Posted on 05/07/2007 10:07:41 PM PDT by tetuhe1898
The Simon Wiesenthal Center today criticized the removal from the center of Tallinn to a military cemetery by the Estonian government late last week of a Soviet memorial commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany, which had stood for decades in the center of the Estonian capital.
In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that the removal of the monument minimizes the severity of the crimes of the Holocaust in Estonia and insults the Nazis‘victims in the country.
According to Zuroff: “While the Center unequivocally condemns the crimes committed against Estonians of all faiths and nationalities under Soviet rule, it must never be forgotten that it was the Red Army which effectively stopped the mass murder conducted by the Nazis and their local collaborators on Estonian soil until the final day of its occupation by Nazi Germany. Thus the removal of the monument from the center of Tallinn by the government reflects a regrettable lack of sensitivity to the depth of Nazi criminality and is an insult to its victims. This is not surprising in a country which has proven to be indifferent to the crimes committed by Estonian Nazi collaborators, not a single one of whom has been held accountable since Estonia became independent, whereas numerous Communist collaborators have been prosecuted by the local judicial authorities.”
Estonia received an “F” or failing grade in the Wiesenthal Center’s last (2007) Annual Status Report on the worldwide investigation and prosecution of Nazi war criminals, published this month.
Why shouldn't we be doing the same with the Communists? The crimes they perpetrated were far worse than what the Nazis did. Bringing down a 50 year symbol of oppression is the right thing.
They must be desperate for fund raising fodder these days. Perhaps they Estonians don’t want ANY conquerors on their soil, nazi, or soviet.
The point is that “not a single one of whom has been held accountable since Estonia became independent, whereas numerous Communist collaborators have been prosecuted by the local judicial authorities”.
Dr. Zuroff should go talk to some of the russian jews now living in Israel about how they were treated living in the USSR and Russia.
Is this guy insane or is he just an idiot? The Soviets were mass murderers. The statue should not only have been moved, it should have been broken into a million pieces and urinated on. Hundreds of millions of people spent their lives in poverty because of communism, they caused mass starvation in the Ukraine and they created death camps for the politically incorrect.
A good analogy for the Soviets was someone who saves a woman from a killer, only to go ahead and rape her afterwards.
Also, Stalin was just as anti-semitic as Hitler. Read up on “The Doctor’s Plot.”
That is lamentable considering that the nazi’s probably tied the soviets for numbers of deaths in Eastern Europe. However, the Soviets FAR outnumbered the number they killed world wide. The nazi’s were there for maybe 4 or 5 years, the soviet “liberators” were there for what, 50+?
The statue was probably less to commemorate the end of the war and more just a statement that the soviet’s were all powerful and controlling.
The Estonians’ probably saw it more as a territory maker of a big dog than any sort of a commemorative marker to the end of anything.
In fact the Estonians probably saw it a reminder of how much pain they had borne under the Soviets for far longer than needed to just liberate Estonia.
NO. The Simon Wiesenthal Center shows its insensitivity to Soviet atrocities.
My letter to them:
Dear Sirs:
I have always thought highly of your organization but I was extremely disapointed to see you siding with the criminal KGB run Russian government in opposing the decision of Estonia to remove a Soviet era monument in their nation.
The impression you leave with your comments is that some fascism is OK with you. Because certainly the Soviet force was every bit as fascist as the Nazi regime it replaced.
One can not support human rights for some while supporting evil organizations that enslaved and killed millions at the same time.
The Estonians were correct in removing a tribute to the hated Red Army, and you, sirs, are deeply and savagely wrong to oppose it.
Communism fell in Estonia in 1991, or 16 years ago. Add 18 to 16 and you get 34. How many people over the age of 34 are their who collaborated with the Soviets? Many, obviously.
The Estonians’ probably saw it more as a territory maker of a big dog than any sort of a commemorative marker to the end of anything.
Yes, and so did the local Communists and Russians youth gangs who used the memorial as a gathering place. This was no doubt one reason they wanted it gone.
In fact the Estonians probably saw it a reminder of how much pain they had borne under the Soviets for far longer than needed to just liberate Estonia.
The Soviets were not liberators. They were initially allies of Hitler, so much of the Nazi push against Eastern Europe was enabled by Stalin. Then, when the Nazi's were retreating the Soviets did almost nothing to assist the Eastern peoples fighting the Nazis. The most clear example was the Battle or Warsaw (or the Rising as it is known in Poland) where the Soviets sat across a river for months as the Polish army and citizen resistance were crushed and Warsaw was turned to rubble rather than raise a finger to help them. To add insult to injury the Soviets put many of the resistance leaders on trial and sent them to prison or Gulags when they did gain control.
"Dr. Zuroff should go talk to some of the russian jews now living in Israel about how they were treated living in the USSR and Russia."Like the WWII veterans who held a march in Jerusalem, the vast majority of Israeli WWII vets are Russian Jews who served in the Red Army. Observe the Soviet medals.
source - from a Russian-speaking Israeli blog.
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