SWC Urges Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau to Explicitly Condemn the Galicia Division Part of the Waffen SS During WW II
September 26, 2023
98 year-old “hero” hailed by Canadian Parliament was a member of the division For further information contact the Center’s Global Communications Director at malkin@wiesenthal.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is calling on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to explicitly condemn the Galicia Division, an organization founded by the Nazis and part of the Waffen SS, that swore their allegiance to Hitler during World War II.
This follows the hailing of a 98-year-old “hero” by the Canadian parliament, who was a member of the Galicia Division. The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Canadian affiliate - Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies has already called for the resignation of Anthony Rota as Speaker of the House of Commons after the former member of the Waffen SS, notorious for its involvement in Holocaust atrocities, was celebrated on the floor of the House of Commons.
“Nobody put a gun to their heads to serve in that division,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, where the Bible teaches us not to hold children responsible for the crimes of their parents.
However, we will never forget and never forgive. Over one million Jews where mass murdered in that region by the Nazis and their willing collaborators. This takes us back to post World War II when the British shipped 5,000 Ukrainians in Canada. Many identified as anti-communists but the British never informed the Canadian government that among them where individuals who were implicated in crimes against humanity and war crimes,” Cooper added.
Simon Wiesenthal, the heroic Nazi hunter, refused to go back to Canada after his first visit as he said that there was no political will to deal with the issues of Nazi War Criminals by the Canadian government.
“Some ask who won the Cold War - the former Nazi war criminals,” Cooper concluded.
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