazar Kaganovich and his ilk, Jewish collaborators, who perpetrated crimes against humanity in Ukraine with their Soviet Russian brothers.

makes up its own HATE, Guest | Yesterday at 06:15

SWC doesn't need "to accept the Russian smear campaign" against the Ukrainian struggle for freedom because it makes up enough HATE on its own....remember the "UGLY FACE OF FREEDOM" hate propaganda through some of its television media? ...GOOGLE "60 Minutes-the Ugly Face of Freedom" if you are not familiar with it!

They NEVER could stand the idea that Ukrainians and Ukraine would NOT be enslaved!

Guest, Guest | Two days ago at 19:54

Maybe it's time to revisit the role Jewish people played in the Stalinist/communist regimes.

Guest, Guest | Yesterday at 00:46

Maybe its also time to revisit all the tens of thousands jews killed by Ukrainians in the 1648 uprising! You Ukrainians are a bunch of hyprocrites....It is a well known world fact that Bandera was a Nazi helper.

Guest, Guest | Yesterday at 10:31

very good !

Scythian, Guest | Yesterday at 09:26

Jews were the benefactors of Ukrainian enslavement by the Poles. They were the land-owners/tavren keepers, oppurtunists who fed off others unfortunates...they put themselves at risk at that time.

Guest, Guest | Yesterday at 08:46

Ukrainians are anti Jewish pigs and have the country that they so richly deserve. When the Russians ride into Kiev on their T-95's I'll be having a party.

Guest, Guest | Yesterday at 13:00

I don't belive there are any more anti jewish people in Ukraine than any other country. All countrys have some people anti some religion or other. As for the Russians invadeing, well, you really need to grow up and get a life. Maybe you should divert some of your energy into explaining to ordinary people like me why jews think they have a right to behave as they have done and continue to do in Palastine.

Guest, Guest | Yesterday at 09:46

Ukrainians are Christians and do NOT hate Jews. What Ukrianians do not like is that so many Jewish people are hypocrites and refuse to accept that so many Jews were Soviet collaborators with the Russians in commiting horrific crimes against freedom loving Ukrainian Christians as well as other nations dominated for 70 years by Soviet Russia. Moreover, most Ukrainians support the right of the Jews to their ancient land of Israel, while many Jews living in Ukraine as still pro Russian, many even refusing to learn the Ukrainian language.

Guest, Guest | Yesterday at 13:18

If you belive in the ancient right to land by jews then you must be one, percentage wise, of a rare breed. At 57 years old I have never heard such opinions of oppression other than in anti russian propoganda. As far as the Ukrainian language it really is time to adopt a similar system as England and Wales. Speak which you choose, all public offices staffed with bilingual staff and all official papers printed in both languages. Since adopting this system some years ago the number of people speaking and learning welsh has increased.

Guest, Guest | Yesterday at 10:32

You are a clown

shane, Guest | Yesterday at 04:53

Maybe, you should read more. It is not a "well known fact" that Bandera was a "Nazi helper". He declared Ukrainian independence after the fall of Lviv and then refused the Nazi demand that he renounce the declaration, leading to his arrest and imprisonment.

It is a well known LIE that the USSR and now the Russian Federation seek to paint him as a "Nazi helper". The Wehrmacht, Germany, and Hitler did not need his help. That is why they so readily disposed of him.

MYKR, Guest | Two days ago at 19:43

Anyone who is willing to find the true history about Bandera will see that he was definitely not a Nazi collaborator. He himself was arrested by the Nazi's and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. His brothers were taken to Auschwitz concentration camp and were killed.
Anyone who wants to seek true collaborators should look at the old Soviet communist regime and see how their relationship with Germany set the stage for WWII and all of the tragedies that followed. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact not only divided Europe into two but the two sides traded heavily, including food stuffs and military supplies which undoubtedly contributed in prolonging the war and many more countless military and civilian deaths, including the Holocaust.
Bandera, fought both regimes; one being just as bad as the other. for what purpose? To free a country, Ukraine, stuck between a rock and a hard place (i.e. Germany and Russia). Yes, anywhere else he would be a hero.

Guest, Guest | Yesterday at 10:34

Anywhere else he would have sit in prison for all his life.


Guest, Guest | Yesterday at 09:09

Provilna!
Read from Anatoli Kuznetsov's book "Babi Yar". He was 12 years old and lived in Kiev when the war started and will tell you about the Bolsheviks compared to the Nazis. Both systems scared his family into burning books. Mostly out of fear of being taken away.

Further, he says that up until June 22 1941, Stalin was portrayed in Soviet film as the greatest world leader; "after him came Hitler".
(from the film VM Molotov's visit to Berlin).

You will also find that the USSR was providing Hitler and Germany with food and raw materials up until the day that Germany attacked.

Ukraine actually existed on the good side of the war- Wiesenthal has made the wrong choice in critisizing this event.

Guest, Guest | Yesterday at 09:32

Mother Russia will write her own history. Western history is liars.

Guest, Guest | Yesterday at 10:35

...and you are a freak.

Guest, Guest | Two days ago at 17:37

Let me assure all readers that the Ukrainian Jewish diaspora do not support Yushchenko. I could not find one who spoke positively about Yushcehnko's term of office.

The headline should have read.

"Yushchenko's post election hero worship of NAZI collaborator under fire"

Yushchenko in his dying days as President of Ukraine, knowing that he had lost the election and would not serve a second term of office unilaterally awarded Stepan Bandera the official "status of Hero". Bandera and the UPA were NAZI collaborators during the second world war and many in Ukraine believe he should have been tried as a war criminal not awarded Hero status. The Ukrainian Jewish community in particular are outraged by Yushchenko's decision, and rightly so.

shane, Guest | Yesterday at 09:13

So where are you living now? Mr. Diaspora...

Thanks for confirming, Guest | Yesterday at 06:18

You don't have to convince us ...we know their anti-Ukrainian HATE campaigns very well!

shane, Guest | Yesterday at 05:01

As a lifelong American, Christian supporter of Israel, I don't really care what you think. This is an intellectual and political battle between free Ukraine and autocratic Russia and you are, apparently, taking the side of suppression and evil.

Scythian, Guest | Yesterday at 09:28

American Christians fooled themselves into accepting the jews as "the chosen people"..but they turn a blind eye of Israels terror in Palestine...and believe in some evangelical showdown of "good" vs "evil" hilarious bs.

Guest, Guest | Two days ago at 23:09

http://revisionistreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/norman-finkelstein-debates-holocaust.html

copy & email to self & then view video

Holodomor deniers, Guest | Two days ago at 20:51

who cares what Holodomor collaborators and deniers say or think

Bohdan, Guest | Two days ago at 19:57

You seem misguided and misinformed. I suggest you read the post just above yours (MYKR).

Sincerely
Bohdan