黑料社

BERLIN 鈥� The war weighs heavy on Ilse Thiele鈥檚 mind these days as she sits in the floral print armchair in her Berlin living room, the television constantly tuned to the news from Ukraine.

鈥淥f course all the memories come flooding back,鈥� the 85-year-old retired manager of an East German post office says, as she watches the streams of exhausted refugees meeting armies of volunteers just minutes away at Berlin鈥檚 main train station.

鈥淚 feel so sorry for all those people, especially the children.鈥�

Thiele recalls the biting cold and ache of hunger on her own trek from Lower Silesia in today鈥檚 Poland in the winter of 1944-45, when she and her mother fled the Russian advance on foot for Thuringia in central Germany.

World War II still looms large in Germans鈥� living memory and public discourse, shaping the perception of the Ukraine invasion and the political debate over how to face the moment.

Germans, proud of their robust democracy, have reacted with outrage at Vladimir Putin鈥檚 attempts to frame the war as a struggle against 鈥渘eo-Nazi鈥� aggressors plotting 鈥済enocide鈥� on Russia鈥檚 doorstep.

The Russian president argued in a speech last month that Ukrainian forces aimed 鈥渢o kill innocent people, just as members of the punitive units of Ukrainian nationalists and Hitler鈥檚 accomplices did during the Great Patriotic War鈥�.

鈥楨pitome of evil鈥�

In a Twitter exchange that went viral earlier this month, Russia鈥檚 South African embassy claimed Moscow 鈥渓ike 80 years go, is fighting Nazism in Ukraine!鈥�.

The German mission in South Africa quickly stepped in, saying it couldn鈥檛 remain 鈥渟ilent鈥� in the face of such a 鈥渃ynical鈥� statement while Russia was 鈥渟laughtering innocent children, women and men for its own gain鈥�.

鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely not 鈥榝ighting Nazism鈥�. Shame on anyone who鈥檚 falling for this. (Sadly we鈥檙e kinda experts on Nazism.),鈥� the mission added in a tweet that drew 160,000 鈥渓ikes鈥�.

Hedwig Richter, modern history professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich, told AFP that Putin was perverting the 鈥渙verwhelming international consensus鈥� that the Nazis were the 鈥渆pitome of evil鈥� to make his case.

鈥淚t is absolutely absurd, particularly given the Jewish president of Ukraine鈥� Volodymyr Zelensky, she said, noting that many Holocaust survivors associated Ukrainian town names now in the news with atrocities committed by the Germans.

鈥淎s a German, I am deeply offended that Putin would abuse the memory of the Germans鈥� crimes in the Nazi period to legitimise his rule,鈥� she told AFP.

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e observing is how important historical remembrance is, particularly when you see how Russia, by forgetting its Stalinist crimes, is feeding an aggressive nationalism.鈥�

She said Germany had been forced to learn that the lesson of its own dark history was 鈥渘ot only a yearning for peace but also, in a crisis, active military defence of human rights鈥�.

Anti-war protests across Europe and throughout Germany have deployed a caricature of Putin with a toothbrush moustache in a reference to the Nazi dictator.

Historian Heinrich August Winkler stressed, in a recent essay, the singularity of Hitler鈥檚 brutal military campaigns and the slaughter of six million Jews in the Holocaust 鈥� a point of consensus in mainstream German thought.

Nevertheless he argued in the weekly Die Zeit in an article titled 鈥淲hat Links Putin with Hitler鈥� that the Russian leader鈥檚 obsession with a perceived 鈥渟tab in the back鈥� by the West and ultranationalist rhetoric were important parallels worthy of examination.

鈥淧utin is now confronting Western democracies with the question of how seriously they take their much-espoused values,鈥� Winkler said, much like the initially reluctant Allies of World War II.

鈥楴asty pig鈥�

Historian Gundula Bavendamm told AFP Germans had a visceral response to the invasion of Ukraine due to atrocities against civilians committed by the Nazis, and because every living generation had seen waves of refugees 鈥� after World War II, from Yugoslavia in the 1990s and most recently from Syria.

But she said she found the incessant references to Hitler problematic, not least because they obscured recent historical failings by Germany, including energy reliance on Russia, meagre military spending and 鈥渙ur closeness to Putin 鈥� seeing too late what kind of man this is鈥�.

鈥淐onstantly invoking our responsibility for World War II may have kept us from important self-criticism in the last 10-15 years,鈥� said Bavendamm, who runs Berlin鈥檚 Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation museum.

For Thiele, the Berlin pensioner, the failure to learn from the past rips open old wounds.

鈥淢y parents lived through two world wars and I lived through one thanks to that nasty pig Hitler,鈥� she said, recalling that her late husband鈥檚 communist family had been prisoners at the Nazi concentration camp Sachsenhausen.

鈥淒o they want to start a third world war? I just can鈥檛 understand how, if you know anything about war, you could start one again.鈥�

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