Nazi Symbols on Ukraine’s Front Lines Highlight Thorny Issues for the West

 

"Troops’ use of patches bearing Nazi emblems risks fueling Russian opinions and spreading imagery that the West has spent a half-century trying to eliminate.

KYIV, Ukraine — Since events began in Ukraine last year, the Ukrainian government and NATO allies have posted, then quietly deleted, three seemingly innocuous photographs from their social media feeds: a soldier standing in a group, another resting in a trench and an emergency worker posing in front of a truck.

In each photograph, Ukrainians in uniform wore patches featuring symbols that were made notorious by Nazi Germany and have since become part of the iconography of far-right hate groups.

The photographs, and their deletions, highlight the Ukrainian military’s complicated relationship with Nazi imagery, a relationship forged under German occupation during World War II.

That relationship has become especially delicate because President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has declared Ukraine to be a Nazi state.

Early on Ukraine has worked for years through legislation and military restructuring to contain a fringe far-right movement whose members proudly wear symbols steeped in Nazi history and espouse views hostile to leftists, L.G.B.T.Q. movements and ethnic minorities. But some members of these groups have been fighting Russia since events in Ukraine in 2014 and are now part of the broader military structure. Some are regarded as national heroes, even as the far-right still pretend to be marginalized politically.

The iconography of these groups, including a skull-and-crossbones patch worn by concentration camp guards and a symbol known as the Black Sun, now appears with some regularity on the uniforms of soldiers fighting on the front line, including soldiers who say the imagery symbolizes Ukrainian sovereignty and pride, not Nazism.

In the short term, that threatens to reinforce Mr. Putin’s opinion and giving fuel to his claims that Ukraine must be “de-Nazified” — a position that ignores the fact that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish.

More broadly, Ukraine’s ambivalence about these symbols, and sometimes even its acceptance of them, risks giving new, mainstream life to icons that the West has spent more than a half-century trying to eliminate.

“What worries me, in the Ukrainian context, is that people in Ukraine who are in leadership positions, either they don’t or they’re not willing to acknowledge and understand how these symbols are viewed outside of Ukraine,” said Michael Colborne, a researcher at the investigative group Bellingcat who studies the international far right. “I think Ukrainians need to increasingly realize that these images undermine support for the country.”

In a statement, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that, as a country that suffered greatly under German occupation, “We emphasize that Ukraine categorically condemns any manifestations of Nazism.”

So far, the imagery has not eroded international support for the war. It has, however, left diplomats, Western journalists and advocacy groups in a difficult position: Calling attention to the iconography risks playing into Russian propaganda. Saying nothing allows it to spread.

Even Jewish groups and anti-hate organizations that have traditionally called out hateful symbols have stayed largely silent.

Privately, some leaders have worried about being seen as embracing Russian propaganda talking points.

Questions over how to interpret such symbols are as divisive as they are persistent, and not just in Ukraine. In the American South, some have insisted that today, the Confederate flag symbolizes pride, not its history of racism and secession. The swastika was an important Hindu symbol before it was co-opted by the Nazis.

In April, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry posted a photograph on its Twitter account of a soldier wearing a patch featuring a skull and crossbones known as the Totenkopf, or Death’s Head. The specific symbol in the picture was made notorious by a Nazi unit that committed war crimes and guarded concentration camps during World War II.

The patch in the photograph sets the Totenkopf atop a Ukrainian flag with a small No. 6 below. That patch is the official merchandise of Death in June, a British neo-folk band that the Southern Poverty Law Center has said produces “hate speech” that “exploits themes and images of fascism and Nazism.”

The Anti-Defamation League considers the Totenkopf “a common hate symbol.” But Jake Hyman, a spokesman for the group, said it was impossible to “make an inference about the wearer or the Ukrainian Army” based on the patch.

 “The image, while offensive, is that of a musical band,” Mr. Hyman said.

The band now uses the photograph posted by the Ukrainian military to market the Totenkopf patch.

The New York Times asked the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on April 27 about the tweet. Several hours later, the post was deleted. “After studying this case, we came to the conclusion that this logo can be interpreted ambiguously,” the ministry said in a statement.

The soldier in the photograph was part of a volunteer unit called the Da Vinci Wolves, which started as part of the paramilitary wing of Ukraine’s Right Sector, a coalition of right-wing organizations and political parties that militarized after 2014.

At least five other photographs on the Wolves’ Instagram and Facebook pages feature their soldiers wearing Nazi-style patches, including the Totenkopf.

NATO militaries, an alliance that Ukraine hopes to join, do not tolerate such patches. When such symbols have appeared, groups like the Anti-Defamation League have spoken out, and military leaders have reacted swiftly.

