Thousands march to honor Nazi collaborator in Kiev
Stepan Bandera’s Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists encouraged locals to ‘destroy’ Jews and Poles in the 1940s
By NATALIYA VASILYEVA January 2, 2014, 3:12 am
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — About 15,000 people marched through Kiev on Wednesday
night to honor Stepan Bandera, glorified by some as a leader of
Ukraine’s liberation movement and dismissed by others as a Nazi
collaborator.
The
march was held in Ukraine’s capital on what would have been Bandera’s
105th birthday, and many of the celebrants carried torches.
Some
wore the uniform of a Ukrainian division of the German army during
World War II. Others chanted “Ukraine above all!” and “Bandera, come and
bring order!”
However,
many of Bandera’s followers sought to play down his collaboration with
the Germans in the fight for Ukraine’s independence as the leader of the
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Ukraine’s foremost nationalist
organization in the first half of the 20th century.
Bandera,
who died 55 year ago, remains a deeply divisive figure in Ukraine,
glorified by many in western Ukraine as a freedom fighter but dismissed
by millions in eastern and southeastern Ukraine as a traitor to the
Soviet Union’s struggle against the occupying German army.
Bandera
was a leader of Ukraine’s nationalist movement in the 1930s and 1940s,
which included an insurgent army that fought alongside Nazi soldiers
during part of the Second World War. Bandera’s supporters claim they
sided with the Nazis against the Soviet army, believing that Adolf
Hitler would grant Ukraine independence.
Ihor
Mykolaiv, one of Wednesday night’s torch bearers, described Bandera as a
man “who fought for the country, the faith and the ideals,” but
insisted that “Bandera never was on the Germans’ side.”
However,
Bandera did collaborate with the Nazis and receive German funding for
subversive acts in the USSR as German forces advanced across Poland and
into the Soviet Union at the start of the war.
He
fell out with the Nazis in 1941, after the Organization of Ukrainian
Nationalists declared Ukraine’s independence, and he was sent to a
concentration camp.
Bandera
won back Germany’s support in 1944, and he was released. The German
army was hoping the Ukrainian insurgents could stop the advance of the
Soviet army, which had regained control over much of eastern Ukraine by
then. Bandera set up a headquarters in Berlin and oversaw the training
of Ukrainian insurgents by the German army.
His
group also was involved in the ethnic cleansing that killed tens of
thousands of Poles in 1942-44. The Organization of Ukrainian
Nationalists portrayed Russians, Poles, Hungarians and Jews — most of
the minorities in western Ukraine — as aliens and encouraged locals to
“destroy” Poles and Jews.
Bandera was assassinated in 1959 by the KGB in West Germany.
In
January 2010, less than a month before his term in office was to end,
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko posthumously decorated Bandera
with the Hero of Ukraine award. That led to harsh criticism by Jewish
and Russian groups. The award was annulled by a court in January 2011
under President Viktor Yanukovych.
Kiev
has been the scene of massive pro-European protests for more than a
month, triggered by Yanukovych’s decision to ditch a key deal with the
European Union in favor of building stronger ties with Russia.
The nationalist party Svoboda, which organized Wednesday’s
rally, was one of the key forces behind the protests, but other
opposition factions have said the Bandera rally is unrelated to the
ongoing protest encampment in central Kiev.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.
Read more: Thousands march to honor Nazi collaborator in Kiev | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/
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