There has been multiple news articles regarding the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 during the last few days.
There is plenty of reasons to commemorate, and to celebrate.
There is plenty of reasons to commemorate, and to celebrate.
60 years later, the importance of what took place reverberates in the lives of millions of people.
I am but one more person who lost a family member to the conflagration, my grandfather was a Basque gudari who gave his life fighting against Nazi Germany in particular and Fascism in general.
In his blog The Moderate Voice, Joe Gandelman published a post called "Bush: FDR Blew It On Postwar Europe". It refers to the attitude towards the Soviet Union after the end of the conflict that enabled Stalin to subjugate vast swaths of Central and Eastern Europe.
It would be a good idea to read that post and follow the links that he posted there.
But it was not only in the East that the Allies dropped the ball. Sadly enough, they did so in the West also, when they allowed for Francisco Franco to remain in power even after the Fascist idiot had been ushered to power by Hitler and Mussolini.
Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took part of a ceremony in Mauthausen in which many Republican Spaniards, Basques and Catalans met their deaths.
The Nazis wanted to make sure their little puppet in Spain would not have many enemies left. In the mean time, Franco's Blue Brigade fought alongside the Nazis in Stalingrad and later in the defense of the German Fatherland.
The Allies had promised the Basques, the Catalans and the Republican Spaniards that they would take care of Franco, but soon after the capitualtion of Nazi Germany those who call the shots decided that it was not to their best interest to keep that promise, and Francisco Franco, a Hitler underling, was spared.
Later he would be used as a pawn in the face off between the Free World and the Soviet Union. What he did in Euskal Herria, Catalonia and Spain during his reign of terror has been downplayed by the press and by the way the governments both in America and Europe impart their view of history and Franco's place in it.
There is a lot that needs to be done to correct those mistakes.
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Thank you for posting the link to my blog. I will add this blog to my blogroll as well.
ReplyDeletePatrick Buchanan wrote a similar critical piece in regards to the lauded pact.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theamericancause.org/a-pjb-050509-pact.htm
However, he has been taken to task by Jewish groups for their misinterpretation that Buchanan believes that Hitler should have been left in power. What befell the Jews was an attrocity of pure evil, but it was not the Allies impetus to war against the Nazis and Axis powers. The fate of the Jews were not the reason nor the principal subject of WWII. This must not be forgotten with revisionist history which seeks to paint WWII as a war only about the Jews. Millions of others died and suffered during and after the war by Hitler. And, as Buchanan notes, millions upon millions more died, suffered and were subjugated by the pact at the war's conclusion. It is not to say that it was not good to stop Hitler from his acts of genocide. It is to say that it was not good to stop Hitler to only allow murderous regimes of Stalin and Franco in place in Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, SPAIN, etc...
The horrors of these peoples are a direct result of the failings of Churchill and FDR. Would it have been better to allow Hitler in place to defeat Stalin on their collision course, and then defeat Hitler after his exhaustive defeat of Stalin, instead of declaring war on him and causing him a costly war on both fronts, in effect sealing his defeat to Stalin? Can this line of thought not be pursued, or is it only the fate of one people that matters?
Interesting, I will look into it.
ReplyDeleteI heard some people saying that once Hitler was defeated, they Allies should have pushed Stalin back into his own borders with the help of the German army.