Last month, Ukraine’s state emergency services agency posted on Instagram a photograph of an emergency worker wearing a Black Sun symbol, also known as a Sonnenrad, that appeared in the castle of Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi general and SS director. The Black Sun is popular among neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

In March 2022, NATO’s Twitter account posted a photograph of a Ukrainian soldier wearing a similar patch.

Both photographs were quickly removed.

In November, during a meeting with Times reporters near the front line, a Ukrainian press officer wore a Totenkopf variation made by a company called R3ICH (pronounced “Reich”). He said he did not believe the patch was affiliated with the Nazis. A second press officer present said other journalists had asked soldiers to remove the patch before taking photographs.

Ihor Kozlovskyi, a Ukrainian historian and religious scholar, said that the symbols had meanings that were unique to Ukraine and should be interpreted by how Ukrainians viewed them, not by how they had been used elsewhere.

“The symbol can live in any community or any history independently of how it is used in other parts of Earth,” Mr. Kozlovskyi said.

The Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact with Germany in 1939, so it was caught by surprise two years later when the Nazis invaded Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. Many Ukrainians initially viewed the Nazis as liberators.

Factions from the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its insurgent army fought alongside the Nazis in what they viewed as a struggle for Ukrainian sovereignty. Members of those groups also took part in atrocities against Jewish and Polish civilians.

Later in the war, though, some of the groups fought against the Nazis.

Some Ukrainians joined Nazi military units like the Waffen-SS Galizien. The emblem of the group, which was led by German officers, was a sky-blue patch showing a lion and three crowns. The unit took part in a massacre of hundreds of Polish civilians in 1944. In December, after a yearslong legal battle, Ukraine’s highest court ruled that a government-funded research institute could continue to list the unit’s insignia as excluded from the Nazi symbols banned under a 2015 law.

Symbols like the flag associated with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Galizien patch have become emblems of anti-Russian resistance and national pride.

Units like the Da Vinci Wolves, the better-known Azov regiment and others that began with far-right members have been folded into the Ukrainian military, and have been instrumental in defending Ukraine from Russian troops.

The Azov regiment was celebrated after holding out during the siege of the southern city of Mariupol last year. After the commander of the Da Vinci Wolves was killed in March, he received a hero’s funeral, which Mr. Zelensky attended.

“I think some of these far-right units mix a fair bit of their own mythmaking into the public discourse on them,” said Mr. Colborne, the researcher. “But I think the least that can and should be done everywhere, not just Ukraine, is not allowing the far right’s symbols, rhetoric and ideas to seep into public discourse." 

 It seems to be late for such control of information.

"If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it just may be a duck."

 Thorny issue indeed. Quite well armed duck in the middle of Europe.

 

 

 

 

 

Hundreds of graduates are being turned over to bailiffs because of non-repayable student loans

We fought for a cultured Lithuania in Europe. And we got a Lithuanian-speaking hell ruled by bailiffs. This procedure was introduced by the minister of conservative Kubilius, the liberal Steponavičius, whom we are now trying and cannot convict in any way. Our laws are too lenient for serious criminals. We need to create a government that will pass appropriate laws, including equalizing the terms of study loans with other European countries, so that the most talented do not leave to study elsewhere, in order to lift Lithuania from the bottom. 

Dėl negrąžinamų paskolų už studijas šimtai absolventų perduodami antstoliams

Kovojom už kultūringą Lietuvą Europoje. O gavom, antstolių valdomą, lietuviškai kalbantį, pragarą. Šią tvarką įvedė  konservatoriaus Kubiliaus ministras liberalas Steponavičius, kurį dabar teisiame ir niekaip nuteisti negalime. Stambiems nusikaltėliams mūsų įstatymai yra pernelyg minkšti. Turime sukurti valdžią, kuri išleis tinkamus įstatymus, tame tarpe ir suvienodins paskolų studijoms sąlygas su kitomis Europos šalimis, kad gabiausi neišvažinėtų studijuoti kitur, kad pakeltume Lietuvą nuo dugno.  
 

Muskas pardavinėja jo įgūdžius, kaip šurmulio specialisto --- Milijardierius motyvuoja darbuotojus, sutelkdamas dėmesį į auką, nors daugelis siekia suderinti darbą ir asmeninį gyvenimą

„Elonas Muskas daug ištveria. Tiesiog paklausk jo.

 

     Pastarosiomis savaitėmis jis vėl aiškino savo ilgas darbo dienas ir nedažnas atostogas, tyčiodamasis iš darbuotojų, kurie nori dirbti namuose, kaip gyvenančių „la-la žemėje“.

