[annalex]

I don’t know who else to ping. There was a Polish/East European list but I don’t remember who lead it. I came across several Freepers form Germany, but I don’t remember their names.

I believe, this is an important issue also in America, where alliances and enmities of the Second World War still seem to linger, — despite the fact that for over 60 years our enemy has been not Nazism but Communism.

[VR-21]

Utopian movements always build a facade of altruism to help them seize power, but once in power their true totalitarian brutal nature emerges. No sadistic tyrant or bloodthirsty dictator in recent history came to power telling people of the horrors that would ensue, but rather told their people that they were going to put right some terrible wrong. They also find some group to marginalize and direct peoples animosity towards (the Jews, the Kulaks, the rich etc.).

Regarding the Second World War, there's a somewhat recently published book by Timothy Snyder titled Bloodlands - Europe Between Hitler and Stalin which does an excellent job of revealing the vileness of both the Communists and the Nazis. Rather than focusing on the Jewish Holocaust, it tells (comprehensively) the story of the greater number of people who were starved and slaughtered in the "death zone" between their opposing armies. When the war ended, "those bloodlands fell behind the iron curtain, leaving their history in darkness." I recommend it.