How antisemitic are Ukrainians?
Many American Jews are convinced that Ukrainians are extremely antisemitic, based on what they heard from their grandparents about pogroms and Ukrainian collaborators with the Nazis. It continually amazes me that people draw firm conclusions from these stories. Tell them that 4.5 million Ukrainians fought against the Nazis in the ranks of the Red Army, and that 1.3 million of them died in combat fighting the Nazis, and they are in disbelief. The number of Ukrainian Red Army soldiers was probably ten times as large as the numbers of members of Ukrainian Fascist organizations (OUN and UPA) and of the Ukrainian auxiliary police. But let’s not let facts get in the way of preconceptions.
Originally appeared in @The War in Ukraine: Jewish News by David Fishman.
