Posted on 05/07/2005 5:27:14 AM PDT by RWR8189
RIGA, Latvia -- As the president of a country that suffered immensely under Soviet and Nazi rule, I recently faced a dilemma. I had to decide whether to accept an invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend a rally in Moscow on Monday. That is the date when Russia traditionally celebrates its military victory over Nazi Germany, and this year is particularly significant, as it marks the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
Numerous heads of state and government, including George W. Bush, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroeder and Silvio Berlusconi, had already said they would attend the Moscow celebrations. But unlike in France, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands or Austria, the collapse of the Nazi empire did not lead to my country's liberation.
Instead, with the full acquiescence of the western Allied powers, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were reoccupied and annexed by the Soviet Union, while a dozen other countries in Central and Eastern Europe experienced renewed repression and decades of totalitarian rule as powerless satellite states of the Soviet empire.
Latvia certainly rejoices with the rest of the world at the fall of Hitler's regime. Like numerous other European countries, my country suffered immensely under the German occupation, which lasted in Latvia from 1941 to 1945. During that time, the Germans and their local accomplices carried out the most heinous and large-scale crimes against humanity ever committed on Latvian soil. They murdered about 100,000 of Latvia's inhabitants, including more than 90 percent of the country's prewar Jewish community, as well as tens of thousands of other Jews whom they transported into Latvia from other parts of Europe.
The Nazis also drafted some 115,000 Latvian men into various German military units. Thousands more people were shipped to Germany as forced labor. For a
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I doubt the Russians can or will do it. The only thing they seem to regret is loss of empire.
WHy anyone need to speak with SS woman?:))
I present you one more opportunity to "bad-mouth" mother Russia:)..
I was born in Lithuania and deeply resent your attack on the Baltic states, and portrayal of the countries as Nazi puppets is very unfortunate and shows how you ignore historical facts..
Nearly one third of my fellow countrymen were tortured and killed by the Soviet Communists under Stalin, including one half of my family members. Many times more people disappeared into Siberia’s forced labor camps under the Soviet Union’s rule than the well documented and publicized Nazi “concentration” camps. The horror that the Soviet Union inflicted upon its’ citizens for all those must be remembered and not glossed over.
President Regan dared to call the Soviet Union an Evil Empire; so to honor today, is beyond my comprehension.
I present you one opportunity to post an abject apology.
I don't deny it. BUT OPPOSITE of LAtvia those who participated in those troops you show are PUNISHED in Gulag.
In LAtvia former SS men are marching streets and suppoerted by goverment who pay them pensions. DOn't you see difference?
You just present us one more time your dirty kacapian mouth.==
Greg you are europian cultural superman but I 'm poor russian "barbarian":)). Your supreme polish culture so obvious for anyone who reads your posters:))).
But who will look on me with highest requirememts on me since I 'm "barbarian"? Am I right?:))))
"Am I right?:))))"
Almost.
This is exactly why you should understand Latvian SS veterans very well. It's like murderers of Katyn marching on the streets of Moscow soon, isn't it?
This is exactly why you should understand Latvian SS veterans very well. It's like murderers of Katyn marching on the streets of Moscow soon, isn't it?==
Show me who of Katyn's killers marched streets of Moscow? I easy will show you SS men on streets of Riga.
Kiss your kacapian Tsar. ==
You first:)).
You see...the problem is you keep them in protective secrecy so well it's not possible to point them out even if I wanted to. It's because they are heroes, aren't they?
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