A couple of weeks ago, I received an invitation from MEP Tatjana Zdanoka (Latvia) to speak at an event in the European Parliament building which she had organized for 31 January under the title “Restoring the Names: Tragedy of the Holocaust in Latvia.” This event was, of course, timed to come in the period bracketing the Holocaust Remembrance Day that was observed worldwide this past weekend. However, it also had some distinct features. The special speaker would be Igors Glazunovs, a Latvian writer, prison-born survivor of the Holocaust, and the second panel would revolve around the screening of a film entitled ‘Restoring the names,’ with a performer in the film and the author of the text, both Latvians, taking charge. The third panel, in which I would be one of six speakers, was entitled “Fight against the resurgence of neo-fascism in the EU Member States.”
The event was cancelled today by order of the President of the European Parliament in the context of charges just leveled against Zdanoka of being a Russian spy. I expect to learn more about these charges tomorrow, but ahead of the specifics I can say that anyone following Zdanoka’s long-time activities on behalf of her electorate in Riga and her open and brave criticism of Moscow’s policy failings till now with respect to the Russian-speaking population of Latvia would know at once the utter falsehood of such accusations.
Over the past decade, I have been honored to be an invitee each year to the various panel discussions that Zdanoka arranged in the premises of the European Parliament, including Russia-EU Forums that attracted the participation of prestigious Americans including Ray McGovern and Ambassador Jack Matlock. It was at these events that I became acquainted with hard-working and intellectually engaged MEPs who defied the characterization of the institution as a holding pen for failed politicians in the various Member States. For that uplifting political education alone, I am very grateful to Mme Zdanoka.
My intention as speaker at this event was to break taboos about who is and who is not a neo-fascist among the political elites in Europe. In fact, I wanted to go beyond the designation ‘neo-fascist’ to the more emotive but more accurate term ‘neo-Nazi.’ Neo-fascism is a Europe-wide phenomenon today if by the term we mean viciously enforced state censorship, utter conformism in political thinking and utter intolerance for heterodox views. Neo-Nazism is more violent and its emergence is more concentrated geographically than neo-fascism.
That is an important distinction because the three anniversaries that the world marked this past weekend were all related to the atrocities of Nazi Germany, not to fascists in Italy, say, or Spain. These anniversaries relate first to the Holocaust in its full scope of destruction of European Jewry, with most of the killing taking place in East Central Europe, Belarus and Ukraine. The second anniversary was of the liberation of the internees of Auschwitz. And the third event was the 80th anniversary of the end of the Siege (or Blockade) of Leningrad which cost the lives of one million Russian civilians. Note that in the last two events Russia was directly involved, and I make reference to a speech delivered by Vladimir Putin this past Saturday which pulled together all these manifestations of the genocide practiced by Nazi Germany and directed attention to the neo-Nazism rising in Europe with specific mention of the Baltic States and Ukraine.
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My thesis in this speech is that the neo-Nazism rising in the Baltic States and Ukraine is enabled by the revisionist politics of the Federal Republic of Germany in the new millennium. Germany has freed itself from the self-imposed constraints of the 55 years following its defeat in WWII, constraints amounting to growing its industrial economy to become the world’s biggest exporter while keeping its mouth shut about international affairs and letting the French do the talking. Such was the essence of the tandem of Germany and France as the so-called locomotives of the new Europe.
The reunification of Germany after the fall of the Wall gave it that much more population and economic heft, leaving France far behind. And in the 2000s, France lost its way politically. The pitiful fool Hollande was installed by the Americans after they destroyed the presidential candidacy of the intellectually very strong but morally weak Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Hollande shattered the global prestige France may have claimed. Emmanuel Macron, the next CIA-implant following their destruction of the candidacy of much more experienced but Russia-friendly Francois Fillon, has finished the job on French international standing. Meanwhile, in their home base of East Germany the firebrands of the Alternativ fuer Deutschland said aloud that it was time for to throw off the yoke of foreigners (the Americans) and time to renounce war guilt. Though they roundly attacked the AfD, alleging it was Extreme Right and anti-democratic, the mainstream German parties followed its lead and found their voice at the Europe-wide level, pushing the French aside and adopting a holier-than-thou posture overall.
Unfortunately for us all, the new self-confident Germany has too many bad habits from the Germany that brought about WWII, beginning with rabid Russophobia. This is the common legacy of all the main parties: CDU, Social Democrats, Greens, Free Democrats. From my own personal experience with the European Parliament, I understood that it was precisely the German Greens, through their spokespersons like Rebecca Harms, who were the fiercest enemies of normal relations with the big neighbor to the East. The mindset of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is nothing new to the Greens, and is now widespread across all German elites.
It is in this context that we have to view Germany’s years-long coddling of the Baltic States with their never-ending recommendations of anti-Russian measures and provocations. German military participation in the NATO detachments to these States fits this pattern perfectly.
And where does Chancellor Olaf Scholz fit into this Zeitenwende? Well, he patented the term and its essence is utter rejection of all the premises of détente, or Entspannung that were put in place by his very own party under Willy Brandt and kept the peace in Europe for decades.
But that is not all. He has been a denier of the neo-Nazism that is front of our eyes. In Ukraine, Nazi collaborators like Bandera have been lionized, with monuments raised to them, streets named after them. In Latvia, the descendants of Nazi collaborators march regularly down the streets to celebrate their infamous forebears and the policies they pursued. I think of the meeting that Scholz had with Putin a couple of weeks before the outbreak of the Special Military Operation. When Putin raised the issue of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, Scholz laughed in his face.
Here and there in Eastern Europe, in Ukraine, in the Baltic States monuments to the Soviet liberators of these countries from occupation by Nazi Germany are systematically removed or destroyed. That is the rewriting of history in stone. The literal rewriting of history comes elsewhere, from the mouth of none other than President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen when in her speech this past weekend dedicated to the liberation of prisoners from the Auschwitz concentration camp, she said it was done by ‘Allied Forces.’ Technically she was correct insofar as the Soviet Union was one of the Allies. However, that fact itself is hardly taught in history books in Europe and von der Leyen’s intent was to deny that the Red Army was the liberator. Is she the Commission President or a Gauleiter? The question hangs in the air.
The greatest sin of the AfD may be the stated wish to send home the American occupation forces in Germany. The greatest sin of the CDU, Social Democrats, Free Democrats and Greens is to deny the outcome of WWII out of sheer hatred for Russia, those barbarians to the East who out-produced and outfought their forebears at a cost of 26 million Russian deaths in 1941-45.
Against this background of a growing malignancy on the European body politic, I found a remark by Vladimir Solovyov in his talk show of last night to be worthy of repetition. Solovyov does not throw bouquets to the USA often or willingly, but last night he reminded his audience that America is probably the freest nation in the Collective West, while Europe sinks into dictatorship and authoritarianism. May I restate that remark and say: sinks into neo-fascism and perhaps neo-Nazism.
I close this speech with a recommendation to guide the ‘fight against the resurgence of neo-fascism’: this fight can gain traction only if we speak openly about who is enabling these truly anti-democratic developments, and that puts Germany under the microscope.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2024