I guess Nazi symbolic are not as regulated as they are in western-Europe and far from the strict rules in Germany.
On 23 September 2020, the Ukrainian Supreme Court ruled that symbols of SS Division Galicia do not belong to the Nazis and therefore were not banned in the country.
Despite being created by the Nazis as part of the Waffen-SS during a time where there were active extermination ghettos in the area it was created, despite other Ukrainians who were not Galician not being allowed to enlist in it because they weren’t Aryan enough, despite being involved with 3 massacres of Polish civilians, despite the parade clearly being about the Nazi division because they chose the date of its creation to celebrate it. I don’t even think the insignia was its own single symbol before being used for the Nazi unit.
Do you know if neo-nazism forms a more significant part of the Ukrainian population than in other states, or has it been much more highlighted because of the invasion?
Ukrainian history, identity and independence is… way more complex than I can possibly do justice in a comment, even if I fully understood all of the events in it. Especially Western Ukraine. The land has been invaded and reinvaded by different groups from very different ethnic backgrounds with different temporary allegiances for centuries though. The allegiance with Germany and the other Central Powers though really kicked off in after the Russian Revolution in 1917, and Ukrainian separatists signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty which … in itself was complicated and chaotic but resulted in the Central Powers recognising Ukraine as a country and providing troops to remove the Soviet government (and citizens of Russian background) from various territories. Whether Nazi ideology it is a bigger problem in Ukraine than other countries or is just more obvious given the attention the area is currently receiving is something I cannot hope to possibly ever measure or know. All i know is that Ukraine is willing to grant special exemptions to anti-Nazi laws for one clearly very Nazi division in as late as 2020.
As a side note, I was actually going through the 1st Galician-wikipage and found a link to some explanation on the emblem. Seems there is some historical reasons for the use of the lion and the crowns. The crowns are still found in the coat of arms of Galicia.
This emblem was to be depicted ‘traditionally Ukrainian weapons, but those that would not be symbols of Ukrainian national hopes^1.’
The lion symbol in historical documents is found for the first time in the coat of arms of the Galician-Volyn state. From that time until World War I, the lion remained the Ukrainian national coat of arms in Galicia^1.
And the crowns has something to do with the Austrian Monarchy^1.
His SS division’s history wasn’t about Ukrainian independence. It was formed by Nazis in 1943 when everyone knew that Nazis were slaughtering people. It was formed after all the ghettos inside Lviv, Galicia’s main city, and Ternipol, in this old man’s home oblast, were built and had been running for years. It was formed after Jews, who were 44% of Ternipol’s population, were dragged from their homes to be publicly shamed, beaten and evicted in the pogroms. It was formed after the Final Solution began. It was formed after mass deportations, slave labour, after the ill, elderly or orphaned were shot in the streets of the place he lived. It was formed after the mass graves of all those victims and more were exhumed and their bodies burned in open-air pits. This man had functional eyes and ears at the very least, because the Nazis did not like people with disabilities, and he knew what he was signing up for because he was living in the middle of it. Every major town surrounding his birthplace had ghettos and were already sending people by train to the death camps. He didn’t choose a charitable hypothetical peaceful Ukrainian autonomy, he and 53,000 other people volunteered to fight for the new unit of an army who were very publicly killing and torturing the majority of the people around him.
And, this wasn’t about a Ukrainian group allied to the Nazis to achieve long-term independence for Ukrainians. They were voluntary Nazis under direct Nazi control fighting for greater Nazi control in countries outside of Ukraine. This man could have changed allegiance at any point if he had been naive and somehow swindled into committing atrocities for Nazis instead of Ukrainian Independence. Atrocities like the Huta Pieniacka massacre where his division committed 500 murders of civilians by grenading the town. Where, assuming he was with his unit at the time and not in hospital, he murdered civilians too.
This is about the active celebration of Nazis to the point where the highest courts in Ukraine are granting exemptions to their own anti-Nazi laws because the Nazis didn’t “own” the symbols, as though they “owned” the Swastika. This indicates a huge systemic Nazi problem.
And for Canada to find itself failing to even check what the guy was actually veteran of, and applaud him on the world stage for his service… no. The Canadian government, the MP who invited him, the old man himself, the Ukrainian nationalists marching in the streets waving politely heiling Hitler during the embroidery marches, the judge granting exemptions, they all have agency and have freely chosen Nazis.
And you, for reasons I can’t fathom beyond “it’s important to consider the reason they chose Nazis”, are determined to give actual proven verified Nazis the benefit of the doubt and positing entire hypothetical storylines that might give an innocent explanation and plausible deniability to them choosing to be a Nazi and cheer on blatant Nazis.
Giving Nazis the benefit of the doubt is what got us a Holocaust in the first place.
On 23 September 2020, the Ukrainian Supreme Court ruled that symbols of SS Division Galicia do not belong to the Nazis and therefore were not banned in the country.
