70th anniversary of the start of WWII

[Erma]

Hello Friends of Europe.

Today, Sept. 1/09 marks the 70th anniversary of WWII. The question remains: who started WWII? Was it Hitler or was Stalin also responsible? Last July the EU and the OSCE passed a resolution stating that both Stalin and Hitler, with the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that carved up Europe, were both equally to blame. As Germany moved in on the Westerplatte fortress in western Poland, just over two weeks later the Red Army launched an attack on eastern Poland. But Putin and Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, argue that Stalin's actions were "necessary", and the two are now going about setting up bodies to challenge, as Medvedev puts it, the "falsification of history".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug...

I have to admit, the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact touches a very special nerve in my system because my father, author Theodore Odrach, lived in Vilnius and later Pinsk (then both a part of eastern Poland) when Bolshevik troops moved in. For anyone interested in this part of the war, my father wrote a novel, Wave of Terror, which details the atrocities committed by the Soviets during this time.

His book is set in the Pinsk Marshes in southwestern Belarus, the same location as the movie "Defiance". Though fiction, Wave of Terror is heavily based on eyewitness accounts, and according to my mother (I was a child when my father died and I hardly knew him), almost all the events and people are real. I should also add, I'm my father's translator and we're Publishers Weekly and TLS approved.
http://nitro5.goodreads.com/author/show/...

As for who started the Second World War, the debate continues. But what's indisputable here is the fact that the war gave birth to two monsters both at the same time.

[Douglas]

To Erma and other friends of Europe,
A fascinating question and one that history will ponder forever. In the six years of research I conducted while writing, NIGHT OF FLAMES, my historical novel set in Poland in World WAr Two I have come to believe that given the nature of the two great criminals, Hitler and Stalin, and given the diametrically opposed philosophies of Fascism and Communism, with both focused on world domination, the war was inevitable. The issue ultimately boils down to who would act first, and, in my view, the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty settled that by ensuring that Germany and Russia would act simultaneously.

Thank you, Erma, for mentioning your father's novel, which I intend to track down and read. Despite the efforts of current Russian leaders (they never change, do they) the world needs books like this to show the true atrocities committed by the Soviets during the war which were every bit as heinous as those comitted by the Germans. The only difference is that Russia wound up on the winning side.

Douglas W Jacobson
Author,
NIGHT OF FLAMES

Night of Flames A Novel of World War II

[Erma]

Douglas wrote: "To Erma and other friends of Europe,
A fascinating question and one that history will ponder forever. In the six years of research I conducted while writing, NIGHT OF FLAMES, my historical novel s..."

Hi Douglas,

Thanks for mentioning your book. Actually, I thought of your book before but must have put it in the back of my mind somewhere. When I saw your cover, the tracks and the train, then it all came back to me -- Night of Flames. I will put it on my to-read list and try to get to it soon. Sounds intriguing.

I agree that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact ensured that both Stalin and Hitler would act simultaneously. One of the biggest tragedies in eastern Poland (the Kresy or borderland) was the fact that it was really land occupied by the Poles and many of the local people(Lithuanians, Belarusians, Ukrainians) thought the coming of the Bolsheviks would bring with them liberation. But history had its own plans...