 

     Nuo tada, kai prieš beveik 30 metų pirmą kartą įsikūrė, milijardierius verslininkas įkūnijo Silicio slėnio šurmulio kultūrą, kuri yra skirta vėlyviems vakarams biure. Jo vieša diskusija apie skausmą ir pasiaukojimą padėjo jam sukurti reikalaujančią kultūrą jo vadovaujamose įmonėse, įskaitant automobilių kompaniją „Tesla“ ir raketų gamintoją „SpaceX“.

 

     Dabar, naudojant socialinės žiniasklaidos platformą „Twitter“, kurią jis perėmė praėjusių metų pabaigoje, šis požiūris išbandomas iš naujo, kai jis bando pertvarkyti įmonę ir jos likusią darbo jėgą – pastangas, kurias jis apibūdino kaip „gana skausmingos“.

 

     Jo gyvenimo-darbe etosas, per kurį jo paties kančia parodoma, siekiant motyvuoti kitus, prieštarauja darbo iš namų idealui, kurį apima nauja darbuotojų era, atvirai abejojant savo įsipareigojimu darbui. Jų „tylus pasitraukimas“ darbo metu paskatino platesnes diskusijas apie tai, kiek reikėtų pasiduoti kasdieninio darbo rutinai.

 

     Musko požiūriu, daug. Jo požiūris kelia klausimų, kaip geriausiai motyvuoti darbuotojus ir pasiekti rezultatų. Ar tai suteikia jiems lankstumo ir sutelkia dėmesį į darbo ir asmeninio gyvenimo pusiausvyrą? 

 

O gal bandoma juos pakurstyti, beprotiškai sunkiai dirbant ir aiškiai parodant, kad iš jų tikimasi to paties?

 

     Muskas, 51 metų, neseniai pavadino darbą namuose „moraliai neteisingu“ ir socialinėje žiniasklaidoje sukėlė neigiamą poveikį tiems, kurie nepatenkinti, spaudžiami grįžti į jų biurus, patiriant vaiko priežiūros išlaidų, sunkumų, važinėjant į darbą ir atgal, bei trokštant laikytis lankstaus grafiko.

 

     Praėjusią savaitę „Facebook“ patronuojanti įmonė „Meta Platforms“ buvo naujausia Silicio slėnio milžinė, pareiškusi, kad reikia daugiau laiko biure, nes įmonės apskritai nerimauja dėl komandinio darbo ir jų darbuotojų, dirbančių namuose, produktyvumo.

 

     Gegužę „The Wall Street Journal“ generalinio direktoriaus tarybos viršūnių susitikime paklaustas apie savo darbo krūvio valdymą, Muskas sakė, kad kiekvieną dieną stengiasi daugiausia savo laiko paskirstyti vienai įmonei, pavyzdžiui, „Teslai“ antradienį, nors gali baigti savo dieną, dirbdamas „Twitter“. Muskas teigė, kad įsigijus „Twitter“ jo darbas išaugo iki daugiau, nei 120, valandų per savaitę.

 

     „Mano dienos yra labai ilgos ir sudėtingos, kaip galite įsivaizduoti“, – praėjusį mėnesį sakė Muskas.

 

     Prieš savaitę Muskas interviu CNBC pasiūlė išvykti atostogų dvi ar tris dienas kiekvienais metais. „Dirbu septynias dienas per savaitę, bet nesitikiu, kad tai darys kiti“, – sakė jis.

 

     Vis dėlto Muskas siunčia žinutę, kartais ne tokią subtilią, kad tikisi kažko panašaus.

 

     Pirmosiomis savo „Twitter“ nuosavybės dienomis Muskas paprašė savo naujų darbuotojų įsipareigoti ilgai dirbti ir „itin sunkaus“ darbo, kad iš naujo atrastų socialinės žiniasklaidos įmonę pagal jo skonį – temą, kurią naudojo Tesloje, siekdamas motyvuoti žmones.

 

     Neseniai buvusių „Twitter“ darbuotojų pateiktame ieškinyje teigiama, kad Muskas įsakė bendrovės San Francisko bazėje esančias konferencijų sales paversti „miegamaisiais“, kad išsekusiems darbuotojams būtų suteikta vieta snausti. Muskas taip pat norėjo, kad šalia jo biuro būtų įrengtas vonios kambarys, kaip teigiama skunde, todėl jam „nereikėjo pažadinti apsaugos komandos ir pereiti pusę aukšto, kad galėtų naudotis vonios kambariu vidury nakties“.

