Victims of Communism -- Complicit with Nazism

"Over the years, we have submitted documentation detailing the atrocities committed by several individuals on the [memorial] list -- including in 2021, when we provided comprehensive evidence of the war crimes committed by Janis Niedra against Latvia's Jewish population."

"It is deeply disturbing that, despite our repeated warnings and the clear, documented evidence, the name of a Nazi involved in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust was ultimately engraved on the Memorial."

"This is simply unacceptable."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center 

The Victims of Communism memorial opened to the public with no names inscribed. Photo by JULIE OLIVER /POSTMEDIA

 

The seemingly endless saga of the The Victims of Communism Memorial's Wall of Remembrance goes on and on, with no end in sight, and no enlightenment by the Department of Canadian Heritage. More latterly revealed is that despite having been warned in 2021 that a Nazi collaborator who actively took part in the execution of Jews during the Holocaust, his name nonetheless was engraved to be placed among hundreds of others purporting to be victims of Communism, on a monument that sought to sanctify them as heroes for opposing Communism.

 

The nameplate that was meant to commemorate Janis Niedra had been installed on the memorial in 2023, according to government records obtained under the Access to Information Act, then later removed. By the time the memorial was formally opened in late 2024, no names were installed on the memorial. The inexplicable reason that Canadian Heritage permitted the commemorative nameplate for Niedra -- despite warnings from the Friends of Sion Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies -- to be originally installed has never been explained. 

The Department had been provided with research data indicating that Niedra had led a group of some 40 men on a mission to assist the Nazis in rounding up and executing about 350 Latvian Jews; mostly women, children and seniors. Niedra died in 1969, but it was known that he served the Nazis in various positions in Latvia. He arrived in Canada following war's end. Ricochet Media, an investigative online news outlet, had reported the existence of the nameplate.

 

Niedra's name had been removed before the public inauguration of the memorial after having been flagged in 2023 when a Canadian Heritage employer raised concerns regarding the man's Nazi connections. The main concern in the department was that the public, or news media, might recognize the name engraved on the memorial. That nameplate, as well as others for the memorial "are being stored at a National Capital commission facility" Canadian Heritage spokesperson Caroline Czajkowski confirmed. 

 

The memorial sits on the west side of the Garden of the Provinces and Territories in downtown Ottawa. Photo by JULIE OLIVER /POSTMEDIA

 

Canadian Heritage had been repeatedly warned that numerous individuals slated to be honoured on the memorial did not represent victims; they were instead Nazi collaborators responsible for having played significant rules in the Holocaust and in perpetrating other crimes against humanity. Concerns were raised by Jewish organizations and historians that names of eastern Europeans who had collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust had been nominated in a deliberate move to whitewash their past. 

Roman Shukheyvych, a Ukrainian nationalist who collaborated with the Nazis and who was linked to the massacres of Jews and Poles, was among those being commemorated. Only after, in 2021, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center repeatedly raised the matter with the department, had Shukheyvych's name finally been removed. Ludwik Klimkowski, chairman of Tribute to Liberty, posted on social media platform X his sentiments regarding concerns that the monument was honouring Nazi collaborators: "Let's stop the nonsense of the Nazi commemoration perpetrated by Canadian Marxists and the agents of the Kremlin's regime", he wrote.

 

"It's important to note that many anti-Communist and anti-Soviet advocates and fighters were also active Nazi collaborators, who committed documented massacres", Global Affairs Canada officials warned their counterparts at Canadian Heritage in 2021, as federal officials in other departments also continued to warn Canadian Heritage that including Nazi collaborators on the memorial would be the cause of international embarrassment for Canada. 

A report prepared for Canadian Heritage in 2024 had recommended that over half of the 550 names proposed for inclusion on the memorial should be removed because of potential links to Nazi Germany's 'Final Solution'. There were originally to be 553 entries on the memorial's Wall of Remembrance. Some 50 to 60 names or organizations had already been determined by the department itself, to have likely been directly linked to the Nazis, according to the documents. 

"In 2021, we discovered that one particular Nazi leader was being honoured by the Memorial and it took us more than a year of very active advocacy efforts before his name was finally removed."

"We told officials repeatedly that we believed there could be a great number of Nazis being commemorated but sadly this problem did not appear to be a priority for the department."

"[The recent report commissioned by the department confirmed her organization’s worst fears], It finds that more half of the individuals commemorated in the memorial may have been Nazis or Nazi collaborators."

"It is totally unacceptable for Nazis and collaborators to be honoured by a Canadian public memorial, especially one meant to recognize victims of state violence and tyranny."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts

The memorial opened in late 2024. Photo by JULIE OLIVER /POSTMEDIA