Inaccurate Time Magazine
Photo Caption Defames Ukrainians
Tradition of atrocities: A Jewish
girl raped by Ukrainians in Lvov, Poland, in 1945
The photograph shown here, with this factually untrue caption,
appeared in Time magazine,
February 22, 1993. In fact, this photo was taken by German
photographers in the Ukrainian city of Lviv (Lvov) shortly after
its capture by German forces on June 30, 1941. There is no
evidence that the woman shown here was ever raped.
Many Ukrainian-Americans were understandably outraged at Time
magazine's irresponsible and defamatory use of this graphic
photo. A leading Ukrainian-American periodical commented: "The
Ukrainian community deserves a genuine apology from Time for
publishing an irrelevant photograph with a false caption, which
violated historical truth and defamed the Ukrainian community."
(Ukrainian
Weekly, May 16.)
In response to numerous letters of complaint, Time magazine
eventually published a sort of apology (April 19, 1993). "Except
for the date," the influential weekly explained, "the
information describing the events in the photo was obtained from
an employee of a Holocaust museum in Israel."
The Time explanation
continued:
Chaos in the form of pogroms, rapes and killings swept the
town at that time. The picture is one of a series showing
women being stripped, harassed and chased by civilians. One
school of thought holds that the women were Jewish victims
of the pogroms in Lvov.... Other historians insist that the
majority of the women pictured in the series of photographs
were mistresses the Soviets abandoned when they fled Lvov to
escape the Germans troops. The defenseless collaborators
were then attacked by resentful residents for consorting
with the Soviet enemy.
This same photo appears in the 1989 book WWII:
Time-Life Books History of the Second World War (p.
141) with a caption reading: "A rape victim in the city of
Lvov cries out in rage and anguish as an older woman
comforts her."
Shortly before the German capture of the city on June 30,
1941, Soviet secret police summarily killed an estimated
2,300 men, women and children. When the Soviets abandoned
the city, many enraged citizens vented their anger on those
who had helped the hated oppressors. Many of the victims of
this popular outrage were Jews, who had tended to support
Soviet rule.
This photo, probably taken on July 1, 1941, almost certainly
depicts a victim of this vengeful, pogrom-like outburst in
which, according to some historians, several thousand Jews were
killed.
Commenting on the circumstances of this photo, one
Ukrainian-American writer has claimed that "the action was
staged by the Nazis for the purpose of shooting a newsreel." (Edmonton
Jewish Life, March 25, 1993, p. 7.) There is no
evidence whatsoever to support this scurrilous contention.
M.W.
From The
Journal of Historical Review, March/April 1994 (Vol. 14, No.
2), page 8.
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