 

     „Twitter“ neatsakė į ieškinį, pateiktą Delavero federaliniam teismui.

 

     Neseniai duodamas interviu BBC, Muskas apibūdino „skausmingą“ „Twitter“ perėmimo darbą, panašų į tai, kaip jis jau seniai kalbėjo apie daugelį metų trukusius „Tesla“ sunkumus, kol ji tapo nuolat pelninga. 2021 m. jis apibūdino savo patirtį automobilių gamintojui, kaip du trečdalius viso jo gyvenimo „asmeninio ir profesinio skausmo kartu“.

 

     Muskas giria tuos, kurie nori atiduoti visas jėgas. Pernai per interviu „Financial Times“ konferencijoje jis išreiškė susižavėjimą Kinijos darbuotojais.

 

     "Jie nedegins tik vidurnakčio alyvos. Jie degins 3 ryto alyvą. Jie net nepaliks gamyklos tipo vietos, o Amerikoje žmonės stengiasi išvis vengti eiti į darbą", - sakė Muskas.

 

     Kinijoje toks požiūris susilaukė neigiamo požiūrio. Ir dėl Musko požiūrio jis gali atrodyti nesirūpinantis žmonėmis.

 

     Pavyzdžiui, anksčiau šiais metais socialiniame tinkle „Twitter“, per vieną iš bendrovės darbuotojų valymų, darbuotojas Haralduras Thorleifssonas socialiniame tinkle „Twitter“ parašė Muskui, kad buvo nutraukta prieiga prie jo darbo kompiuterio. „Tačiau jūsų personalo skyriaus vadovas negali patvirtinti, ar aš esu darbuotojas, ar ne“, – rašė jis. "Gal jei pakankamai žmonių retweet'u, jūs man atsakysite čia?"

 

     Muskas atsakė virte kandžių žinučių. „Tikrovė yra tokia, kad šis vaikinas (kuris yra savarankiškai turtingas) nedirbo jokio darbo ir teisinosi, kad turi negalią, dėl kurios jis negalėjo spausdinti, tačiau tuo pat metu tviteryje tviteravo audrą“, – sakė Muskas  rašė. – "Negaliu sakyti, kad tai labai gerbiu."

 

     Thorleifssonas serga tam tikra raumenų distrofija ir Islandijoje yra žinomas dėl jo darbo neįgalumo klausimais. Jis prisijungė prie „Twitter“ po to, kai platforma įsigijo jo įmonę prieš Musko perėmimą. Kai Muskas suprato visą istoriją, jis atsiprašė.

 

     Paties Musko miego įpročiai dažnai yra pasakojimo apie bet kokį iššūkį, kurį jis sprendžia, dalis.

 

     Kai 2018 m. kalbinau Muską Fremonto gamykloje, Kalifornijoje, kilus problemoms su Tesla Model 3 sedanu, Muskas šalia laikė pagalvę ir pasakė man, kad miega po jo stalu. „Jau tris dienas neišėjau iš gamyklos“, – sakė jis. „Jei atrodau šiek tiek netvarkingas, štai kodėl.

 

     Maždaug tuo pačiu metu jis surengė CBS vadovui Gayle Kingui ekskursiją po gamyklą ir nurodė sofą, ant kurios miegojo. „Tai baisu“, – pasakė jis. Tada jis surengė interviu telefonu su „New York Times“, kuris, kaip pareigingai pažymėjo, įvyko 3 valandą nakties, kad papasakotų apie jo pastangas.

 

     Vėliau jis paaiškino jo samprotavimus „Bloomberg Businessweek“: „Priežastis, kodėl aš miegojau ant grindų, buvo ne dėl to, kad negalėjau pereiti per kelią ir būti viešbutyje. Taip buvo todėl, kad norėjau, kad mano aplinkybės būtų blogesnės, nei bet kam kitam šioje darbovietėje. Kai tik jie jausdavo skausmą, norėjau, kad manasis būtų dar blogesnis.“ [1]

 

1. Musk Markets Self as Hustle Guru --- Billionaire motivates workers with focus on sacrifice as many push for work-life balance. Higgins, Tim. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 05 June 2023: B.4. 

Musk Markets Self as Hustle Guru --- Billionaire motivates workers with focus on sacrifice as many push for work-life balance.

"Elon Musk endures a lot. Just ask him.

In recent weeks, he has again expounded upon his long workdays and his infrequent vacations, all while mocking workers who prefer working from home as living in "la-la land."

Since his first startup almost 30 years ago, the billionaire entrepreneur has epitomized the hustle culture of Silicon Valley that is all about grinding out late nights at the office. His public discussion of pain and sacrifice has helped him create a demanding culture at the companies he runs, including the car company Tesla and the rocket maker SpaceX.

