similar case of a rabbi writing to Lazar Kaganovich protesting the starvation of Ukrainians?
One would like to see a statement from Morley Safer as to the justification for this double
standard. When the most rudimentary and obvious comparisons indicate that Ukrainians have been
disposed to Jews much more favorably than Jews have been disposed to Ukrainians, how can Morley
Safer justify concluding the opposite?
CONTENTS:
Preface
The Galicia Division
Quality of Translation
Ukrainian Homogeneity
Were Ukrainians Nazis?
Simon Wiesenthal
What Happened in Lviv?
Nazi Propaganda Film
Collective Guilt
Paralysis of the Comparative
Function
60 Minutes' Cheap Shots
Ukrainian Anti-Semitism
Jewish Ukrainophobia
Mailbag
A Sense of Responsibility
What 60 Minutes Should Do
PostScript
60 Minutes' Cheap Shots
60 Minutes peppered its broadcast with distortions and misrepresentations. Here are nineteen
miscellaneous instances:
(1) Doctoring the sound track to bring out the evil of torchlight parades. The torchlight
marchers are not a clear indication of anything, and without some enhancement, the scene would
have fallen flat, and so 60 Minutes overlaid an exaggerated, rhythmic tramping sound which added
an ominous militaristic flavor to the scene. In fact, given that it is dark and there is no
band and the marchers are not singing, it is impossible for any but local groups of them to keep
in step, and simple leather-soled or rubber-soled shoes could not have made such a sound - it
would have taken cleated boots. The rhythmic tramping superimposed by 60 Minutes continues to
be heard even when the paraders can be seen to be walking more than marching. One can see that
the added sound effects are only imperfectly coordinated with the movements of the feet.
(2) "Adolph Hitler Square". "The place they're marching in was once called Adolph Hitler
Square," Mr. Safer tells us, but does not add that it was so called by the Germans and that it
was not called that either before the Germans came or after they left.
(3) Gratuitous accusation of mimicking. Mr. Safer informs us of the marchers that "Their chants
and banners mimic another more fearsome time."
But this is absolutely gratuitous - neither the chants nor the banners are mimicking anything.
The marchers are not wearing swastika armbands and their banners do not contain Nazi symbols.
They are not chanting "Death to the Jews!" but only "Slava natsiyi!" which means "Glory to the
nation!" and is about as ominous in Ukrainian as "Vive la patrie!" is in French.
Mr. Safer's syllogism here seems to be: The Nazis sometimes held torchlight parades. These
Ukrainians are holding a torchlight parade. Therefore, all Ukrainians are Nazis.
(4) If it sounds like "Nazi," then it must be "Nazi." 60 Minutes broadcast the above-mentioned
"Slava natsiyi!" several times, but never provided a translation. But as "natsiyi" sounds like
"Nazi," this invites the listener who does not know any Slavic languages to think that something
is being said about Naziism, and the context supplied by Morley Safer suggests that this
something is complimentary.
(5) The menace of boy scouts and girl guides. Desperate for any images that to a gullible 60
Minutes audience might be suggestive of undying Naziism within Ukraine, Morley Safer presents
film clips of Ukrainian boy scouts and girl guides.
(6) Censorship through muted translation. When a Ukrainian in Lviv says "A Russian shot my
brother!" 60 Minutes mutes the English translation to the point that it is almost inaudible.
The critical viewer is left wondering whether the operating principle might not be that when a
Ukrainian says something that might win sympathy for Ukrainians, omit it; in the case where the
image has some overriding appeal (that was a pretty craggy Ukrainian, he was pretty excited, and
the lighting was wonderful), then mute the translation to the point of inaudibility.
Furthermore, in the 60 Minutes transcript of The Ugly Face of Freedom, the statement "A Russian
shot my brother!" is entirely omitted, one might imagine following this same principle of
avoiding attracting sympathy to Ukrainians.
(7) Who welcomed the Germans? Mr. Safer says that "The same square greeted Hitler's troops
fifty years ago as liberators," making this seem like another symptom of a Ukrainian addiction
to Naziism.
Of course we understand that it was not the square which greeted Hitler's troops at all, but
rather people in the square, and it was smart on Mr. Safer's part not to draw attention to the
people, because there might follow the natural question of "What people?" and the honest answer
would have to be "All people - Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews." Jews welcomed Hitler's troops?
Yes, so it would appear:
The prevailing conviction [was] that bad things came from Russia and good
things from Germany. The Jews were historically oriented away from Russia and
toward Germany; not Russia but Germany had been their traditional place of
refuge. During October and November, 1939, that conviction, among other
