Canadian Minister Freeland’s ‘Nazi’ Banner Highlights Ukrainian Right Wing Party’s Role In Holocaust

Twitter users lashed out at Canadian deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland for holding a banner which has Nazi roots. In a tweet, which the Canadian lawmaker deleted later, Freeland was seen holding a banner red and black in colour.  The banner bore a pro-Ukraine slogan: “Slava Ukraini.” The slogan which has become popular on social media, even Boris Johnson in a tweet used this slogan along with hundreds of Ukrainian and anti-war supporters, did not cause the condemnation of Freeland on Twitter but it was the colour of the banner.

The banners colours are associated with Ukrainian nationalist party, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and its paramilitary wing of the fascist Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Twitter users pointed out. The UPA-OUN have been accused of participating in anti-Jewish pogroms and siding with Nazi Germany forces during the World War II. These claims are debated between historians but the UPA-OUN have a radical right-wing approach.

According to Taras Kuzio, a British academic and expert in Ukrainian politics and economy, highlighted in his review of the book Ukrainian Nationalism in the 1990s: A Minority Faith by Andre Wilson points out that despite have less approval among voters, the right wing politicians of Ukraine have considerable influence in decision making in Kiev.

However, it was not this that irked Twitter users, it was the links of the UPA-OUN to Jewish pogrom in Lviv in the 1940s that led to Freeland’s criticism. Russian president Vladimir Putin when declaring a so-called military operation in Ukraine pointed out that the aim was to ‘de-Nazify’ Ukraine – a claim which surprised many as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is Ukraine’s first Jewish president.

While conflicting claims lie regarding UPA-OUN’s participation in the Holocaust, there have been incidents of UPA-OUN participating in ethnic genocide against Poland when fighting the Polish Communist Party in the 1940s. Infamous for its prime role in Volhynia genocide, some historians also suspect that the party may have even killed Jews during that period. John Paul-Himka in his paper Ukrainian Collaboration In The Extermination Of The Jews During World War II points out that the UPA-OUN treated Jews depending on what political benefits would be gain in helping or exterminating them.

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