FACES AND PLACES: Ukrainian Righteous among the nations (06/15/03)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Ukrainian Righteous among the nations

In his recently published book "The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust," distinguished historian Sir Martin Gilbert writes: "Yad Vashem has recognized 1,755 Ukrainians - inhabitants of present-day, post-Communist Ukraine - as Righteous Among the Nations."

Wow! Surely Ukrainians have reason to celebrate, right? Wrong! In the very next sentence Mr. Gilbert writes, "A far larger number turned their weapons and their venom against the Jews."

Imagine that! At great risk to their own and their family's lives - the penalty for saving Jews was death - almost 2,000 Ukrainians that we know of sheltered Jews during the Holocaust but at the same time, more, far more, murdered Jews. How many more? Hundreds more? Thousands more? Mr. Gilbert doesn't say. Thus, in the same breath, he conveniently wipes out the incredibly heroic deeds of righteous Ukrainians by trotting out the old odium of Ukrainian Jew-killers.

Mr. Gilbert "recognizes" other groups as well. He mentions a certain Edgar Gold whose father had told him "that the Germans could not have done what they did without the assistance of their Ukrainian, Polish, Estonian, Latvian Lithuanian, Hungarian and Croatian "helpers." Furthermore the round-up of Jews in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Yugoslavia and even Norway, would not have been so "successful" without significant local "help." And lest we forget: "My father also mentioned that the cruelty and bestiality of Ukrainians and Baltic states' concentration camp guards often far surpassed the cold, calculating cruelty of the Germans."

Let me see if I got this right. Hitler and the Nazis created the Final Solution, established the Einsatzgruppen, and butchered 6 million Jews, but the Ukrainians and Balts were worse than the Germans. Authority? Edgar Gold's father!

Even as Mr. Gilbert pays homage to the thousands of Gentiles who risked life and limb for Jews, Jews they very often didn't even know, he suggests that we should temper our admiration with the knowledge that others of the same nationality were cruel and bestial. The question that haunts the author throughout the book is: how many more Jews might have been saved had more people been prepared to take the risk of helping them. The question that haunts me is: how many Ukrainians and Gentiles sheltered Jews that we don't know about? How many were caught helping Jews and were summarily executed along with their families without a trace?

Mr. Gilbert pays shoddy attention to Andrey Sheptytsky's sheltering of Jews. He mentions that while crowds in Lviv were rioting against the Jews, Rabbi Yechezkel Lewin visited the metropolitan seeking help against the mobs. "According to one account," writes Mr. Gilbert, "Sheptitsky [sic] declined the rabbi's request to go out and ask the mobs to disperse." And whose account was that? The author doesn't say. It certainly wasn't the account written by the rabbi's son, Kurt I. Lewin, in his book "A Journey Through Illusions," or by David Kahane in his book "Lvov Ghetto Diary." Both Jews were sheltered by the metropolitan along with many, many others, and both believe he was a saint. Neither author, however, is listed in Mr. Gilbert's bibliography.

Nor does Mr. Gilbert mention the metropolitan's famous "Thou Shalt Not Kill" pastoral letter of November 21, 1942, in which he condemned the wholesale slaughter of Jews. Metropolitan Sheptytsky warned his Ukrainian flock "of the evil that has been spreading among us recently in such a horrible manner" demanding that the guilty cease under pain of eternal damnation. He described the murder of Jews by Ukrainians as a "degeneration of the national conscience and of the patriotic spirit." Learning of this letter, Heinrich Himmler ordered the metropolitan's arrest.

Despite saintly deeds throughout his life, Andrey Sheptytsky is yet to be beatified by the Catholic Church. A few years ago, our Ukrainian-Jewish dialogue group requested that Metropolitan Sheptytsky be declared a Righteous Among Nations by Yad Vashem. The request has yet to be honored.

Alluding to the popularity of Metropolitan Sheptytsky, Mr. Gilbert describes the metropolitan's funeral procession in which a large number of Greek-Catholic bishops were "followed by a group of high-ranking officers of the Red Amy." Red Army officers? I don't think so.

Numerous Ukrainian righteous are identified by name in Mr. Gilbert's 529-page book, including: Feodor Kalenczuk, who hid Pessah Kranzberg, his wife, their 10-year-old daughter and her young friend for 17 months; the beloved Father Marko, a Basilian priest who sheltered dozens of Jews; Vasilien Petrowski, who "saved 18 Jews, men, women and children in a secret bunker in his home"; Alexander Kryvoiaz, "who employed fifty-eight Jews in his factory and helped conceal them using an anti-Jewish 'Action,' " Roman and Julia Schepaniuk, who shielded eight Jews; Tanka Kontsevych, who hid an entire family; Nikolai Vavrusevich, who hid 15 Jews in his shed; and Slawko and Oksana Mironiuk, who saved two Jews.

For me, the most moving account is that of a Ukrainian Baptist who discovers David Prital wandering in a forest and brings him home, telling his wife, "God brought an important guest to our house. We should thank God for the blessing." Husband and wife fall on their knees to pray. After the meals, the man of the house tells David, "Look... I am a Jew in spirit. This encounter with you gives me more food for more thought and confirms the words of the prophets that the remnants of the Jews will be saved."

According to Yad Vashem historian Mordecai Paldiel, 17,500 Righteous had been identified by the year 2000. What motivated the rescuers? We ask this question because, while we have come to understand, even expect, evil, goodness of this magnitude leaves us breathless, stunned by the celestial purity of it all. Although there were many reasons - deep disdain for the horrors of Nazism, a refusal to be bullied, adherence to a patriotic moral code, e.g. Italy and Hungary before the Nazi occupation, Denmark on the eve of occupation, Finland and Bulgaria throughout the war - the major reason was belief in Christ's teachings, especially the parable of the Good Samaritan. Some Christians were convinced God was testing their beliefs. Amazingly, most believed they did nothing unusual; they were merely doing what anyone would do under similar circumstances.

Each of us can only wonder: What would I do were I to face a similar situation? Thankfully, most of us will never have to answer that question.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: [email protected].

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