Europe is erasing WWII’s truth – but Nazi crimes must never be forgotten
Sonja van den Ende
Strategic Culture Foundation
Fascism has resurged in Europe, with neo-Nazis masquerading as nationalists – most notably in Ukraine, where a far-right regime tightens its grip.
Today, Russia commemorates the liberation and defeat of the Nazis, who ruled Germany and Austria (following the 1938 Anschluss) from 1933 to 1945. During this time, they invaded numerous European countries and launched the horrific Operation Barbarossa – an attempt to conquer the Soviet Union.
Beyond their pursuit of Lebensraum, the Nazis sought to “cleanse” occupied territories of Jews, Roma, non-Aryans, communists, and political opponents. This was ethnic cleansing, but the Nazis pioneered industrialized methods for their atrocities. Initially relying on mass shootings, they later introduced gas chambers using Zyklon-B, claiming this was more “efficient” and spared their soldiers psychological trauma. Yet, mass shootings still claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, primarily Jews, in Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and the Baltic states.
One of the most infamous sites is Babi Yar near Kiev, where Ukrainian collaborators murdered approximately 34,000 Jews on September 29–30, 1941. As recent documentaries reveal, the Nazis lacked sufficient manpower to carry out such massacres alone.
By the war’s end, 8,500 members of the SS Galizien Division – Ukrainian soldiers implicated in heinous crimes – were granted refugee status in the UK, with many later emigrating to Canada. The recent honoring of Nazi veteran Yaroslav Hunka in Canada’s parliament underscores how Nazism persists in the West.