Monuments in the United States to Nazi collaborators

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The United States has monuments to people who collaborated with the Nazis, that are located in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, [1] Alabama, Georgia, and Michigan. [2]

Contents

Existing

Monuments to French collaborators

Petain Street Sign in Pinardville (part of Goffstown, New Hampshire), 2019 Petain Street Pinardville Nov 2019.jpg
Petain Street Sign in Pinardville (part of Goffstown, New Hampshire), 2019

Two of the plaques installed in 2004 in the Canyon of Heroes on lower Broadway, New York City commemorating a 1931 ticker-tape parade, are for the French then-to-be Nazi collaborators Philippe Pétain and Pierre Laval. [2] [3] Pétain and Laval led the Vichy Regime, one of the puppet governments of Nazi Germany. [2] During their time in charge, the Vichy government deported about 76,000 Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland. [2]

As of 2021, there were streets in eleven US towns and cities named after Pétain, in:

Unlike other Nazi collaborators, Pétain is unique insofar as nearly all monuments to him were created before he collaborated with Nazis, as a result of his World War I activities. [2] France renamed all streets that were named after him by 2011, [4] and plans to honour him were reversed by French president Emmanuel Macron in 2018, after a public outcry. [5]

Monument to Belarusian collaborators

Monument in South River, built in 1974 Belarusian monument in South River.jpg
Monument in South River, built in 1974

There is a monument with the words "those who fought for freedom and independence of Byelorussia" in South River, New Jersey. [2] It is located on a hill behind the St. Euphrosynia Belarusian Orthodox Church. [2] The monument has the seal of the Belarusian Central Council (Nazi puppet government, seeking freedom from the USSR) on it. [2]

Monuments to Ukrainian collaborators

There are two monuments in the US to two Ukrainian nationalists, Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, who collaborated with the Nazis. Bandera was a leader of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists who collaborated with the Nazis in 1941 before being imprisoned by them and again in 1944 after his release. Shukhevych was one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which took part in the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, and one of the commanders of Nachtigall Battalion, Hauptmann of the German Schutzmannschaft 201 auxiliary police battalion, which participated in the Lviv pogroms against Jews. [6] [7]

A Ukrainian Youth Association in Baraboo near Wisconsin Dells has monuments to Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. [6] The location made news in 2018 when a photograph of youths doing Nazi salutes circulated online. [8]

The "Heroes" monument in Ellenville incorporates busts of Shukhevych and Bandera. [2] A monument to Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army - two Ukrainian nationalist organisations which allied with the Nazis against the USSR - was unveiled in Hamptonburgh in 1989. [2]

Monuments to Russian collaborators

Vlasov memorial, Nanuet, New York. Russkoe kladbishche v Novo-Diveeve (13370867853).jpg
Vlasov memorial, Nanuet, New York.

A monument to the Russian Liberation Army and Soviet General Andrey Vlasov is situated in the Novo-Diveevo Russian Orthodox convent in Nanuet, New York. [2] Vlasov defected from the Red Army to the Nazis in 1942. [2]

Monuments to Lithuanian collaborators

A monument to Adolfas Ramanauskas was erected in 2019 outside the Lithuanian World Center in Lemont, Illinois. [2] [9] Ramanauskas commanded one of the many Lithuanian Activist Front antisemitic "self-defence" groups. [10] Initial plans to situate the monument on public land were halted in 2018 by local authorities. [11] [12]

Monuments to Serbian collaborators

Durisic monument Libertyville. Pavle Durisic monument in the USA.jpg
Đurišić monument Libertyville.

A bust of Pavle Đurišić is located in Chetnik Heroes Park, Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Monastery and Seminary in Libertyville, Illinois. [2] Đurišić was awarded the Iron Cross by the Nazis after his collaboration with them in Montenegro when he commanded the Chetnik troops. [2]

Monuments to Chetniks founder Dragoljub Mihailović are located in six US cities including Cleveland, Ohio, Milwaukee, [6] San Marcos, California and Libertyville, Illinois. [2] Mihailović collaborated with the Nazis and his organization both murdered Jews and deported them to the Nazis. [2] He was executed by the Yugoslav government for his collaboration with Adolf Hitler. [6]

Monuments to German Nazis and German collaborators

A Wernher von Braun quote is displayed the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. [2] Von Braun was a key part of Operation Paperclip that imported Nazi scientists to help construct US weapons after World War II. [2] During WWII, as an SS officer, von Braun oversaw the construction of V-2 rockets for the Nazis, using labour from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. [2]

Huntsville has several other monuments to von Braun owned by the federal government, state government and municipal government. [2] The City of Huntsville owns an entertainment complex called the Von Braun Center. [2] There is a plaque to Von Braun outside the centre, which includes an ice rink and a concert hall. [2] [13] A street in Huntsville is known as Von Braun Drive Northwest. [2] The public University of Alabama has a Wernher Von Braun Research Hall. [2] The university's website lauds von Braun and is silent on his Nazi history. [2] The Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville has a Von Braun Complex used mostly by the Missile Defense Agency. [2]

