Britain’s King Charles received an award from a Ukrainian Nazi veteran while still Prince of Wales in 1983, an investigation by the media outlet Declassified UK has found.
The outlet has discovered a photograph showing the then Prince Charles receiving an honorary law degree during a ceremony at the University of Alberta in Canada from Peter Savaryn, a former member of the Waffen-SS, who served as the university’s chancellor from 1982 to 1986.
According to the report, in his acceptance speech Charles praised those who had “sacrificed their lives 40 years ago” in the fight against Adolf Hitler, yet the award was conferred on him by a veteran who fought for Nazi Germany.
Originally from what was then eastern Poland, Savaryn served in a Ukrainian Waffen-SS unit during World War II.
Millions of Ukrainians served in the Soviet Red Army during the war, but thousands of others fought on the German side under the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, known as the Galicia Division.
The division, formed in 1943, attracted volunteers from what is now western Ukraine. Its members took a personal oath to Adolf Hitler and have been accused of atrocities against Jews as well as other Polish and Soviet civilians.
Hellbound and Down 