A warning in Toronto that Jews will pay for the conviction of John Demjanjuk as they paid for the crucifixion of Jesus has shocked and angered Canadian Jews.
The threat was attributed to Peter Jacyk, a member of the local Ukrainian community. He was quoted by the Toronto Star after a Jerusalem district court last week found Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk guilty of war crimes, including the murder of 800,000 Jews in the Treblinka gas chambers.
Jacyk is vice president of the Canadian Charitable Committee In Aid of John Demjanjuk’s Family, a Ukrainian group that has raised funds for the Nazi war criminal during the 15 months he was on trial in Israel.
According to the Star, Jacyk commented on the guilty verdict, saying “Through the 2,000 years, Jewish people paid for that — rightly or wrongly — but they did pay for that crucifixion. I believe this will have similar results in the future for this conviction” of Demjanjuk.
Frank Diamant, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith Canada, called the statement by Jacyk “outrageous and provocative.”
“The innuendo that the Jewish community will be held responsible for bringing to trial a Nazi war criminal is repulsive. Jewish people in Canada, and men and women of good faith of all religious persuasions, will not condone the hostility and aggression manifested through these remarks,” Diamant said.
There has been friction between the Ukrainian and Jewish communities in Canada ever since Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem in February 1987. The 68-year-old former automobile worker from Cleveland, Ohio, had been stripped of his American citizenship in 1985 for falsifying his wartime activities. He became the first accused war criminal extradited to Israel for trial.
Within hours after the verdict was announced April 18 in Jerusalem, a rock was hurled through a window of the Hillel House on the University of Toronto campus.
Ukrainians, who may number as many as a half million in Canada, are also disturbed by last year’s amendment to the Canadian Criminal Code, which allows Canadian courts to try suspected war criminals for crimes committed on foreign soil. Some Ukrainians and other Eastern European and Baltic ethnic groups have attributed the new measure to Jewish influence.
The amendment, in fact, was recommended by a special commission headed by Quebec Superior Court Justice Jules Deschenes, who spent more than a year investigating alleged war criminals living in Canada.
The Deschenes Commission found only 20 suspects and 200 others who warranted further investigation. So far only one of the 20 has been publicly identified and brought to trial, Imre Finta, a Canadian of Hungarian descent.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
