A small contribution

On Friday, October 29 I was due to attend and, indeed, report from a very solemn ceremony in Great Missenden: an ecumenical Mass of Reparation for the thousands of victims who are rarely remembered. These are people of Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and other parts of former Yugoslavia who were handed over by the British authorities to the Communists and were almost immediately murdered. Indeed, some stories tell of the British actually seeing and hearing train-loads of people being set down and mowed down just a couple of miles away from where the handing over had taken place.

It is incomprehensible to me why those shameful episodes should not be acknowledged (along with such matters as the prolonged silence on what really happened at Katyn). One needs no apologies. After all, we cannot apologize for what we had not done and were not responsible for. But acknowledgement is reparation. The Great Missenden Mass, which I missed for a very simple reason, a very bad cold meant that I could do nothing but sleep all day, is a start of that process. It is time the truth was told.

In the absence of any account I could have written here are a couple of links. One is an excellent article by former Ambassador to various East European and Balkan countries, Charles Crawford, published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The other by Edward Lucas (at least, I assume that is who E. L. is) in the Economist. Do try to read them both and ignore the stupid comments on both, made by people who have as much knowledge of history as I of nuclear physics. Perhaps, even less.

This is a little weird

Going through Instapundit I found the following story:

THEY TOLD ME IF WE ELECTED BARACK OBAMA THEY’D BE putting up statues of Stalin around our nation’s capital. And they were right!

When I managed to pick my chin off the floor I followed the link and found a somewhat weird story. It seems that Virginia's monument to D-Day includes a statue of Stalin. D-Day? Whatever one may think of the Soviet Union's and Stalin's own role in the Second World War (or the Great Patriotic War) it had nothing to do with D-Day.

Understandably, people in Bedford, VA were somewhat upset even when they were told that this was to honour the Soviet Union's role in distracting the Nazi forces so the D-Day landing could go ahead. One wonders about the historical knowledge that produces that kind of statement.

The story has now hit Washington DC where various embassies are conveying protests on behalf of people whose families managed to escape from Stalin and his henchmen.

The oddest part of this whole saga is that the plaque under the statue apparently says:

In memory of the tens of millions who died under Stalin's rule and in tribute to all whose valor, fidelity, and sacrifice denied him and his successors victory in the cold war.

Seems a weird way of celebrating all that by putting up a bust of Stalin.