Condemn Nazi collaborators, PM told
A top Jewish organization is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to use his trip to Latvia to push back against the glorification of Nazi collaborators in that country as well as attempts to deny the nation’s role in the Holocaust.
In a letter to Trudeau, B’nai Brith Canada’s chief executive officer Michael Mostyn said Canada can speak out more forcefully to denounce parades in Latvia and other eastern European nations that honour units who fought with the Nazis during the Second World War.
Latvia holds such a parade each March. The SS Latvian units included among their ranks members of the Arajs Kommando, who had earlier in the war killed an estimated 26,000 Jews.
“B’nai Brith has concerns we ask you to consider and convey to other NATO members and, particularly, to Latvian leaders,” Mostyn wrote to Trudeau. He said attempts to glorify Nazi sympathizers or collaborators must stop.
B’nai Brith, Mostyn noted, is very concerned with the rise of extreme right forces in Europe, who are trying to rewrite history about Nazi sympathizers, with parades and demonstrations — particularly in the Baltics.
“We must challenge all those who distort the historical record on governments, military units or organizations that fought with, supported or sympathized with the Nazis during World War II,” he wrote to Trudeau. “This includes government leaders who acquiesce in, or fail to condemn, a process of Nazi glorification that amounts to Holocaust distortion.”
Trudeau is in Latvia to show support for that nation and visit Canadian troops.
His office released a statement to Postmedia that "Canada is strongly opposed to the glorification of Nazism and all forms of racism.”
The Latvian Embassy in Canada did not comment. But Karlis Eihenbaums, Latvia’s Ambassador, previously noted his country mourns and honours Holocaust victims and supports education and remembrance of that dark chapter in history.
But he has also defended the Latvian Legion, claiming those Latvians were forcefully conscripted into the SS. Eihenbaums pointed out the Latvian Legion parade is a private initiative for individuals to “pay their respects to the fallen soldiers.”
Latvia is not the only nation where such activities are being questioned.
In late April, more than 50 members of the U.S. Congress condemned what they called Ukraine’s ongoing efforts to honour Nazi collaborators.
The letter, signed by both Republicans and Democrats, outlined concerns about ongoing ceremonies to glorify leaders of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, as well as 14 th SS Galizien Division.
The Russian Embassy in Canada also created a stir last year when it raised questions in a tweet about a monument in Oakville, Ont., that commemorates those who served with the Ukrainian SS and another in Edmonton that honours Roman Shukhevych, the leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
Russian officials also questioned the role played during the war by the grandfather of Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, suggesting he collaborated with the Nazis.
Freeland and the Trudeau government dismissed such claims as Russian disinformation. But it later emerged that Freeland’s Ukrainian grandfather worked for a pro-Nazi newspaper in Poland.
As Russian troops advanced, he and his family retreated to Nazi Germany. He later came to Canada.
Some Ukrainians see Shukhevych and Ukrainian SS Division members as heroes.
They argue those individuals served the Nazis because they saw them as liberators from the Russians.