The standing ovation accorded in 2023 to a Second World War Ukrainian Nazi unit veteran in Canada\u2019s House of Commons shocked Canadians \u2013 and the world. Author Peter McFarlane was not surprised. He had already spent three years learning about two people, Mikael Chomiak and Ann Charney, whose parallel lives during and after that war highlight the complex and disturbing story of Ukraine and Canada\u2019s\u00a0 post-war Ukrainian Canadian community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ann Charney was two years old when she and her Jewish mother evaded their certain death by hiding out in a hayloft in the Ukrainian countryside. Ann spent two long years in that attic. She and her mother survived the war, and ultimately made their way to Montreal. There, Ann has had a brilliant career as a novelist and journalist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mikael Chomiak spent the war working for the German SS as the editor of an influential Ukrainian newspaper celebrating Hitler and promoting antisemitism. He and his family were easily accepted as postwar immigrants to Canada, settling in Alberta. There he continued his work as a writer and editor, avoiding public expressions of his antisemitic views or his wartime record.<\/p>\n
In this book Peter McFarlane tells the stories of these two during the war, and afterwards. He brings their stories up to date through research in Ukraine today.\u00a0 When he visits Chomiak\u2019s relatives in Ukraine, he finds the themes of ethnic hatred and antisemitism strongly in play today in public support for the war with Russia. Canadian descendants of pro-Nazi Ukrainians often do not acknowledge this connection of past to present. Mikael Chomiak\u2019s granddaughter Chrystia Freeland has a lead role in government as a senior federal cabinet minister. Like many others, she remains in denial about her grandfather\u2019s role promoting the Nazis\u2019 policies and the Holocaust in Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Visiting Ann Charney\u2019s home town of Brody, Peter McFarlane finds that the local history museum celebrating Ukrainian Nazi soldiers while saying nothing about their Holocaust role, executing the town\u2019s 10,000 Jewish residents, including all of Ann\u2019s family and relatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This book provides context and background for understanding the complex dynamics behind the war between Ukraine and Russia, and Canada\u2019s role in that conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7240,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[3170,3171,1811,254],"product_tag":[3601],"class_list":["post-6943","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-history-europe-ukraine","product_cat-history-jewish","product_cat-history-modern-20th-century-holocaust","product_cat-history-social-history","product_tag-nazismscandalhouse-of-commonsparlaimentukraine-warimmigration-policysettlementimmigrationneo-naziholocaustnazihistorygermanyrussiaukrainecanadaworld-war-iianti-semitism","pa_contributor-peter-mcfarlane","pa_subjects-canadian-biography","pa_subjects-canadian-biography-historical","pa_subjects-social-sciences","pa_subjects-social-sciences-politics","pa_subjects-social-sciences-sociology","desktop-align-left","tablet-align-left","mobile-align-left","ast-product-gallery-layout-horizontal","ast-product-gallery-with-no-image","ast-magnify-disabled","first","instock","shipping-taxable","product-type-external"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lorimer.ca\/adults\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/6943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lorimer.ca\/adults\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lorimer.ca\/adults\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorimer.ca\/adults\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lorimer.ca\/adults\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorimer.ca\/adults\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=6943"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorimer.ca\/adults\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=6943"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lorimer.ca\/adults\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=6943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}