“Victims of Communism” Monument Altered Over Reported Nazi Ties
A memorial in Canada will no longer include the names of specific people after the government said it found possible Nazi affiliations among the commemorated individuals.
A controversial monument to "victims of communism" in downtown Ottawa will no longer include the names of specific people after the Canadian government reportedly discovered potential Nazi affiliations among the commemorated individuals.
The memorial, "Canada, a Land of Refuge," originally proposed under conservative former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was inaugurated last December by the government of Canada and Tribute to Liberty, an organization formed to build a monument honoring those "affected by communism."
Over 500 specific names were reportedly expected to be engraved on the memorial within a year of its unveiling, though Jewish groups and historians raised concerns for years that over half of the individuals could have been Nazi collaborators in the Holocaust. The monument's unveiling was delayed amid the controversy.
This week, one year after the memorial's unveiling, the Department of Canadian Heritage said that it no longer planned to etch specific names into the memorial.
“The Government of Canada has emphasized that all aspects of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism must align with Canadian values of democracy and human rights,” Caroline Czajkowski, a spokesperson for the Department of Canadian Heritage, told Hyperallergic in a statement. “The Wall of Remembrance will now solely feature thematic content that conveys the broader commemorative and educational intent of the Memorial.”
When Hyperallergic asked Tribute to Liberty about reports that Nazi connections were discovered among the commemorated, the organization provided a statement alleging that "Kremlin-aligned activists and commentators in Canada have relentlessly spread disinformation targeting Central and Eastern European diaspora communities."
The monument comprises 4,000 metal rods designed by Paul Raff Studio, a central element of the memorial called the “Arc of Memory,” and is "intended to express the vastness of people who suffered under communist regimes," according to the Department of Canadian Heritage.
According to government records obtained by the Ottawa Citizen under freedom of information laws, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, a local Holocaust education organization, warned the Canadian government in 2021 that one individual whose name was to be included, Ukrainian nationalist Roman Shukhevych, was connected to the killings of Jews.
Some names had already been engraved on the monument, including that of Janis Niedra, who was reportedly connected to a massacre of 350 Jews in Latvia. These names had been reportedly previously removed from the monument.
Hyperallergic has contacted Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center.
