Well I guess it could be worse, at least the SS Galizien generally fought & died hard against the Soviets. They could've honored a UPA vet (the black & red flag guys) instead, those were the guys who were good at barbarically butchering Polish civilians & Ukrainians not as deranged as themselves but were terrible at actual combat against both the Soviets and Polish Home Army.
On a more serious note, this was inevitable. Not only is there a significant Ukrainian diaspora in Canada, but Trudeau's right-hand woman and most likely successor as leader of the Liberals is Chrystia Freeland, the granddaughter of a Nazi collaborator who was perfectly happy to roll with that legacy and branded any attempt to call her out on it (or her association with Ukrainian ultranationalists in general) as Russian disinformation. If you dare, do try to imagine Hillary Clinton, but she has actual ethnic investment in the Ukrainian war & also has cottage-cheese thighs that she likes to flaunt as though she were a 20 y/o supermodel - and you'll have a good idea of what Freeland's like. You see, while Canadian nationalism may be deader than the dinosaurs, that doesn't mean people can't bring their own ethnic ties & nationalisms into this country with them, be it Freeland with Ukraine or Sikhs & Hindus with grudges against one another.
The modern liberal is a shameless hypocrite par excellence, capable of maintaining innumerable contradictory positions for the sake of power & their agenda without batting an eye at the cognitive dissonance, and the big-l Liberals of Canada have perfected that art to an even greater degree than most. They already didn't give a flying shit about Trudeau sacking his First Nations minister for refusing to be influenced into tampering with a criminal case against one of his pet corporations even as he was bleating about residential schools back in 2019, so unfortunately this isn't even going to dent their support for that cretin, nor will it stop them from carrying out the usual performative hysterics about white supremacy whenever they feel like it.
Yes, they did also fight non-Soviet forces on the Eastern Front (they refused to go to the Western Front). Key word, fight. The SS Galizien didn't devote 98% of its time & resources on murdering defenseless civilians, which puts them one small rung above the UPA.
The Soviets had a habit of stealing grain from Ukraine to starve Ukrainians into submission, the Holodomor being the most infamous occasion (but it wasn't the first such famine, there was one in the early 20s right after the Soviets conquered Ukraine for the first time as well). Like the various other nationalities trapped under Bolshevik tyranny, including the Russians themselves, the Ukrainians had very good reason to want the Reds dead.
As for why the Germans would have recruited these guys, the Germans were starting to backslide as of 1943 (when the SS Galizien was established - by this time Op. Barbarossa had failed to achieve its intended goals and the Germans had definitively lost at Moscow & Stalingrad, and they had also failed to cut off the Soviet oil supply from Baku in the Caucasus) and needed additional manpower wherever they could find it. Had they been more reasonable they would've recruited Ukrainians and various other nationalities from 1941 onward when the latter were prepared to greet them as liberators, though.
There's no hate on Earth as powerful as the kind an Eastern European has for an Eastern European who looks almost exactly the same as him but had grandparents born 50 miles away.
Well I guess it could be worse, at least the SS Galizien generally fought & died hard against the Soviets. They could've honored a UPA vet (the black & red flag guys) instead
When I was researching this fellow, I discovered exactly that: the Bandera faction opposed this effort, because it believed that these folks were just being cannon fodder for the Germans. They preferred stuffing wells with Polish children and massacring Jews.
It speaks volumes that Bandera is now the national hero of Ukraine.
Does Siege of Leningrad not mean anything to you? 4 year long blockade of the city, resulting in a death of a literal million people? He even advocated for city's destruction, but relented when Reich's offensive was crushed.
The only reason why he isn't in the same boat as many other friends of Hitler is that he turned coat and joined his enemies alongside his troops.
