As an historic peace church, Russian Mennonite congregations in Canada never celebrated “their veterans” who had volunteered with the Waffen-SS or Wehrmacht in complex times; hundreds did however volunteer to protect and defend their corner of Ukraine from a new era of Moscow-based Bolshevism. Some later self-identified as "The Lost Generation." German Prussian Mennonites in contrast understood that heritage differently and celebrated the “Heroes' Day Memorial” service anually until 1945. After 1945 Germany appropriately renamed their remembrance day as Volkstrauertag—the People’s Day of Mourning (note 1). Many descendents live in Canada.
A parallel Ukrainian story made the news in Canada in September 2023. The Speaker of the House of Commons invited a 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian war veteran to a joint session of Parliament for the visit and address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on September 22.
Without good vetting by the Speaker, the guest was lauded as “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero” and given a standing ovation in Parliament with President Zelensky present. On that weekend, news circulated that the man had served in the “14th Waffen-SS Grenedier Division ‘Galicia.’”
In 1943-44 thousands of Ukrainians volunteered for this all-Ukrainian Waffen-SS division under German command; many later immigrated to Canada. Theirs too was a fight against Moscow-based Soviet repression. And with the genocidal famine of the 1930s fresh in their minds, they hoped their chances for Ukrainian statehood were stronger under Hitler than Stalin. Decades later Ukrainian-Canadians have been divided on how to remember those who collaborated or cooperated with the Nazi Germany; notably members of this unit have been regularly celebrated as Ukrainian heroes (note 2).
After this information became public, on September 27 the Canadian Prime Minister apologized to the world on behalf of Parliament for an incident he called a “horrendous violation” of the memory of those murdered in the Holocaust (note 3).
Coincidentally this year McGill-Queen’s University Press
published a volume on this SS division written by Myroslav Shkandrij, Professor Emeritus of
Slavic Studies at the University of Manitoba (note 4); Shkandrij’s father had
been a member of the division. The volume seeks to explore the “difficult space
between one genocidal regime and another;” it has been well summarized in connection to the scandal by Justin Ling (note 5).
Shkandrij concludes in this way: “The force’s controversial,
complex, and long story presents contemporaries with a range of lessons and
challenges, and obliges them to consider how a previous generation reacted when
trapped in the maelstrom of war.”
In previous posts, I have shared materials about the 500+ Mennonite young men in the Molotschna district (Ukraine) who under German occupation volunteered (or were
pressured) for a self-defence unit, which morphed into the First Ethnic German Waffen-SS Cavalry regiment (note 6).
The other large, predominantly Mennonite Chortitza district in Ukraine had not been under the authority and jurisdiction
of the SS, so their youth did not share that story until they were resettled in
German-annexed Poland in 1943-44. There the SS Operations Commander for the
Coordination Centre for Ethnic Germans (VoMi) in Gau Danzig-West Prussia
reported favourably on the Chortitza Mennonites in February 1944:
“Especially the resettlers from the recent ‘Operation Chortitza,’ above all those born in 1915 [29 yrs. old] and younger wanted—already in December [1943] almost without exception—to voluntarily present themselves to the supplementary unit of the Waffen-SS for an acceptance examination. This shows the success of the ideological training on the part of the [resettler] camp leaders, who have to carry this out on an ongoing basis by order of the operational command.” (Note 7)
None other than Mennonite Professor Benjamin Unruh (see previous posts) was praised by SS leadership as one of the most valued, invited speakers in the camps in December. This is the same context—i.e., towards the end of the war with the German retreat out of Ukraine—in which the 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian man noted above volunteered as an eighteen-year-old for the all-Ukrainian SS division.
Shkandrij’s book is a large tome. He is a Manitoban and took opportunity to mention at least one ethnic Mennonite connection, namely, the much-hated Heinrich Wiens, born in Molotschna, a one-time student of Unruhs, who left for Danzig in 1930. Wiens joined the Nazi Party and the SS in 1931, returned to Molotschna in 1941 with the German invasion, and actively participated in the killing of Jews, Roma and Soviet activists (note 8). Notably in 1943-44 Wiens also had some responsibility for the all-Ukrainian Waffen-SS divison as well, and was feared and despised by its members, according to Shkandrij.
