Winnipeg’s Jewish community reacts to House of Commons recognition of Nazi soldier
Posted September 26, 2023 5:17 pm.
Last Updated September 26, 2023 8:41 pm.
Following a day of mounting calls for his resignation, Anthony Rota stepped down from his position as Speaker of the House of Commons Tuesday, over his invitation, and the house’s subsequent recognition of, a man that fought for a Nazi Unit in the Second World War — a decision that has left many in the Jewish community questioning how this happened in the first place.
“How this could be ignored, and this individual presented as a Ukrainian Hero and a Canadian Hero … I can’t understand it,” said Belle Jarniewski, the Executive Director of the Jewish Centre of Western Canada
As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Jarniewski says she was both stunned and disgusted by the honouring of 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka and views the incident as a horrendous mistelling of history.
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“It’s an absolute failure, a lack of a vetting process, and also shows an ignorance of history. You know even saying he fought the Soviets during the war, forgetting the fact that the Russians at that time were our allies and liberated Auschwitz,” she explained.
Jarniewski says many of the students who visit the Holocaust Museum at the Asper Jewish Community Campus know very little about the subject prior to visiting and believes greater education is needed to ensure such a harmful mistake won’t be made again.
“I do not think that our curriculum in schools is focusing on it enough. Holocaust education is only mandated in Ontario, in Grade 6, and that is not enough. It’s a watershed event, as far as genocide and the very idea of genocide.”
On top of better education, Jarniewski hopes her community receives a broader apology from those Members of the House who applauded Hunka, in addition to a promise for the implementation of a more thorough vetting system.
