The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled, in an action involving a Domina Law Group pc llo client, that the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police (UAP) was not an organization loyal to the Nazis, and with interests inimical to the United States, during the Second World War. The Court found that the defendant, an elderly man, who moved to the United States in 1949 after the War, was not eligible for removal from the United States on the specific ground that he worked as a reserve police officer with the UAP in a Ukrainian city during the War.
A prominent World War II historian from Germany who testified at trial, admitted on cross-examination by David Domina, the attorney for the accused individual, that there was no evidence the individual was allegiant to the Nazis, and none that the UAP swore allegiance to it. The witness acknowledged that the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police was a constabulary police force, providing services and discharging duties much like reserve police forces in U.S. cities. Its purpose was simply to keep peace in the streets. From time to time, when the Nazis forced it to conduct itself in ways supportive of Nazi interests, its personnel did so because Ukraine was an occupied territory, and not because of a political allegiance.
The defendant in the case was held subject to denaturalization, and removal from the United States on other grounds, including an admitted falsification of his immigrant visa application in 1949. The Domina Law Group pc llo client admitted on the witness stand that he falsified his visa application because he was afraid of the Soviets who occupied Ukraine after the War. Trial evidence established that the defendant’s brother, a member of the Polish resistance, was killed by the Nazis in a political murder. His father-in-law, a Greek-Catholic priest, was killed by the Soviets in the conflict.
The evidence at trial also established that Ukraine was not an area controlled by an organized government of its own before World War II. After the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, Ukraine was occupied by the Soviets, who killed an estimated 10 million Ukrainians. When the Nazis first arrived, Ukrainians felt relieved of Soviet oppression. Soon, a Nazi oppression was imposed against the Ukrainian population, and millions more Ukrainians were killed during its course.
Ukraine did not achieve true independence, or a government of its own, until 2001, when its first democratically elected president won office.”
April, 2007
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