The invitation and praise of a member of the Waffen-SS in
the Canadian House of Commons was a terrible error and deeply embarrassing for all
involved. Mennonites share much in common with Ukrainian Canadians,
including this very dark, confusing chapter of human history in which so many
were trapped. Indeed, it offers “a range of lessons and challenges” when
considering how a previous generation “reacted when trapped in the maelstrom of
war” (Shkandrij).
While the war criminals like Wiens typically did not survive the war, some of the young Mennonite SS "volunteers" did. Dozens found their way to Canada, including a handful in my childhood congregation, and even more, the surviving mothers and sisters (like my mother) of the fallen. The story in the news recalled the complex, troubled baggage of many Canadian Mennonite congregations and families who struggled quietly to turn the page and recover a more robust peace church identity.
---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast
---Notes---
Note 1: See previous post, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/07/day-of-commemoration-for-heroes.html.
Note 2: For example, on Remembrance Day 2010, “Paul Grod,
President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, in the name of 1.2 million
Ukrainian-Canadians, paid tribute to the veterans of the Waffen-SS Galizien” (https://web.archive.org/web/20230530015707/https://www.ucc.ca/2010/11/11/ukrainian-community-honours-veterans-on-remembrance-day/)
as Per Anders Rudling recounts critically in his essay: “‘They Defended
Ukraine’: The 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Galizische Nr. 1)
Revisited,” Journal of Slavic Military Studies 25, no. 3 (2012), 329-368;
330. -https://www.academia.edu/1908894/_They_Defended_Ukraine_The_14_Waffen_Grenadier_Division_der_SS_Galizische_Nr_1_Revisited_The_Journal_of_Slavic_Military_Studies_25_3_2012_329_368.
NB: After Spring 1945 the unit changed its name to “1st Ukrainian Division of
the Ukrainian National Army.” See also the well-documented Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_Waffen_Grenadier_Division_of_the_SS_(1st_Galician).
Note 3: Cf. “Canadian Speaker in House of Commons Quits
After Honoring Ukrainian Who Fought for Nazis,” New York Times, Sept. 26, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/26/world/canada/anthony-rota-resign-canada-ukraine-nazi.html.
Note 4: Myroslav Shkandrij, In the Maelstrom: The Waffen-SS
“Galicia” Division and its Legacy (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press,
2023).
Note 5: See blog post by Justin Ling: “About the SS Officer
in the Gallery: History is messy, horrible, complicated. All we can do is face
it,” https://www.bugeyedandshameless.com/p/yaroslav-hunka-canada. Thanks to Randy P. Penner for alerting me to this post.
Note 6: See previous posts, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/05/easter-and-molotschnas-first-ethnic.html;
AND https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/08/notes-on-lost-generation-first-ethnic.html; AND https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/05/retrieving-lost-generation-heinrich.html.
Note 7: Operations Commander SS-Hauptsturmführer Bösche,
“Activity Report of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VoMi; Coordination Centre
for Ethnic Germans) in the Gau Danzig-West Prussia for the Period from January
1, 1943 to January 31, 1944 on the Resettlement of Germans from Lithuania,
Southern Russia and Northern Russia,” February 10, 1944, pp. 3-4 [33-34; scans
67-69), Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (Coordination Centre for Ethnic Germans)
Operations Command Gdansk-West Prussia. From: Bundesarchiv (BA) R 59/109,
Umsiedlung der Deutschen aus Litauen und Russland, Gau Danzig/West-Preussen, https://invenio.bundesarchiv.de/invenio/direktlink/54c4be9f-0130-4868-baec-e7a6b5c6628a/.
Note 8: See European Mennonites and the Holocaust, edited by
Mark Jantzen and John D. Thiesen (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020),
3, 4, 12, 14, 23, 30n.40, 36, 39, 57-62, 71n.63, 210-213, 217, 227n.66.
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