Reviewed by Daniel McClelland
On September 22nd, 2023, I was watching ‘The National’, Canada’s nightly news show on CBC. The first news story was about Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Canada and the House of Commons. In a show of support with Ukraine, an older man, named Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian-Canadian, was being honoured for his wartime service. Speaker of the House Anthony Rota was reading out a brief biography of the man’s actions. It was at this point when I started to pay attention and what I heard astounded me. Anthony Rota went on to say: “We have here in the chamber today a Ukrainian Canadian war veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians and continues to support the troops today even at his age of 98.” I said out loud “What?”
Rota continued: “He is a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service.” I thought I had heard it wrong. I thought that that couldn’t possibly be right. As it turns out, it was.
Peter MacFarlane is an author, journalist and editor and in this book, Family Ties: How a Ukrainian Nazi and a living witness link Canada to Ukraine today, he attempts to explain how a member of the Galizien-SS was honoured in Parliament but also how he got to Canada, along with many others, the birth of far-right Ukrainian nationalism and Canada’s connections to it.
If you were to ask a Ukrainian: “When did the war start?” (the current conflict), you would probably get multiple answers, depending on which side of the country you were on. 2022, 1991, 2014, 1941, 1918. All of these years could be a possible answer. It again depends on who you talk to and how far back in history you want to go.
The current war between Ukraine and Russia has roots going as far back as the late 19th century, long before Ukraine as a nation existed. It wasn’t until the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War that some solid resistance started to form, in Ukrainians with the intention of having their own nation, outside Russian control. These Ukrainians were trying to forge their own identity. Some of these Ukrainian groups that attempted to forge their own identity became exceptionally nationalist. This Ukrainian nationalism grew into what one could call ‘fascist’ in nature. This book is about the history of this Ukrainian nationalism, past and present. It talks about its beginnings, its founders, members and sympathizers who ended up enthusiastically working for Nazi Germany during the Second World War, then through the Cold War up to the present day. Peter MacFarlane, the author, takes you on a trip, past and present to show you the dirty deeds – the killing of Poles, Soviet Ukrainians, Soviet Russians and Jews, being done by the Germans but also by the enthusiastic far-right Ukrainians, the revisionist history being presented in Ukraine today and the connections to Canada and its Ukrainian diaspora and how it has affected Canadian politics since the late 1940’s.
The two main points of interest in this book are the family of Mykhailo Chomiak, an editor of an antisemitic newspaper during the war and the family of Ann Charney, a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor. Mykhailo Chomiak is one of many, many names mentioned; a ‘who’s who’ of Nazi collaborators and war criminals from Ukraine: Volodymyr Kubijovych, Yaroslav Stetsko, Dmytro Dontsov, just to name a few. These men are not household names when you think of war criminals, but are certainly known within the Ukrainian community, loathed by many, revered by some.
Two high profile names, Roman Shukhevych (a bust of Shukhevych stands outside a Ukrainian Youth Centre in Edmonton even after the Yaroslav Hunka controversy) and Stepan Bandera are also mentioned. This book is not exclusively about these individuals but it does go into brief detail about their major roles in the Holocaust.
The story of Ann Charney, born 1940, a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor, is told along with the story of her family, going back to the turn of the century. Her family history and regional history describe Brody, her birth town, as a vibrant hub of Jewish commerce and community. Brody’s Jewish residents, after Operation Barbarossa begins, are under threat and Ann’s family goes into hiding. Her story becomes more relevant in later chapters, when Ann reaches adulthood. Her story of survival is worth mentioning and is well documented, both in this book and her own account with her book Dobryd (an anagram for her hometown, Brody).
More attention is given to the Chomiak/Ukrainian side of the story. The beginnings of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists or ‘OUN’, The Ukrainian Insurgent Army or ‘UPA’ (a sort of far-right militia) are discussed, along with corresponding ideas and goals with the Nazi Party. The author even visits relatives of Mykhailo Chomiak in Ukraine to gain better insight into him, the time period and current feelings about the War in Ukraine. It is worth mentioning that Mykhailo Chomiak is the grandfather of current Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Her upbringing is also well documented here. Chrystia Freeland initially denied her grandfather’s past and chalked it up to ‘Russian disinformation’. With information readily available on him, located in the University of Alberta, she later changed her tune, acknowledged his past, albeit in a carefully worded statement, which minimizes his involvement in the Second World War and the Holocaust (see book for details).
Lastly, the author discusses the cozy relationship Canada has had with the far-right Ukrainians during the Cold War and later with Ukraine as an independent country. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is quoted saying: “Canada is the most Ukrainian nation outside Ukraine itself. Ukraine is probably the most Canadian nation after Canada itself.”
In the current climate of war, the sides of good and bad are not as clearly defined as they were in the previous wars. Both sides usually have ‘skeletons in their closets’; things they don’t want getting out. This book is the perfect embodiment of ‘skeletons in the closet’. I recommend it to historians of Ukraine, the Second World War, the Cold War and anyone interested in the current war between Russia and Ukraine, in order to have better insight into Ukrainian and Canadian politics and how they are connected.
Book Review: Family Ties: How a Ukrainian Nazi and a living witness link Canada to Ukraine today, by Peter MacFarlane, Toronto, James Lorimer & Company Ltd, 271 pages.