More Fake News, Again from Ukraine and Once More

*Stepan Bandera’s monument in Buchach, Ukraine with the flag (right) of a neo-Nazi Ukrainian political organization*

While much is said in some American media outlets about “fake news” in the US, the smallness of the matters being discussed might come into focus when compared with Ukraine, which is of late producing rather much fake news about the Holocaust and elementary points in World War II history.

As we reported back in October, Ukrainian media outlet Radio Svoboda — the Ukrainian arm of the US Government-funded arm of RFERL — posted a picture from the US Holocaust Museum. It is an image of Polish Jews being deported to a death camp. There was just one problem. Radio Svoboda claimed the picture was from 1949 of Ukrainians being deported to Siberia. In fact, so effective was Radio Svoboda’s forgery that President Poroshenko himself tweeted it claiming it showed Ukrainians being deported. To Poroshenko’s credit, his office took it down almost immediately after we pointed this out.

Today it emerged that a major Ukrainian media outlet has struck again. In a December 20th article about the horrors of the NKVD (Soviet forerunner of the KGB), media outlet “Ukrinform” also borrowed a picture from the US Holocaust Museum, this time of Ukrainian Auxiliary Policemen shooting a Jewish child and mother — and fraudulently claimed it was actually of the NKVD shooting people. The caption reads in translation: “Atrocities of the Chekhists: the execution of a mother and child by the NKVD”.

Ukrinform got away with it for three weeks until Ukrainian Jewish activist Eduard Dolinsky called them out. And once again, poof, Ukrinform took down the Holocaust Museum picture, naturally with no apology, comment or correction note.

Ukrinform forgot about one thing though: Nothing ever completely disappears from the internet, and so now there is, for the record, the cached version of the original article showcasing Ukrinform’s abominable forgery. Compare the original Ukrinform article from December (picture is toward the bottom; as PDF) with the actual image from the US Holocaust Museum here and below.

Historic photograph from the US Holocaust Museum:

Ukrinform’s feaudulent use of the Holocaust Museum image. Caption reads: “Atrocities of the Chekhists: the execution of a mother and child by the NKVD”):

Originally published on 2018-01-11

Source: Defending History

Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.

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