Posted on 03/16/2014 5:34:18 AM PDT by Cronos
The annual march to honour Latvia’s World War II Waffen SS divisions, part of the armed wing of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party, always attracts some criticism.
This year, critics of the commemorative event protested during the event. They believe it distorts history – honouring Nazism and insulting victims of the regime.
But the veterans, now in their 80s and 90s, the men say they were fighting for Latvian freedom and against the return of the Soviet Red Army – which occupied Latvia before the war.
Followed by supporters carrying national flags, they walked through the city to lay flowers at the central Freedom Monument.
Despite the protest, a police spokeswoman said the event passed peacefully. Around 3,000 people took part this year.
they were anti-communist, but they were not decent. Just a different kind of monster
” The German Army of WWI was the antithesis of the Nazi armies.” —> that’s what I’ve read about them after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Do you have any more links for me to read?
It’s easy to talk, mac. Life was horrific in WWII in the eastern areas
Depends on what type of SS they were. IF they were concentration camp guards, then shame on them even if they had a bullet to their heads, but if they were fighting the Soviets, then somewhat understandable
Exactly. We whitewash the horrors of Stalin because he was our ally. He was a bigger monster than Hitler (both of them are frying in the hottest part of heck)
I don't think that was the prevention. It was that communism didn't gain a lot in the US due to the flexibility of the workforce and the acceptance of true capitalism rather than cronyism
however, that all may change thanks to Obama...
the communists did the same
our men did right to kill every SS cutthroat they found. -- correct. And the same should have been done to the die-hard Bolshevists..
were... the Christian Democrats of Germany are another alternative. There are others
The Ukrainian nazi sympathizers were strange -- like collaborating with your murderers
That’s what the Baltics are afraid of. They have up to 40% Russians in their population (I think that’s latvia)
True. He also killed Russians, Germans, Georgians etc and was an ethnic Georgian himself but he was an equal opportunity killer
You know why eastern Ukraine is populated by ethnic Russians instead of the Ukrainians who lived there? Because the Ukrainians who weren’t starved in the ‘30s were marched in front of the Soviet Army as human shields and to clear German minefields during Soviet offensives in ‘43 - ‘44. After the war Stalin shipped the remainder to Siberia and transplanted Russians to have loyal proletariats for the eastern Ukrainian mines and factories. Stalin probably did the same in the Baltic states.
Considering that the Soviets starved 3 (?) million of them to death in the 1930s, why be surprised at Ukrainians’ WWII sympathies. History of the period is more complicated than the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of Big Bad Nazis that we have been taught, and taught and taught. Hollywood entertainment vehicle products are not history, I’m afraid. (A Chinese dissident has just died in prison, according to this morning’s WSJ, while we’re deeply concerned and outraged about some old Latvians who served the Germans 75 years ago!)
The lands of Poland and eastward have for centuries been multiethnic, long before the Brave New World term Multi-Culti was invented, and the sympathies for the principals in WWII varied among all the ethnic groups there for various historical reasons dating back to the 19th century at least, and later the appearance of independent nations after WWI in which these ethnic groups found themselves, often against their will, sometimes preferring the old order of one of the three empires that had ruled the area. American believers in the simplistic fairy tale of history would go jump from the nearest bridge if they really knew who there and when greeted whose armies as liberators during WWII. I heard some true stories about it from old timers in Eastern Europe when I visited a dozen years ago. To those who live there today the scourge of the past century has been murderous Communism, while German nationalism came and went. Understanding what happened is not the same as excusing anyone.
Poles were singled out, because of centuries intermixing with Germanic people, Germans feared that they still had enough Aryan blood to be a threat to the Germans. Compare that to the Nazis attitudes towards their neighbors to the South, the Slovaks. German rule over Slovakia was fairly benign, even installing a Puppet government with “Father” Tiso.
Sort of like the 2008 and 2012 GOP prez candidates.
it was re-populated mostlyfrom the 16th to 19th century. Cossacks were from the former Moscowite territory
What's the difference between "Russians" (really Moscowites) and Ukrainians? Both are East Slavs, both speak mutually intelligible languages and were one people before the Mongol invasion. However, the Muscowites imbibed Mongol values, while the Ukrainins were either freebooters (cossacks) or imbibed the chaotic "democracy" of the Poles.
However, since the 18th century this was Russia, so the cultural differences closed.
I'm not justifying Putin -- what he did was wrong, but scarier yet is what he'd do in the future -- but what you're saying Stalin did to Ukrainians is what he did to the ethnic locals there and to the Tartars more than Ukrainians.
true. I’m surprised at the number of Poles that have German ancestry.
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