Ukrainian Catholic Church to cover up monument to Nazi SS unit in Elkins Park

The leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the Philadelphia region said on Tuesday that the church would temporarily cover up a 30-year-old cemetery monument in Montgomery County that is dedicated to a unit of Ukrainian soldiers who fought for Nazi Germany during World War II.

The decision comes about a week after an Inquirer article described the history of the monument at St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in Elkins Park. The large stone cross honors the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the Schutzstaffel — the Nazi military branch often referred to simply as “the SS.”

It was erected in the mid-1990s, but apparently had received little attention until recently. Jewish groups over the last week have condemned the monument and called for its removal.

Borys Gudziak, the archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, said in a statement Tuesday that the church has decided to “temporarily cover the monument in question while our discussions ensue with the community in order to prevent vandalism and with the goal of conducting an objective dialogue with sensitivity to all concerned.”

» READ MORE: For 30 years, a memorial to Nazi collaborators sat largely unnoticed just outside Philadelphia. Now it’s drawing outrage.

The SS unit, known also as the “1st Galician” or “SS Galizien,” was formed in 1943, and composed of volunteers and conscripts from Nazi-occupied Ukraine. Some Ukrainians today view those soldiers not as Nazi collaborators but “freedom fighters” who took on the Soviet Union with the goal of establishing Ukrainian independence.

The cemetery is owned by the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, near Northern Liberties, which functions as the primary church for the archeparchy. Veterans association records indicate that the church apparently approved the memorial, donated land for its creation, and dispatched clergy to consecrate the monument about 30 years ago.

A church official recently disputed that account, saying the cemetery monuments “are not subject to the approval of the archeparchy.”

Jewish groups and some historians say that honoring SS Galizien today risks whitewashing the war crimes of the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

Last week, the American Jewish Committee said in a statement that area Ukrainians must “recognize that this cannot remain.”

» READ MORE: National Jewish group calls for removal of Philadelphia-area monument to a Nazi ‘SS’ unit

“We urge them to act in the same spirit that motivated Ukrainian President Zelensky to correct these historical myths at home and remove this memorial stone from our community,” the statement said. Zelensky, who is Jewish, has condemned marchers who celebrated the unit during a 2021 parade in Kyiv.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and the Anti-Defamation League said they were shocked to learn of the monument, which is next to an elementary school and in a community that is also home to more than a half-dozen synagogues.

The stone cross, which features the lion-and-crowns insignia of SS Galizien, had apparently received little scrutiny until earlier this year, when a leader of a far-right Ukrainian nationalist group visited the cemetery to pose before it. The Forward, a Jewish newspaper that has tracked monuments to Nazi collaborators, wrote an article about the monument last month.

In a statement last week, before Tuesday’s decision to cover the monument, Gudziak acknowledged that recent news stories had “alarmed and hurt the Jewish community of Philadelphia.”

But, Gudziak added: “[T]hey have evoked concern among the Ukrainians in the area. The pain in our communities reflects the tragic and traumatic history of the twentieth century — a century when millions were brutally slaughtered by totalitarian regimes.”

“The Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia values its relationship with the Jewish community and intends to address the issues at hand with the depth and seriousness that they deserve,” Gudziak wrote. “Therefore, we plan to engage in an open, scholarly, and compassionate dialogue with the organizations that have contacted us regarding this matter in order to find an acceptable solution.”

It was unclear Tuesday how the church intended to cover the memorial, or for how long.