Branko Milanović je v nekaj tvitih posrečeno pojasnil paradoks, zakaj so danes nad praznovanjem osvoboditve izpod fašizma v zahodnih državah manj navdušeni kot v vzhodnih. Pač fašizem je bil do nekaterih “držav s prvorazrednimi državljani” bolj “prijazen”, prav tako je bil prijazen s kolaborantskimi državami, medtem ko je bil ekstremno neprijazen do držav s “tretjerazrednimi državljani”, kot so Slovani, in do “napačnih” narodnosti, kot so Judje in Romi ali do ljudi z napačnim političnim prepričanjem, kot so socialisti. Zato je pač razumljivo, da v zahodnih državah konca druge svetovne vojne ne dojemajo kot osvoboditve izpod nacizma oziroma fašizma, pač pa kot konec neke velike vojne.

Zato v zahodnih evropskih državah, kot je povedal ruski general Žukov, Rusom nikoli ne bodo oprostili, da so jih osvobodili izpod fašizma.

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Every couple of years, a fundamental misunderstanding between the East and the West of Europe reappears regarding the WW2. In the occupied Western parts, life went on as before. Sartre continued writing & his plays were shown in theaters. Simone kept on sipping coffee at Les deux magots. Literary soirees were celebrated. People went to their jobs. Some food items became unavailable, and people listened to Radio London. Life in Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Amsterdam went on as before except for occasional raids on Jewish people.

In countries that were Nazi allies, things were even better: Italy, Austria (Anschluss), Finland, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Vichy France: things were broadly normal. Many more joined Nazi militia and Waffen SS than resistance.

In countries, that were neutral but in realty pro-Nazi (Sweden, Switzerland, Spain) life went on normally too. In a really neutral Portugal, even more so. My favorites are restaurants in Barcelona that opened up in 1943.

So that was the war in the West.

In the East, it was entirely different. It was a war of extermination. Not only because of the Holocaust (esp. in Poland & USSR), but also because of 3 million Soviet POW who were starved to death in iron cages…

and because of fully casual killings of Slavs, Romas and of course Jews. Brandys in his Warsaw Diary describes such casual killing of a passenger who did not get up from his place in a Warsaw tram to let a Nazi officer sit down. The officer pulled out the gun and killed him on the spot. Pictures like this one of multiple hangings of partisans in Belgrade were common.Image

Greek partisans were hanged at the Acropolis.

My mother tried not to go out in the street for a couple of days until they would remove the corpses of the hanged communists/resistance fighters. Has anything like that happened in Paris, Bordeaux, Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid? No.

So these two different perceptions of WW2 influence very different views of countries/people who were subjected to destructive occupations (I did not even mention mass reprisals or aerial bombing) from the countries that were occupied mildly or not at all, and where life went on more or less as usual.

Vir: Branko Milanović