A "souvenir" made by the SS: the shrunken head of a Russian POW 
Found in the pathology block of Buchenwald: tattooed and tanned skin, two shrunken heads of russian POWs, a lampshade made of human skin.
Posted on 05/07/2005 3:20:28 PM PDT by neverdem
Filed at 1:34 p.m. ET
RIGA (Reuters) - President Bush denounced Soviet Cold War rule of eastern Europe as ``one of the greatest wrongs of history'' on Saturday in a jab at Moscow two days before celebrations of the 1945 victory over Hitler.
Bush, visiting Latvia before the ceremonies in Moscow marking 60 years since the end of World War II in Europe, also held up the three Baltic states as examples of democratic reform since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
He said the end of the war brought liberty from fascism for many in Germany but meant the ``iron rule of another empire'' for the Baltic states -- Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia -- and nations from Poland to Romania.
Bush admitted the United States shared some responsibility for the Cold War division of Europe after the 1945 Yalta accord between Russia, the United States and Britain.
``Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable,'' he said. ``Yet this attempt to sacrifice freedom for the sake of stability left a continent divided and unstable.
``The captivity of millions in central and eastern Europe will be remembered as one of the greatest wrongs of history,'' he said in a speech at Riga's guildhall.
The three Baltic states joined both NATO and the European Union last year.
Bush's visit to Riga has angered Russia by reviving tensions about the Soviet occupation when Moscow is focusing on celebrating the end of World War II, a conflict that cost 27 million Soviet lives.
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed calls by the Baltic states for an apology for Soviet rule and accused them on Saturday of trying to cover up past Nazi collaboration.
BUSH MEETS PUTIN
The differing versions of history may make for frictions when Bush meets Putin in Moscow on Sunday and Monday.
Putin insists the Red Army was a liberator, not an oppressor, of Eastern Europe.
``Our people not only defended their homeland, they liberated 11 European countries,'' Putin said on Saturday after laying a wreath at a monument to Russia's war dead.
In a recent state of the nation speech he bemoaned the demise of the Soviet Union as ``the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'' He has also said Washington should not try to export its own brand of democracy.
Bush said Russia's leaders had made ``great progress'' in the past 15 years.
``In the long run it is the strength of Russian democracy that will determine the greatness of Russia and I believe the Russian people value their freedom and will settle for no less,'' he said.
``As we mark a victory of six decades ago, we are mindful of a paradox. For much of Germany, defeat led to freedom. For much of Eastern and Central Europe, victory brought the iron rule of another empire.''
He also held up the Baltics as examples of successful shifts to democracy, a theme he stressed for nations including Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Belarus.
``These are extraordinary times that we're living in and the three Baltic countries are capable of helping Russia and other countries in this part of the world see the benefits of what it means to live in a free society,'' Bush told a news conference.
But Bush did not back pleas by the Baltic countries for an apology from Russia. ``My hope is that we are able to move on,'' he said.
He later flew to the Netherlands where he will spend Saturday night.
The presidents of Lithuania and Estonia will boycott the May 9 ceremonies in Moscow. Georgia's president will also stay away, but Latvia's president will attend.
All three Baltic nations, whose combined population is now about 6 million, were occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940 after a pact between Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia which divided up spheres of influence in East Europe.
In 1941, German troops occupied the Baltics and remained there until the end of the war when Soviet troops returned and ruled with an iron fist. The collapse of communism enabled the Baltic states to win their independence in 1991.
Bush also urged free elections in Belarus, which shares borders with Lithuania and Latvia, and ruled out any secret U.S deal with Moscow allowing President Alexander Lukashenko to remain in power. ``We don't make secret deals,'' he said.
Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga wrote in the Washington Post on Saturday: ``Russia would gain immensely by ... expressing its genuine regret for the crimes of the Soviet regime.
``Until Russia does so ... its relations with its immediate neighbors will remain uneasy at best.''
But writing in the French daily Le Figaro, Putin dismissed calls for an apology and accused the Baltic countries of trying to justify their own government's ``discriminatory and reprehensible policy'' toward their Russian-speaking populations.
Police detained about 20 protesters from Latvia's big Russian minority after they hurled smoke bombs in a demonstration against Bush.
``Bush is a horror,'' said protest leader Beness Aija. Posters in another demonstration said: ``Stop the war in Iraq.''
But many Latvians welcome Bush. ``It's important to recognize the struggle that our fathers had against communists and the Soviet Union,'' said Ugis Senbergs, a 50-year-old architect.
No doubt the President's comments today will rouse the treasonous Bed Wetters at CBS, NPR, NYT, etc, but today is as good a day as any for conservatives to publicly hold the Rat Bastard Left to account for its historically immoral acquiescence at Yalta.
