On uses and abuses of historical memory - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
Opinion: What is wrong with calling Russians Nazis? http://aje.me/1gpwPiD
My
grandfather moved to Moscow in the 1920s and that saved his life. His
brothers and cousins, who stayed in Kiev, were killed by the Nazis at
the notorious Babi Yar massacre
of 1941. My father was drafted into the Red Army to fight the Nazis. He
was wounded, and this wound, as well as the hard life in the Soviet
Union, took his life at the early age of 55.
I
just visited his grave two days ago. I wonder what the World War II
veterans would think of the indiscriminate use of the term Nazi
nowadays. How do they feel, when this word gets applied to Russians who
lost 20 million people in their war against them, or Serbians who were
one of the few nations which heroically resisted the German occupation? I
certainly feel outrage. Thousands of sacred memories worldwide,
Russian, Serbian, Polish, Ukrainian and others are violated when the
word Nazi is misapplied.
Russia considers World War II a key moment of unity in its recent history [EPA]
