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i think it is very unfortunate that politicians are trying to use
the tragic events of the world war ii to score some points instead
of concentrating on the real problems of today. humankind as a whole
and europeans in particular could not be proud of how they behaved
during that time. the bitter truth is that it would be pretty
difficult to find a country whose reputation was impeccable during
this most horrible war in human history.
try searching the web for 揘azi collaborators?and you will get the
names of major axis powers (germany, japan, italy), minor ones
(slovakia, romania, hungary, bulgaria, croatia), as well as endless
lists of the so-called co-belligerents and puppet states. in
addition, you will see a huge number of non-governmental military
and civilian nazi collaborators, sympathizers, and volunteers in
practically every european country and on other continents. almost
600,000 non-german volunteers joined the wehrmacht, the auxiliary
police (schutzmannschaft) and the waffen ss.
over 60 percent of the total number of the last defenders of berlin
and the reichstag in april to may 1945 who fought against the soviet
troops came from the netherlands, france, spain, denmark, norway,
sweden, belgium, estonia, latvia, ukraine, and other parts of
europe.
there are some shocking revelations of u.s. corporate collaboration
with nazi germany which prompted the following horrifying quote in
the michael dobbs?article in the washington post, published on
november 30, 1998: "慓eneral motors (gm) was far more important to
the nazi war machine than switzerland,?said bradford snell, who has
spent two decades researching the history of the world's largest
automaker. switzerland was just a repository of looted funds. gm was
an integral part of the german war effort. the nazis could have
invaded poland and russia without switzerland. they could not have
done so without gm." besides gm there were large numbers of u.s.
corporate and financial entities working with the nazis, including
at least five companies from the fortune 500 list. and what about
countries that gave refuge to fleeing nazi criminals? south america
was certainly a leader in this disgusting business.
no matter how much one despises the communist regime and joseph
stalin, it is inadmissible and immoral to deny the obvious: the
victory in world war ii was achieved by the allies, but it was the
soviet union, through its huge losses and
sacrifices and people抯 heroic actions, that played a major role in
liberating the world from the nazis. it is also inadmissible and
immoral to deny that the same soviet union occupied the countries of
eastern europe and the baltics and imposed totalitarian regimes on
them for almost 45 years, while all revolts against such regimes in
hungary, east germany, czechoslovakia, and even in the soviet union
itself were brutally suppressed.
however, it was the russian federation that liberated the world,
including itself, from soviet-style communism, and actually it was
the only country which returned the territories its predecessor the
soviet union appropriated under the secret protocols of the molotov
?ribbentrop pact. however, lithuania and ukraine, for example,
still keep some polish territories and it seems like no one is
objecting.
it is time now to leave world war ii to historians, put past
grievances aside and stop pointing fingers at each other. this will
do no one any good. instead, we should concentrate on the new and
enormous security threats the world faces in the 21st century. there
is no other way to meet these challenges except forging a close
united states ?russia ?europe security alliance under a unified
euro-atlantic security system. the sooner we build such a system,
the better for everyone, and if we succeed, it would be the best we
could do to honor all those who died in world war ii, because it
would mean that they did not give their lives in vain.