Despite being created by the Nazis as part of the Waffen-SS during a time where there were active extermination ghettos in the area it was created, despite other Ukrainians who were not Galician not being allowed to enlist in it because they weren’t Aryan enough, despite being involved with 3 massacres of Polish civilians, despite the parade clearly being about the Nazi division because they chose the date of its creation to celebrate it. I don’t even think the insignia was its own single symbol before being used for the Nazi unit.
Ukrainian history, identity and independence is… way more complex than I can possibly do justice in a comment, even if I fully understood all of the events in it. Especially Western Ukraine. The land has been invaded and reinvaded by different groups from very different ethnic backgrounds with different temporary allegiances for centuries though. The allegiance with Germany and the other Central Powers though really kicked off in after the Russian Revolution in 1917, and Ukrainian separatists signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty which … in itself was complicated and chaotic but resulted in the Central Powers recognising Ukraine as a country and providing troops to remove the Soviet government (and citizens of Russian background) from various territories. Whether Nazi ideology it is a bigger problem in Ukraine than other countries or is just more obvious given the attention the area is currently receiving is something I cannot hope to possibly ever measure or know. All i know is that Ukraine is willing to grant special exemptions to anti-Nazi laws for one clearly very Nazi division in as late as 2020.
Thanks for the detailed insight.
As a side note, I was actually going through the 1st Galician-wikipage and found a link to some explanation on the emblem. Seems there is some historical reasons for the use of the lion and the crowns. The crowns are still found in the coat of arms of Galicia.
And the crowns has something to do with the Austrian Monarchy^1.
Sergey Muzychuk (2004), “Ukrainian military arm emblems during World War II 1939-45.”, https://www.myslenedrevo.com.ua/uk/Sci/AuxHistSci/Znak/znak33/UkrSymbolsWW2.html
It’s not about banning crowns or lions or the colours blue and yellow in that specific hue being combined. It’s about a symbol, specifically created in that configuration with those chosen elements by Nazis for the purposes of representing a Nazi military unit, being granted an exemption from laws banning the glorification of Nazis. When you share a parade with people wearing the Totenkopf, it’s possible you are voluntarily supporting actions other than Ukrainian independence and you’re not just a fan of an extinct 13th century empire’s symbol.
His SS division’s history wasn’t about Ukrainian independence. It was formed by Nazis in 1943 when everyone knew that Nazis were slaughtering people. It was formed after all the ghettos inside Lviv, Galicia’s main city, and Ternipol, in this old man’s home oblast, were built and had been running for years. It was formed after Jews, who were 44% of Ternipol’s population, were dragged from their homes to be publicly shamed, beaten and evicted in the pogroms. It was formed after the Final Solution began. It was formed after mass deportations, slave labour, after the ill, elderly or orphaned were shot in the streets of the place he lived. It was formed after the mass graves of all those victims and more were exhumed and their bodies burned in open-air pits. This man had functional eyes and ears at the very least, because the Nazis did not like people with disabilities, and he knew what he was signing up for because he was living in the middle of it. Every major town surrounding his birthplace had ghettos and were already sending people by train to the death camps. He didn’t choose a charitable hypothetical peaceful Ukrainian autonomy, he and 53,000 other people volunteered to fight for the new unit of an army who were very publicly killing and torturing the majority of the people around him.
And, this wasn’t about a Ukrainian group allied to the Nazis to achieve long-term independence for Ukrainians. They were voluntary Nazis under direct Nazi control fighting for greater Nazi control in countries outside of Ukraine. This man could have changed allegiance at any point if he had been naive and somehow swindled into committing atrocities for Nazis instead of Ukrainian Independence. Atrocities like the Huta Pieniacka massacre where his division committed 500 murders of civilians by grenading the town. Where, assuming he was with his unit at the time and not in hospital, he murdered civilians too.
This is about the active celebration of Nazis to the point where the highest courts in Ukraine are granting exemptions to their own anti-Nazi laws because the Nazis didn’t “own” the symbols, as though they “owned” the Swastika. This indicates a huge systemic Nazi problem.
And for Canada to find itself failing to even check what the guy was actually veteran of, and applaud him on the world stage for his service… no. The Canadian government, the MP who invited him, the old man himself, the Ukrainian nationalists marching in the streets
waving politelyheiling Hitler during the embroidery marches, the judge granting exemptions, they all have agency and have freely chosen Nazis.And you, for reasons I can’t fathom beyond “it’s important to consider the reason they chose Nazis”, are determined to give actual proven verified Nazis the benefit of the doubt and positing entire hypothetical storylines that might give an innocent explanation and plausible deniability to them choosing to be a Nazi and cheer on blatant Nazis.
Giving Nazis the benefit of the doubt is what got us a Holocaust in the first place.
I never claimed nor intended to give nazis any benefit of the doubt.