Germany: Weaponizing the Memory of World War Two against Russia

Eighty years ago, Germany suffered its worst self-induced military – and everything-else-too (moral, political, cultural, you name it) – catastrophe yet.

First, Nazi Berlin led the global fascist challenge that we call World War Two. Then, Germany was not merely defeated but crushed by the combined efforts of, in order of importance, the Soviet Union, the USA, and Great Britain, to name only those powers that really mattered decisively for the outcome of the war in Europe. This Allied victory in Europe is celebrated in May. In the West, the attendant commemorations peak on the 8t^h and in Russia one day later.

In Asia, it bears emphasis, things were different: there, World War Two started earlier, in July 1937, not September 1939, and ended later, in August, not May, 1945. Regarding the war in Europe, the West has always, if with varying intensity, sought to diminish the preponderant role of the Soviet Union, and within the latter – of Russia.

Concerning the war in Asia, the West’s main target of this weaponized forgetfulness has been China, rightly labeled “the forgotten ally” by historian Rana Mitter. China, like the Soviet Union and now Russia, has always dared challenge Western hegemony and especially US “primacy.” And, as with Russia and the former Soviet Union, it is this geopolitical independence that has led the West to deny the Chinese people’s real and massive World War Two contribution and sacrifices, which were enormous (the death toll alone, to quote only one figure, is estimated between 12 and 20 million).

But for now, back to the European part of the war. There, in historical reality, it was the Soviet Union that did the most – by far – to destroy Nazi Germany. And that is a simple, even quantifiable historical fact. Merely a decade ago, it was occasionally admitted even in Western mainstream media, such as America’s Washington Post and Britain’s Independent.