The modern liberal is a shameless hypocrite par excellence, capable of maintaining innumerable contradictory positions for the sake of power & their agenda without batting an eye at the cognitive dissonance
Well I guess it could be worse, at least the SS Galizien generally fought & died hard against the Soviets. They could've honored a UPA vet (the black & red flag guys) instead, those were the guys who were good at barbarically butchering Polish civilians & Ukrainians not as deranged as themselves but were terrible at actual combat against both the Soviets and Polish Home Army.
On a more serious note, this was inevitable. Not only is there a significant Ukrainian diaspora in Canada, but Trudeau's right-hand woman and most likely successor as leader of the Liberals is Chrystia Freeland, the granddaughter of a Nazi collaborator who was perfectly happy to roll with that legacy and branded any attempt to call her out on it (or her association with Ukrainian ultranationalists in general) as Russian disinformation. If you dare, do try to imagine Hillary Clinton, but she has actual ethnic investment in the Ukrainian war & also has cottage-cheese thighs that she likes to flaunt as though she were a 20 y/o supermodel - and you'll have a good idea of what Freeland's like. You see, while Canadian nationalism may be deader than the dinosaurs, that doesn't mean people can't bring their own ethnic ties & nationalisms into this country with them, be it Freeland with Ukraine or Sikhs & Hindus with grudges against one another.
The modern liberal is a shameless hypocrite par excellence, capable of maintaining innumerable contradictory positions for the sake of power & their agenda without batting an eye at the cognitive dissonance, and the big-l Liberals of Canada have perfected that art to an even greater degree than most. They already didn't give a flying shit about Trudeau sacking his First Nations minister for refusing to be influenced into tampering with a criminal case against one of his pet corporations even as he was bleating about residential schools back in 2019, so unfortunately this isn't even going to dent their support for that cretin, nor will it stop them from carrying out the usual performative hysterics about white supremacy whenever they feel like it.
It's fascist to not accept our fascism!
Yes, they did also fight non-Soviet forces on the Eastern Front (they refused to go to the Western Front). Key word, fight. The SS Galizien didn't devote 98% of its time & resources on murdering defenseless civilians, which puts them one small rung above the UPA.
I'm confused why the German army is drawing from Ukraine?
The Soviets had a habit of stealing grain from Ukraine to starve Ukrainians into submission, the Holodomor being the most infamous occasion (but it wasn't the first such famine, there was one in the early 20s right after the Soviets conquered Ukraine for the first time as well). Like the various other nationalities trapped under Bolshevik tyranny, including the Russians themselves, the Ukrainians had very good reason to want the Reds dead.
As for why the Germans would have recruited these guys, the Germans were starting to backslide as of 1943 (when the SS Galizien was established - by this time Op. Barbarossa had failed to achieve its intended goals and the Germans had definitively lost at Moscow & Stalingrad, and they had also failed to cut off the Soviet oil supply from Baku in the Caucasus) and needed additional manpower wherever they could find it. Had they been more reasonable they would've recruited Ukrainians and various other nationalities from 1941 onward when the latter were prepared to greet them as liberators, though.
Ukrainians hated the Soviets and Germans were desperate for manpower.
There's no hate on Earth as powerful as the kind an Eastern European has for an Eastern European who looks almost exactly the same as him but had grandparents born 50 miles away.
When I was researching this fellow, I discovered exactly that: the Bandera faction opposed this effort, because it believed that these folks were just being cannon fodder for the Germans. They preferred stuffing wells with Polish children and massacring Jews.
It speaks volumes that Bandera is now the national hero of Ukraine.
I would imagine that having Carl Mannerheim and other "heroes" of the Whites as national icons speaks volumes just as much.
Or is Bandera an exception somehow?
I don't recall him committing massacres or being a genocidal maniac, but feel free to show me.
Does Siege of Leningrad not mean anything to you? 4 year long blockade of the city, resulting in a death of a literal million people? He even advocated for city's destruction, but relented when Reich's offensive was crushed.
The only reason why he isn't in the same boat as many other friends of Hitler is that he turned coat and joined his enemies alongside his troops.
Bears underlining