The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation (UCCLF) hallows the sacrifices and service of the thousands of Ukrainian Canadian men and women who enlisted in the armed forces of our country. In particular, UCCLF recognizes those who volunteered for overseas service during the Second World War and who, in England, organized the Ukrainian Canadian Servicemen’s’ Association (UCSA) and a “London Club” (at 218 Sussex Gardens, London). A number of the sons, daughters and grandchildren of Canada’s Ukrainian pioneer-settlers remained in Europe to help save Ukrainian political refugees and Displaced Persons (DPs), organizing the Central Ukrainian Relief Bureau (CURB) with the financial support of the Ukrainian Canadian Relief Fund (UCRF) and United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (UUARC).
Tens of thousands of DPs and victims of the war eventually rebuilt their lives in Canada, the USA, Australia and across Europe. The parents or grandparents of many of us – becoming a diaspora that never gave up on the cause of Ukraine’s freedom and persisted in reminding the world of the crimes against humanity and genocide perpetrated by the Soviet and Nazi occupation regimes in Ukraine. Those who saved these DPs were, as Flight Lieutenant G. R. B. Panchuk once described them, “the heroes of their day.” Fittingly they were honoured with a commemorative stainedglass window where these brave men and women once had their HQ. This unique project has been completed at St James’s, Sussex Gardens, the parish church of Paddington, London, UK.
