Exactly 80 years after Nazi Germany\u2019s unconditional surrender, Berlin police banned Soviet symbols during Victory Day commemorations.<\/p>\n
Visitors rushing to the Second World War memorials in the city were prevented from wearing St. George ribbons and using Belarusian and Russian flags and banners, as well as the USSR flag.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, according to Nico Popp, who wrote an impression piece for Junge Welt<\/em>, on May 8, \u201csmiling figures tried to provoke visitors at the Soviet memorials in Berlin with NATO flags.\u201d<\/p>\n A reporter for Berliner Zeitung<\/em> also reported that some groups with Ukrainian flags gathered around the Soviet memorials.<\/p>\n Furthermore, Berlin police also banned the distribution of the Junge Welt<\/em> newspaper at the Soviet Memorial in Berlin because its May 8 cover featured a Soviet flag.<\/p>\n The police justified this decision with a general order prohibiting the display of Soviet flags and symbols around the capital\u2019s three Soviet Memorials on May 8 and 9.<\/p>\n On the front page of the Junge Welt<\/em> newspaper regarding the 80th anniversary of the liberation from fascism, under the headline \u201cHitler kaputt\u201d (Hitler is finished), a red banner with hammer and sickle symbols is placed behind a photograph of people celebrating the end of the war in Moscow.<\/p>\n Junge Welt<\/em> editor-in-chief Nick Brauns criticized the police\u2019s general decision to ban Soviet symbols that defeated Nazi fascism, and their use of this decision to keep Junge Welt<\/em> away from the Soviet Memorial in Treptow, calling it \u201ccensorship and an attack on press freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n Brauns continued:<\/p>\n \u201cAs a Marxist and anti-fascist daily newspaper, Junge Welt<\/em> is committed to historical truth. By publishing the red flag with hammer and sickle symbols on the cover of our May 8 issue, we honor the decisive role of the Red Army in Germany\u2019s liberation from fascism. The police\u2019s prohibition of displaying the symbols of the Soviet liberators at the Soviet memorials on May 8 and 9 appears to be an attempt to rewrite history.\u201d<\/p>\n Members of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) who visited the Soviet Memorial in Treptow were also reportedly prevented from entering because of their hammer and sickle flags.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, May 8 was declared a public holiday in Berlin this year to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe and the liberation from Nazi fascism. Thousands of people used this holiday to visit the Soviet memorials in Treptower Park, Tiergarten, and Sch\u00f6nholzer Heide. Tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers who lost their lives in the Battle of Berlin during the final weeks of the war are buried here.<\/p>\n A commemoration ceremony was also held in the Federal Parliament (Bundestag<\/em>), to which Belarusian and Russian representatives were not invited. Speeches were given by Federal Parliament President Julia Kl\u00f6ckner (CDU) and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD).<\/p>\n According to Popp from Junge Welt<\/em>, a common feature of both speeches was the almost undisguised desire to use the date May 8, 1945 \u2013 or rather, an interpretation of this date serving the current political agenda.<\/p>\n Kl\u00f6ckner claimed that Moscow was \u201cabusing history\u201d by trying to justify the war in Ukraine by citing the war against Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n Arguing that \u201cRed Army soldiers did not only come from Russia,\u201d Kl\u00f6ckner said, \u201cWe must be able to defend peace and freedom militarily ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Steinmeier went a step further, accusing the Soviet Union of paving the way for \u201ca new dictatorship\u201d in East Germany. The Federal President guaranteed that May 8, 1945, was a day of liberation and is today \u201cat the core of all German identity\u201d; he thanked the \u201cAmericans, British, and French\u201d for the liberation and said they also acknowledged the \u201ccontribution\u201d of the Red Army.<\/p>\n The President stated, \u201cPrecisely for this reason, we resolutely oppose the Kremlin\u2019s current historical lies. Even if this claim is repeated at the victory celebrations in Moscow tomorrow: the war against Ukraine is not a continuation of the struggle against fascism.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other hand, as Arnold Sch\u00f6lzel from Junge Welt<\/em> also recalled, it was Steinmeier who, as foreign minister in 2014, initiated the regime change in Kyiv together with fascist groups in Maidan, where his predecessor Guido Westerwelle did not want to be photographed.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Exactly 80 years after Nazi Germany\u2019s unconditional surrender, Berlin police banned Soviet symbols during Victory Day commemorations. Visitors rushing to the Second World War memorials in the city were prevented from wearing St. George ribbons and using Belarusian and Russian flags and banners, as well as the USSR flag. On the other hand, according to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9770,9764,503,2630,9766,9767,9771,9768,9765,9769,9772,9751],"class_list":["post-9420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-belarusian-flag","tag-berlin-police","tag-headline","tag-junge-welt","tag-liberation-from-fascism","tag-nazi-germany","tag-russian-flag","tag-second-world-war-memorials","tag-soviet-symbols-ban","tag-st-george-ribbon","tag-ussr-flag","tag-victory-day"],"yoast_head":"\n