The Dr. Kurt H. Debus Conference Facility located within Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida is named after Kurt H. Debus, who was the centre's inaugural director after working as a Nazi scientist and exploiting labour from concentration camps. [14] [2]

Removed

Monuments to German Nazis and German collaborators

The city of Herndon, Virginia renamed Ferdinand Porsche Drive to Woodland Pointe Avenue in October 2022. [2] Ferdinand Porsche, a Nazi Party member, designed cars and weapons, including the Tiger Tank and used slave labour at the Porsche factory in Stuttgart. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wernher von Braun</span> German-American aerospace engineer (1912–1977)

Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun was a German-American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany, and later a pioneer of rocket and space technology in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Paperclip</span> Secret post-WWII United States program

Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World War II in Europe, between 1945–59. Some were former members and leaders of the Nazi Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stepan Bandera</span> Ukrainian nationalist leader (1909–1959)

Stepan Andriyovych Bandera was a Ukrainian far-right leader of the radical militant wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukrainian Insurgent Army</span> Paramilitary wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and partisan formation founded by the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists on 14 October 1942. During World War II, it was engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Union, and both the Polish Underground State and Communist Poland.

The Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists was a Ukrainian nationalist organization established in 1929 in Vienna, uniting the Ukrainian Military Organization with smaller, mainly youth, radical nationalist right-wing groups. The OUN was the largest and one of the most important far-right Ukrainian organizations operating in the interwar period on the territory of the Second Polish Republic. The OUN was mostly active preceding, during, and immediately after the Second World War. Its ideology has been described as having been influenced by the writings of Dmytro Dontsov, from 1929 by Italian fascism, and from 1930 by German Nazism. The OUN pursued a strategy of violence, terrorism, and assassinations with the goal of creating an ethnically homogenous and totalitarian Ukrainian state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Shukhevych</span> Ukrainian nationalist (1907–1950)

Roman-Taras Yosypovych Shukhevych was a Ukrainian nationalist and a military leader of the nationalist Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which during the Second World War fought against the Soviet Union and to a lesser extent against the Nazi Germany for Ukrainian independence. He collaborated with the Nazis from February 1941 to December 1942 as commanding officer of the Nachtigall Battalion in early 1941, and as a Hauptmann of the German Schutzmannschaft 201 auxiliary police battalion in late 1941 and 1942.

In World War II, many governments, organizations and individuals collaborated with the Axis powers, "out of conviction, desperation, or under coercion." Nationalists sometimes welcomed German or Italian troops they believed would liberate their countries from colonization. The Danish, Belgian and Vichy French governments attempted to appease and bargain with the invaders in hopes of mitigating harm to their citizens and economies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Stuhlinger</span> German-American scientist

Ernst Stuhlinger was a German-American atomic, electrical, and rocket scientist. After being brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip, he developed guidance systems with Wernher von Braun's team for the US Army, and later was a scientist with NASA. He was also instrumental in the development of the ion engine for long-endurance space flight, and a wide variety of scientific experiments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnus von Braun</span> German chemical engineer, Luftwaffe aviator, rocket scientist and business executive (1919–2003)

Magnus "Mac" Freiherr von Braun was a German chemical engineer, Luftwaffe aviator, rocket scientist and business executive. In his 20s he worked as a rocket scientist at Peenemünde and the Mittelwerk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mykola Lebed</span> Ukrainian political activist, Ukrainian nationalist, and guerrilla fighter

Mykola Kyrylovych Lebed or Lebid, also known as Maksym Ruban, Marko or Yevhen Skyrba, was a Ukrainian nationalist political activist and guerrilla fighter. He was among those tried, convicted, and imprisoned for the murder of Polish interior minister Bronisław Pieracki in 1934. The court sentenced him to death, but the state commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. He escaped when the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. As a leader of OUN-B, he was responsible for the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Act of restoration of the Ukrainian state</span> 1941 act declaring a Ukrainian state

The act of restoration of the Ukrainian state or proclamation of the Ukrainian state of June 30, 1941 was announced by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) under the leadership of Stepan Bandera, who declared an independent Ukrainian state in Lviv. The self-proclaimed prime minister was Yaroslav Stetsko, and the head of the Council of Seniors was Kost Levytsky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pavle Đurišić</span> World War II Chetnik leader (1909–1945)

Pavle Đurišić was a Montenegrin Serb regular officer of the Royal Yugoslav Army who became a Chetnik commander (vojvoda) and led a significant proportion of the Chetniks in Montenegro during World War II. He distinguished himself and became one of the main commanders during the popular uprising against the Italians in Montenegro in July 1941, but later collaborated with the Italians in actions against the Communist-led Yugoslav Partisans. In 1943, his troops carried out several massacres against the Muslim population of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the Sandžak in which an estimated 10,000 people were killed between January and March, including thousands of women, children, and the elderly. He then led his troops during their participation in the anti-Partisan Case White offensive alongside Italian forces. Đurišić was captured by the Germans in May 1943, escaped, and was recaptured.

