A Polish government minister has launched a bid to extradite Yaroslav Hunka, the 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian man who fought in a German-Nazi division during World War Two and last week received a standing ovation in Canada’s parliament.
“In view of the scandalous events in the Canadian parliament, which involved honouring, in the presence of President Zelensky, a member of the criminal Nazi SS Galizien formation, I have taken steps towards the possible extradition of this man to Poland,” announced education minister Przemysław Czarnek.
He published a copy of a letter he has sent to the head of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) – a state historical body that has prosecutorial powers – asking him to “urgently [establish] whether Yaroslav Hunka is wanted for crimes against the Polish nation or Poles of Jewish origin”.
“Such crimes constitute grounds for applying to Canada for his extradition,” added Czarnek in the letter.
Hunka has been at the heart of an international controversy in recent days after he was presented as a “war hero” by the speaker of Canada’s House of Commons, Anthony Rota, during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The chamber then gave Hunka a standing ovation.
That led to protests, including from Jewish groups and Poland’s ambassador to Canada, who pointed out that Hunka had been part of an SS division of Ukrainian volunteers that served under Nazi-German command and that has been accused of war crimes.
Rota subsequently issued an apology, saying that he had not been fully aware of Hunka’s wartime history. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had also participated in the ovation, said that the incident was “upsetting and embarrassing”.
The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, a unit made up of Ukrainian volunteers, was responsible for massacres of ethnic Polish civilians during the war https://t.co/w9Ih1HnjSV
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 25, 2023
Soldiers from the Ukrainian SS division that Hunka belonged to were involved in the massacres of around 850 ethnic Poles in the village of Huta Pieniacka – which before the war was part of Poland but now lies within Ukraine – according to the IPN.
Hunka himself was among around 600 members of the division who were allowed to settle in Canada after the war. He is now a dual Ukrainian-Canadian citizen.
In the 1980s, a Canadian commission of inquiry found that “charges of war crimes” against the Ukrainian SS division had “never” been substantiated
In 2017, Polish IPN prosecutors requested the extradition from the United States of another member of the Ukrainian SS division, Michael Karkoc, who had settled in Minnesota after the war. However, he passed away in 2019 aged 100 before the process could be completed.
The US authorities are moving ahead with a request from Poland to extradite 99-year-old Michael Karkoc, who Polish prosecutors believe commanded a Ukrainian SS unit that killed 44 Polish civilians in 1944 https://t.co/cOIdKkdrW2
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 15, 2018
While Poland and Ukraine have been close allies since Russia’s invasion, the two have often clashed over World War Two history, and in particular massacres of ethnic Poles by Ukrainian nationalists under the German-Nazi occupation.
However, in what was seen as a landmark moment, the two countries’ presidents, Zelensky and Andrzej Duda, in July this year jointly commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Volhynia massacres, during which up to 100,000 ethnic Poles were killed by Ukrainians.
