The “Tomb of the Unknown Rapist” in Berlin

Soviet War Memorial in Berlin’s Tiergarten

As we watch the savagery of the Israel-Hamas War going int 2024, we often forget that by its very nature, war is a terrible act of mankind. There is no good war.

Unfortunately in today’s ultra-connected world, the tragedies of war can be reported moment-by-moment, death-by-death. 

Joseph Stalin once coldly remarked, “When one man dies it is a tragedy. When thousands die it’s statistics.” 

There is a difficult reality that is often unreported in the history of The Second World War. We know of the savagery of the war in Eastern Europe. What is often unreported is what happened after the surrender of Germany in May 1945.

The war in Eastern Europe was a racial war as much as it was a war for territory. The Germans saw the people of Eastern Europe as untermensch, sub-human. Consequently, the Germans treated the people of Eastern Europe with a savagery that was unparalleled in the West. While Jews from Western Europe died in the Holocaust, the number of Western European Jews pale in comparison to the number of people from the East who died at one of several German extermination camps. 

For example, there were an estimated 90,000 French Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Great Britain shows 130 Jews killed in the Holocaust. Denmark saw 60 Jews killed and Norway 870 Jews killed. Compare this to the countries in Eastern Europe:

• Romania = 270,000 Jews killed

• Hungary = 450,000 Jews killed

• Ukraine = 900,000 Jews killed

• Poland = 2.9 million Jews killed

Those are just the Jews. The Nazis also targeted many other ethnic groups and sub-cultures for extermination including homosexuals, the mentally ill, Jehovah Witnesses, intellectuals, communists, Gypsies, and more than 3.5 million Soviet prisoners of war. While we often hear of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust, we often fail to mention these other victims, which combined with Jewish deaths, raises the total killed to an estimated 20 million people.

These are not war victims killed in combat or by the bombing of cities and towns. These are men, women, and children who were rounded up and systematically murdered as part of the Nazi plan to ethnically cleanse Eastern Europe to make room for a pure, Aryan race of Germanic people who would rule the world for a thousand years. 

Once the war was over, the people of Eastern Europe did not want peace, they wanted revenge against the Germans. Unfortunately, the mad men who perpetrated the crimes of the Holocaust were either dead (Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich, and other top Nazi officials), on the run, or being held prisoner by the Western Allies. This left innocent Germans to bear the brunt of the revenge.

In a sadistic fulfillment, the Bible verse from Exodus 20:5, which describes the sins of the fathers being visited upon their children, became reality in post-war Germany. 

As millions of Red Army soldiers flooded into Eastern Germany, eventually capturing the capital of Berlin, the order was passed down from Stalin himself that German women should pay for the sins their fathers, husbands, and brothers had committed in the East. Few German women and girls escaped the savagery of the Red Army. 

Historians report today that nearly every German woman between the ages of 8-years to 80-years that lived in the Eastern part of Germany controlled by the Red Army was raped as many as a dozen or more times. It was not until the winter of 1946/47, more than 18 months following the surrender, that the Soviet authorities began to crack down on soldiers committing rape and start to reinforce discipline within their ranks. To this day, German women refer to the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin as the “Tomb to the Unknown Rapist.”

The Debt Crisis Debate - A Call for Courage [Opinion]

The debt ceiling crisis continues to confound the USA's politicians. News shows are in a 24-hour spin cycle as the two parties in Washington play a deadly game of chicken with each other. What is certain (to me) is that whether it is within the next week or the next year, American will face a financial reckoning because of its incredible debt load. The politicians continue to scratch at any option they can in an effort to try and find one more free lunch. Sooner or later, however, we will all realize there are no more freebies.

What is at the center of the current crisis is the inability to compromise. Both sides are going to have to agree to some unpopular budget cuts and tax increases in order to begin the slow process of correcting American's financial imbalance. Therein lies the problem: our political leaders have one eye on the problem and another eye on re-election. Could it be that the greater financial problems cannot be solved without jeopardizing their political futures? If so, this reflects a much deeper issue for the American citizen.

On the July 24 edition of Meet the Press, former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) made this point well:

... politics just reflects society. And what we are seeing today, I believe, is a new emerging governing coalition being built in this country, a new political center of gravity.... We are living at a time when society is the most complicated, interconnected, immediate we've ever seen. That also reflects on a world order that is being rebuilt. We haven't seen a world order being rebuilt since World War II. So, obviously, what's happening in Washington is going to reflect what's happening across this country and the world. The emergence of the tea party, for example, whatever that is, a philosophy about government, that was born out of frustration, disappointment, high expectations in your leaders. To Doris' point, you're supposed to come to Washington to help govern, find solutions, solve problems. We're not seeing that. This just didn't start, by the way, with this president. I saw this in the Senate emerging over the last 12 years. Both parties are to blame. We have, I think, a vacuum of some leadership, some courage. Courage has never been an abundant commodity in Washington. And the last point I'd make, look at the last three elections in this country. We're not a republic that swings wildly. Last three elections, back to back, threw parties out of power in those elections. What does that tell you? That tells you that the board of directors, the people who own the country, the citizen, the voter is going to take action.

Question: are we seeing a new world order being built, or are we still witnessing the destruction of the old world order that began at the end of World War II? I think the latter. Look at what happened between 1914 and 1945 - the center of gravity shifted in the world from Western Europe with Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy the former great powers, to the United States and the Soviet Union as the new super powers. By 1945, the sun was setting on the British Empire, Germany lie in ruins and divided, France was defeated by Germany in the war and had lost its international prestige, and Italy was defeated. A generation later, the Soviet Union is gone and the United States is under the heavy weight of trillions of dollars in debt.

What do you think? Are we witnessing the passing of an American-dominated world order or will the United States find a way to regain its financial foundation and begin rebuilding its economic strength?

Related articles

• Policy mistakes of historical magnitude (business.financialpost.com)
• Pawlenty: Obama not showing courage in debt crisis (seattletimes.nwsource.com)