New York, N.Y., March 22, 2002 ... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called a move by the city council of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine to honor Nazi war veterans as "fighters for independence" inexcusable and "profoundly insulting."

In a letter to Ukranian President Leonid Kuchma, Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director said:

The honoring of the Nazi war veterans in Ivano-Frankivsk as "fighters for independence" of Ukraine shows disrespect for the millions of Jews, Slavs and others who died in the hands of the German Nazis and their collaborators.

This decision is profoundly insulting to the memory of the 30,000 Jews of Stanislav, as the city was known at the time, who lost their lives during World War II.

We should not forget that it was this same Halychyna division whom the head of the SS, Himmler, congratulated in May of 1944 for having cleansed Ukraine of all its Jews.

It is tragic and inexcusable that six decades after World War II and the Holocaust, Ukraine is ignoring the murderous behavior of Nazis in order to celebrate those who opposed Soviet domination in Eastern Europe. Their anti-Communism can never excuse or justify the barbarities committed by the Nazis and their collaborators.

We respectfully urge you to use your good offices to have the decision by the Ivano-Frankivsk city council revoked.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.