No Harm Spilt

“I am not saying that the [Ukrainian] famine or the other components of the victimization narratives do not deserve historical research and reflection, nor that evil should be ignored, or that the memory of the dead should not be held sacred. But I object to instrumentalizing this memory with the aim of generating political and moral capital, particularly when it is linked to an exclusion from historical research and reflection of events in which Ukrainians figured as perpetrators not victims, and when “our own” evil is kept invisible and the memory of the others’ dead is not held sacred. There is an analogy that, for all its faults, might be useful for me to invoke. I write here in much the same way as would a North American Jew who feels all the horror of the Holocaust, but who is disturbed to see this tragedy exploited to further the agenda of various identity and political projects (e.g., the defence of Israel), particularly when it is linked to an exculpating narrative (e.g., vis-à-vis the Palestinians).”—John-Paul Himka, “War Criminality: A Blank Spot in the Collective Memory of the Ukrainian Diaspora”  http://www.yorku.ca/soi/_Vol_5_1/_HTML/Himka.html