Yaroslav Hunka, right, waits for the arrival of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Sept. 22. The University of Alberta is returning endowment funds from the family of Hunka, a Ukrainian man whose military service was linked to the Nazis.
“We are currently reviewing other endowments, and our general naming policies and procedures, including those for endowments, to ensure alignment with our values,” he said in a statement. Prof. Rudling, who has studied the history of the SS unit of Ukrainian volunteers, said Mr. Hunka played a minor role compared to Mr. Kubijovych who was instrumental in convincing the Nazi regime to create the Waffen SS division in Ukraine.
A photograph of a parade in Lviv, Ukraine, in July, 1943, shows Mr. Kubijovych making a Nazi salute alongside Otto Wächter, a senior member of the SS who also served as governor of Galicia and Krakow. Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal alleged that Mr. Wächter oversaw the transportation of thousands of Jews to extermination camps..
The university also received a $15,000 donation from Roman Kolisnyk, whom Prof. Rudling said was an officer with the rank of untersturmführer