President Bush's remarks should serve as the starting point for instilling truth into our childrens' history books about this despicable act of moral and political cowardice, a betrayal engineered by a socialist President and, as Joe McCarthy so presciently pointed out, by a Communist-infested party that seldom misses an opportunity to sell out our national interests to foreign enemies (think Clinton and China.)
I can only hope that this is the beginning of a drive to hold accountable the Rats who enjoyed the benefits of a five-decade partnership with the Communist tyrants who murdered millions of innocents and enslaved hundreds of millions.
Go W, go!!
I hope this is the case too.
Hey Putin, tell that to the millions that were enslaved and murdered by the your country.
Putin is nothing but a sicko. God Bless Bush for standing up to him and calling the occupation of Eastern Europe wrong.
"Okay, but I have yet to hear anyone put forth a practical alternative given the facts as they existed at the time, and "turn Patton loose" doesn't count. The Russians already had their armies in Eastern Europe and wee were not going to try to kick them out in the aftermath of Germany's defeat. Any president who tried something like that would have been impeached immediately."
Here's an alternative...
FDR didnt *have* to have soviet spy Alger Hiss as one of his top State Dept advisors. FDR might have paid attention to the reports back to *1941* that suspect Hiss of spying ... that just *might* have helped.
Hiss helped engineer the Yalta give-away and set up the UN. Both gave USSR superpower status that they didnt deserve, and when spies like the Rosenbergs helped give Stalin the bomb, it was clear we were in a 2 superpower Cold War.
We could have demanded honest democratic elections in every eastern european state.
Standing up for eastern european freedom and sovereignty was not only possible, it was the least we owed to the soldiers who died in WWII for the cause of freedom.
WWII started because Poland's soveriegnty was violated. That violation didnt end until 1989.
I guess Putin considers replacing one form of tyranny with another "liberation".
Really? I guess you haven't heard of the American POW's massacred near Malmedy during the battle of the Bulge where 72 American Soldiers were lined up in a field and machine gunned by a German SS unit and then buried in some deep snow. That's at least one example.
Thanks for the story, neverdem. This president just keeps getting better and better.
I heard this reported on NPR and was absolutely delighted. To my knowledge, this is the first time a U.S. President has EVER acknowledged that the decisions taken at Yalta were immoral and wrong.
This is a huge piece of honesty from President Bush. I imagine it was partly based on his personal convictions, partly related to the Bush doctrine of spreading freedom rather than playing ball with useful tyrants, and partly in reaction to the many provocative things Putin has said and done over the past few months.
The reporters on NPR sounded as if they could hardly get thewords out of their mouths, they tasted so bad, but they didn't dare criticize Bush for saying what he said. It is indeed obvious, although I believe Bush is the first President to say it, and say it clearly.
President Bush continues to impress. Not since President Reagan have we had the opportunity to hear a forthright denunciation of Communism from our leadership.
There are always at least some atrocities in any war. But there's a big difference between atrocities committed in the heat of battle, or by soldiers acting on their own initiative, and atrocities on a large scale deliberately planned and ordered from the top. Large scale murders in violation of the Geneva Conventions were Soviet policy, coming down from Stalin himself.
A BIG difference.
Where is the, well no s*** ping?
Did he compare the Nazis to the Commies in the USSR? He should have. The only difference was one was in Germany and other in Russia. Russia was on the winning side though.
Liberation shown in it's finest form...
Just one example: American and British POW pilots - officers included - were ordered murdered by Hitler - some killed as they landed others murdered by the SS after the "Great Escape". As bad and murderous as the Soviets were - better them holding Eastern Europe than the genocidal Nazis.
Most of those Eastern European countries that fell behind the Iron Curtain (but not all) were members of the Axis powers (Bulgaria, "Slovakia", Romania, Hungry, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland). Americans did not care to fight for their fates outside of regretting what happened to Poland and the Czech part of Czechoslovakia. American attitudes to these eastern nations was to hell with those ex-Nazi scums. The Republicans were even against the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe (east and west) if I recall.
Side note: The Poles elected the reformed Communist party over Solidarity. Poland is currently ruled by the reformed Communist party - democratically elected.
Neo-con Trostkyite (with an ax to grind against the nation that betrayed Trotsky) influenced revisionist history can only go so far.
Yep. Bush just rolled Roosevelt down the stairs.
...lot of great quotes in this article. ...an historic trip.
The Nazis were worse - as bad as the Soviets were - and they were evil - they did not make lamp shades out of people or develop methods to make soap out of human fat or felt fabric out of Jewish hair.
Heh....giving 'em ulcers over at the State Department again, where moral clarity must be checked at the front door.
A "souvenir" made by the SS: the shrunken head of a Russian POW Found in the pathology block of Buchenwald: tattooed and tanned skin, two shrunken heads of russian POWs, a lampshade made of human skin.
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