May 8, 2025
© AFP
In his speech in the Bundestag commemorating the end of World War II in Europe 80 years ago, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier sharply criticized Russia and President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin is spreading “historical lies” when it declares its war against Ukraine a “continuation of the fight against fascism,” Steinmeier said on Thursday. “Putin’s war of aggression, his campaign against a free, democratic country, has nothing in common with the fight against National Socialist tyranny in World War II.”
In his speech, the Federal President praised the contribution of the Red Army—of “Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, all who fought in it”—to the liberation of Germany from Nazi tyranny. “At least 13 million of these soldiers and twice as many civilians lost their lives. The Red Army liberated Auschwitz. We will not forget all of that.”
However, with his “historical lies,” Putin is whitewashing “imperial madness, grave injustice, and the most serious crimes,” Steinmeier continued. “The liberators of Auschwitz have become the new aggressors.” The ambassadors of Russia and Belarus were not invited to the memorial service in parliament.
In Europe, May 8 is celebrated as Liberation Day. It commemorates the surrender of Nazi Germany to the armed forces of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union in 1945, which ended World War II on the continent. The commemoration in Berlin began that morning with an ecumenical service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and a wreath-laying ceremony at the Neue Wache.
It’s important to call out the filthy, bald-faced lies that the war criminal spews out nonstop, especially in connection with mafia land’s precious May 9th.
But, Steinmeier should’ve also been a bit more honest by saying that, regarding the Red Army, it was one brutal, bloodthirsty system replacing another brutal, bloodthirsty one. Whitewashing this fact makes it also a lie.