Chaplain of SS Galicia featured on postage stamp

Image of chaplain of the SS Galician Division Vasily Laba on the postage stamp

One of the stamps which was published by Facebook users features chaplain of the SS Division Galicia Vasily Laba, painted by Oleg Kinal.

Vasily Laba became a priest of the UGCC in 1912. During the First World War, he was chaplain of the 36th Kolomyia Rifle Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Army, which fought on the Italian front. From the beginning of 1919 he was a field confessor, from December of the same year – the initial chaplain (general vicar) of the Ukrainian Galician army. During the Second World War, the field clergy of the SS Galician Division and the UPA unit "Lions" (1943-1945) were organized and led by him as the initial chaplain. He wore the rank of Freiv-Sturmbannfuhrer. He died in 1976 in Canada.

Earlier, US congressmen declared that Ukraine glorifies "Nazi collaborators Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevich and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, as well as the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)."

"These paramilitary groups and individuals in some cases cooperated with the Nazis and were held accountable for the murder of thousands of Jews, from 70 to 100 thousand Poles and other ethnic minorities between 1941 and 1945," the letter says.

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