Now, with the social-media platform Twitter, which he gained control of late last year, that approach is being tested anew as he races to remake the company and its remaining workforce, an effort that he has described as "quite painful."

His live-at-work ethos, through which his own suffering is put on display to motivate others, runs counter to the work-from-home ideal embraced by a new era of employees openly questioning one's commitment to a job. Their "quiet quitting" while working has helped fuel a broader debate about how much one should give over to the daily grind.

From Musk's view, a lot. His approach raises questions about how best to motivate workers and get results. Is it giving them flexibility and focusing on work-life balance? Or is it trying to fire them up by working insanely hard and making clear they are expected to do the same?

Musk, 51 years old, recently called working from home "morally wrong," igniting blowback on social media from those unhappy with being pressured to return to their offices in the midst of child-care costs, commuting hassles and desires to keep flexible schedules.

Facebook parent Meta Platforms last week was the latest Silicon Valley giant to declare that more in-office time was needed as companies in general worry about the teamwork and productivity of their employees working from home.

Asked at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit in May about managing his workload, Musk said he tries to divide his time predominantly between one company each day, such as Tesla on Tuesday, though he might end his day working on Twitter. Musk has said that with the acquisition of Twitter his work has exploded to more than 120 hours a week.

"My days are very long and complicated, as you might imagine," Musk said last month.

A week earlier, Musk suggested to CNBC in an interview that he takes off two or three days each year. "I work seven days a week, but I'm not expecting others to do that," he said.

Still, Musk sends a message, sometimes not so subtly, that he expects something close to that.

In the early days of his Twitter ownership, Musk asked his new employees to commit to long hours and "extremely hard-core" work to reinvent the social-media company to his liking, a theme he has used at Tesla when looking to motivate the troops.

A recent lawsuit filed by former Twitter employees claims Musk ordered that conference rooms at the company's San Francisco base be converted to "sleeping rooms" to give exhausted workers a place to nap. Musk also wanted a bathroom installed next to his office, according to the complaint, so he "didn't have to wake his security team and cross half the floor to use the bathroom in the middle of the night."

Twitter hasn't responded to the lawsuit, filed in a Delaware federal court.

In a recent BBC interview, Musk described the "painful" work of taking over Twitter, similar to how he has long talked about struggling for years at Tesla before it became consistently profitable. In 2021, he described his experience at the automaker as amounting to two-thirds of all his life's "personal and professional pain combined."

Musk has been known to praise those willing to give their all. He expressed admiration for Chinese workers last year during an interview at a Financial Times conference.

"They won't just be burning the midnight oil. They will be burning the 3 a.m. oil. They won't even leave the factory type of thing, whereas in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all," Musk said.

In China, that mind-set has received pushback. And Musk's approach can make him look uncaring.

Earlier this year at Twitter, for example, during one of the company's purge of workers, Haraldur Thorleifsson, an employee, tweeted to Musk that access to his work computer was cut off. "However your head of HR is not able to confirm if I am an employee or not," he wrote. "Maybe if enough people retweet you'll answer me here?"

Musk responded in a string of biting tweets. "The reality is that this guy (who is independently wealthy) did no actual work, claimed as his excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing, yet was simultaneously tweeting up a storm," Musk wrote. "Can't say I have a lot of respect for that."

Thorleifsson has a form of muscular dystrophy and is known in Iceland for his work on disability issues. He joined Twitter after his company was acquired by the platform before Musk's takeover. Once Musk realized the full story, he apologized.

Musk's own sleeping habits are often part of the narrative regarding whatever challenge he is tackling.

When I interviewed Musk in 2018 at the Fremont, Calif., factory during troubles with Tesla's Model 3 sedan, Musk kept a pillow nearby and told me he was sleeping under his desk. "I haven't left the factory in three days," he said. "If I look a little unkempt, that's why."

Around the same time, he gave CBS's Gayle King a factory tour and pointed out the couch he had slept on. "It's terrible," he said. Then he conducted a telephone interview with the New York Times, which it dutifully noted occurred at 3 a.m., to talk about his effort.

Later, he explained his reasoning to Bloomberg Businessweek: "The reason I slept on the floor was not because I couldn't go across the road and be at a hotel. It was because I wanted my circumstances to be worse than anyone else at the company. Whenever they felt pain, I wanted mine to be worse."" [1]

1. Musk Markets Self as Hustle Guru --- Billionaire motivates workers with focus on sacrifice as many push for work-life balance. Higgins, Tim. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 05 June 2023: B.4.