A mountain formerly known as Mount Pétain, but with no current official name, is located on the border of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia (BC) on the Continental Divide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201</span> Military unit

The Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201 was a World War II Ukrainian Schutzmannschaft auxiliary police battalion formed by Nazi Germany on 21 October 1941, predominantly from the soldiers of Ukrainian Nachtigall Battalion dissolved two months prior and the Roland Battalion. The battalion was part of the Army Group Centre that operated in Belarus.

Ukrainian People's Militsiya or the Ukrainian National Militsiya, was a paramilitary formation created by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in the General Government territory of occupied Poland and later in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine during World War II. It was set up in the course of Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolfas Ramanauskas</span> Lithuanian partisan leader (1918–1957)

Adolfas Ramanauskas, code name Vanagas, was a prominent Lithuanian partisan and one of the leaders of the Lithuanian resistance. Ramanauskas was working as a teacher under the Nazi administration when Lithuania was re-occupied by the Soviet Union in 1944–45. He joined the anti-Soviet resistance after being pressured by the NKVD to spy on his students, eventually advancing from a platoon commander to the chairman of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters. Betrayed by a classmate, he was arrested, brutally tortured, and eventually executed. He was the last known partisan commander to be captured.

A Banderite or Banderovite was a member of OUN-B, a faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The term, used from late 1940 onward, derives from the name of Stepan Bandera (1909–1959), the ultranationalist leader of this faction of the OUN. Because of the brutality utilized by OUN-B members, the colloquial term Banderites quickly earned a negative connotation, particularly among Poles and Jews. By 1942, the expression was well-known and frequently used in western Ukraine to describe the Ukrainian Insurgent Army partisans, OUN-B members or any other Ukrainian perpetrators. The OUN-B had been engaged in various atrocities, including murder of civilians, most of whom were ethnic Poles, Jews and Romani people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stepan Bandera monument in Lviv</span> Statue completed in October 2007

The Stepan Bandera monument in Lviv, which stands in front of the Stele of Ukraine Monument, is a statue dedicated to Stepan Bandera, a controversial twentieth century Ukrainian symbol of Nationalism, in the city of Lviv, one of the main cities of Western Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bust of Roman Shukhevych</span> Statue in Edmonton

The bust of Roman Shukhevych in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is a controversial sculpture located near the Ukrainian Youth Association narodny dim of the Ukrainian nationalist and Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych, a military leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), and one of the perpetrators of the Galicia-Volhynia massacres of approximately 100,000 Poles.

Canada has several monuments and memorials that to varying degrees commemorate people and groups accused of collaboration with Nazi forces.

References

  1. ↑ "Opinion | Think it's impossible to both-sides the Holocaust? It's already happening". NBC News. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Golinkin, Lev (2021-01-27). "Nazi collaborator monuments around the world". The Forward . Retrieved 2022-11-25.
  3. ↑ Anania, Billy (2022-11-01). "Why Monuments to Nazi Collaborators Are All Over America". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
  4. ↑ Tagliabue, John (2011-01-03). "Both Hero and Traitor, but No Longer on the Map". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-11-25.
  5. ↑ James, McAuley (2 Nov 2018). "Under intense fire, Macron insists France won't honor its most famous marshal — and Nazi collaborator". The Washington Post.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Redman, Henry (2021-03-29). "Ukrainian Association in Baraboo honors Nazi collaborators with statues at children's summer camp". Wisconsin Examiner. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
  7. ↑ Rudling, Anders (2016). "The Cult of Roman Shukhevych in Ukraine: Myth Making with Complications" (PDF). Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies. 5 (1): 26–65. doi: 10.1163/22116257-00501003 .
  8. ↑ Gunn, Erik (2020-01-06). "Not just a picture: Baraboo one year later". Wisconsin Examiner. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
  9. ↑ Monument to commander of Lithuanian partisans Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas unveiled in Chicago, , Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, 4 May 2019
  10. ↑ "Simon Wiesenthal Center Urges Lithuanian Community: "Don't Build Monument To Honor Nazi Collaborator"". Simon Wiesenthal Center . 2 May 2019. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  11. ↑ "Ramanauskas Monument Halted". New Britain Progressive. 2018-04-07. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
  12. ↑ Cohen, Ben (8 May 2019). "Row Simmers Over Chicago Monument to Lithuanian National Hero Implicated in WW2 Crimes Against Jews". The Algemeiner . Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  13. ↑ "Dr. Wernher Von Braun". City of Huntsville. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
  14. ↑ Crim, B. E. (2018). Our Germans: Project Paperclip and the National Security State. United States: Johns Hopkins University Press.
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