Waldheimer’s Vaccine

Waldheimer’s Disease made the late United Nations boss forget he was a Nazi. The Waldheimer’s Variant spreads willful ignorance of National Socialism, and it can compel Canadian parliamentarians to hail Yaroslav Hunka, a veteran of the Nazis’ Waffen-SS Galicia Division, as a “Canadian hero.” Fortunately, there is a vaccine for this malaise: historical truth.

As the great Malcolm Muggeridge explained, German National Socialism and Russian Communism were Teutonic and Slavonic versions of the same thing. For the best book on the subject, he recommended Unto Caesar, by F.A. Voigt, who exposes National Socialism and Marxism-Leninism as political religions with a common demonology. After World War II, Stalin swung the Soviet Union back to traditional Russian anti-Semitism, branding Jews “rootless cosmopolitans.” Anti-Semitism also prevailed in nations under Soviet control.

Rudolf Slansky and 13 other senior officials of the Czechoslovak Communist Party were arrested and charged with “ideological deviation.” Ten of them were Jews, including Slansky and eleven, including Slansky, were hanged.

In his testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), director Robert Rossen (All the King’s Men) said the victims were “all hung, in my opinion, for being Jews and nothing else. The Soviet Union knew that by raising the word ‘Jew’ and raising the word ‘traitor’ it was specifically inciting the people of these various countries, which had been hotbeds of anti-Semitism for hundreds of years.”

Also after WWII, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Nazis made their way to Canada. During the 1980s Prime Minister Brian Mulroney set up the Deschênes Commission to probe Nazi war criminals living in Canada. Trouble is, the key part of the commission’s report remains off-limits to the public.

After the Hunka affair, it emerged that Peter Savaryn, former chancellor of the University of Alberta, honored with the Order of Canada in 1987, served in same Nazi unit as Yaroslav Hunka.   Savaryn, who died in 2017, was also awarded theGolden Jubilee, and Diamond Jubilee medals.

It is entirely possible that the Deschênes Commission report, surely accessible to Prime Minister Trudeau, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, and Speaker Anthony Rota, would have exposed Savaryn, Hunka and many other Nazi SS members safely living in Canada. After the Hunka affair, Justin Trudeau claimed that “senior bureaucrats” were reviewing the Deschênes Commission report with an eye to “making more of it public.” At this writing, it remains classified, and so does information about a former Prime Minister.

As David Frum recalls, “Pierre Trudeau opted not to serve in World War II, although of age and in good health.” Though derided as “zombies,” some of those who declined to serve were genuine conscientious objectors with no soft spot for Josef Stalin. After World War II, Frum explains, Trudeau “traveled to Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union to participate in regime-sponsored propaganda activities.”

At a time when Stalin was targeting Jews, persecuting writers and artists, and remaining in control of Eastern Europe, that takes a special kind of person. Canadian intelligence officials had a file on Trudeau, but there’s a problem.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had been responsible for counter-espionage, but in 1984 the RCMP was replaced by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). In 1989, the CSIS, “destroyed a Cold War dossier on Pierre Trudeau, instead of turning it over to the national archives.” If anybody thought it was a deliberate coverup it would be hard to blame them. On the other hand, Trudeau offered clues.

“He wrote in praise of Mao’s murderous regime in China,” David Frum recalls. “Trudeau lavishly admired Fidel Castro, Julius Nyere, and other Third World dictators.” It takes a special kind of person to duplicate that record, but Justin is up to the task. He’s an admirer of China’s “basic dictatorship,” and on his watch Parliament praises a Nazi SS trooper as a “Canadian hero.”

With no apology to Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) in The Big Lebowski, this is what happens when a Stalinist zombie becomes Prime Minister. “As a political wrecker,” David Frum explains, Pierre Trudeau was “truly world class.” This is what happens when a former blackface performer, with no merit beyond his last name, becomes Prime Minister. As Edward Gibbon noted, hereditary rule is always the most risible.

Meanwhile, if you want a real Canadian hero, find a soldier who landed on Juno Beach on June 6, 1944, or find a member of the First Special Services Force (FSSF). In their first combat assignment, these Canadian and American commandos scaled Monte la Difensa at night, in the rain. In fierce fighting, the FSSF took down a heavily armed Nazi force and cleared the way for the Allies to move north.

If you want a real Canadian hero, find a member of Canada’s Eighth Reconnaissance Regiment, known for being “first in, last out.” On April 12, 1945, the regiment’s C company liberated the Westerbork transit camp, which had sent thousands of Dutch Jews to Auschwitz and Sobibor.  The 876 who remained were glad to see the Canadians. Remember their plus brillants exploits and thank them for their service.