Visit To Yad Vashem
On April 5, 2008, the Ukrainian newspaper "Den'" («День») published an article by the adviser to the head of the Ukrainian Security Services V. Viatrovych, titled "The end of the Legend about Nachtigall". V. Viatrovych wrote that on February 28, 2008 a government delegation from Ukraine led by the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory I. Yukhnovsky and by V. Viatrovych himself visited Yad Vashem to closer acquaint themselves with the Shukhevych archive. According to V. Viatrovych, they were told by Chaim Gertner that no such a separate archive existed and that the documents were scattered throughout the complex.
According to V. Viatrovych, two documents were finally made available. One of 7 pages and another 18. The first was a copy of the interrogation minutes of Luka Pavlyshyn (who according to V. Viatrovych, actually never served in the Nachtigall Battalion) by the KGB. According to V. Viatrovych, "this document is well known" and was the basis for what he referred to as "a propaganda brochure published in 1960 to incriminate Oberlander".
The second was the German translation of a deposition by Hryhory Melnyk who according to V. Viatrovych, "had been trained by the KGB on November 13, 1959 and was given instructions to lie in court during the proceedings against Oberlander".
V. Viatrovych, held a press conference on March 4, 2008 at which he presented these documents along with his criticism of what he called "the Lapid announcement and the manner in which it was carried out by Joseph Lapina to discredit Roman Shukhevych". In V. Viatrovych's opinion, "all that was uncovered were distorted facts and false testimony which go against judicial principles and logic."
V. Viatrovych also stated that the man, who had previously approached president Victor Yushchenko - the former Chairman of the Yad Vashem complex Yosef Lapid - was not an employee of the Yad Vashem archive.
In response, on March 19, 2008, Yad Vashem issued an official press release titled "Response to Misinformation Regarding Meeting Held Between Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister's Delegation and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem Last Month", which states that Avner Shalev, who replaced Joseph Lapid upon his illness as the Chairman of Yad Vashem, sent a letter to Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Ivan Vasyunik, "following misinformation from their meeting earlier this month that has been reported in Ukraine". According to Avner Shalev, this response expressed "disappointment with a most unfavorable and objectionable development that has been reported to us from Kiev", namely, as Avner Shalev stated, to a press conference "during which glaring and offensive inaccuracies regarding our institution and its supposed positions were belligerently expressed". He continued: "I object strenuously both to the misleading statements ascribed to Yad Vashem, as well as to the circumstances in which a guest whom we had welcomed cordially and genuinely now seeks, without any prior notice, to publicly misrepresent us. Academic research, conducted and published around the world, points to the support of, and intensive and widespread collaboration with, the German Nazi occupation of Poland and Ukraine, by Nachtigal and its commander at the time, Roman Shukeyvich.".
Regarding V. Viatrovych's statement that they had been told by Chaim Gertner that "no such a separate archive existed and that the documents were scattered throughout the complex", Gertner responded: "Furthermore, I most explicitly stated that Yad Vashem's Archives is not organized according to personal files, but rather organizes its close to 75 million pages of documentation according to archival collections, based on provenance. Among these documents is material from various sources related to Nachtigal's activities during World War II. During our meeting, my colleagues and I expressed our willingness to collate the material and to provide you with copies. We saw this meeting as the beginning of our dialogue, as originally envisioned by President Yuschenko, and not as the end."
Read more about this topic: The Lviv Pogroms Controversy (1941), Recent Events Regarding Allegations
Famous quotes containing the word visit:
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