LETTER TO THE EDITOR (05/11/97)

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Apology did not deserve accolades

Dear Editor:

Surprisingly, an article by Andrew Fedynsky (April 6) with accolades for President Leonid Kravchuk's apology "on behalf of Ukraine" in 1991 at the Babyn Yar for the many injustices that occurred in our history against the Jewish people, has not raised many eyebrows. It should.

Ukraine, itself occupied by foreign powers throughout its history, and specifically by the Germans in 1941, apologizing for the crime of Nazi helpers? The notion is grotesque.

One has never heard apologies "on behalf of France" for the involvement of the Vichy government in the Holocaust. During World War II, Ukraine had no authority of its own even remotely comparable with the Petain regime, or with that of Switzerland that was hustling the money stolen from Jewish victims.

It makes much more sense to expect someone to apologize for crimes against the Ukrainian people. One could begin from the nomenklatura - past and present.

Boris Danik
North Caldwell, N.J.

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