Hundreds March to Honor Nazi SS in Ukraine

Stand for Israel  |  May 5, 2021

All across Europe, the Holocaust saw six million Jews murdered by the Nazis. From death camps like Treblinka and Sobibor to the killing fields of Babi Yar, millions of God’s children perished. And while we continue to vow, “Never Again,” we’re also troubled by the continued rise in anti-Semitism across the globe. The latest story, reported by JTA’s Cnaan Liphshiz, tells of a parade in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, just a stone’s throw from Babi Yar, held in honor of the Nazis:

Hundreds of Ukrainians attended marches celebrating Nazi SS soldiers, including the first such event in Kyiv.

The so-called Embroidery March took place in the capital on April 28, the 78th anniversary of the establishment of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as the 1st Galician. It was a force set up under German occupation auspices comprised of ethnic Ukrainian and German volunteers and conscripts. The marchers held banners displaying the unit’s symbol…

Israel’s Foreign Ministry and Ukrainian Jews, who according to a 2020 demographic study number about 47,000, have protested the veneration of the 1st Galician and other collaborators. But the collaborators’ popularity has soared following the 2014 war with Russia.

President Vlodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, condemned the embroidery marches, which had been conducted legally.

“We categorically condemn any manifestation of propaganda of totalitarian regimes, in particular the National Socialist, and attempts to revise truth about World War II…”