Communist Victims Memorial unveiled

 

Yesterday, President Bush dedicated the new memorial to Victims of Communism here in Washington, DC. From the Washington Times‘ Kristen Chick;

President Bush yesterday told hundreds of people whose countries had emerged from the grip of communism that their sacrifices would not be forgotten as he dedicated the Victims of Communism Memorial to the millions oppressed and killed by totalitarian regimes.
    “We’ll never know the names of all who perished, but at this sacred place, communism’s unknown victims will be consecrated to history and remembered forever,” he said to more than 500 people just blocks from the Capitol. “We dedicate this memorial because we have an obligation to those who died, to acknowledge their lives and honor their memory.”
    The memorial is the only such monument in the world, according to its founders, who estimate that communist governments have killed more than 100 million people.
    Mr. Bush compared the Cold War to the fight against terrorism, saying that the “evil and hatred” that inspired totalitarian regimes to kill millions is shared by terrorists today.  

I took this picture about 20 years from a hill over looking part of the East German border about 20 miles north of the town of Coburg;

This was one of the legal border crossings into East Germany – that narrow road in the bottom of the picture. This picture is the East German checkpoint on that same road;

That’s how I remember Communism – a giant prison walled-in from the North Sea across Europe to Yugoslavia. Everyone remembers that Berlin was walled, but people tend to forget that there was a wall across all of Europe.

I remember in the early 80s when there were Claymore-type mines attached to the razor-wire fence which would slice-to-shreds anyone above the weight of a sparrow who disturbed the fence. An entire population isolated from the world by mine fields and fences. It’s hard to imagine that even today, just a decade or so later.

Oddly, at least in my mind, the world seems to have forgotten about the evil that men do to each other. In fact, people have ho-hummed Communism for years now – despite the cost in human lives. Books like Martin Ami’s Koba the Dread; Laughter and the Twenty Million  and the meticulously researched and footnoted Black Book of Communism should be required reading in schools everywhere – to teach the horrible lessons of the past that we should never forget.

But, I guess it’s inevitable that Mao’s and Stalin’s deniers should crop up – just like Nazis’ Halocaust deniers. Jimmy Carter certainly didn’t learn his lesson from the Pol Pot regime. While Carter ranted and raved about arpartheid in South Africa, millions of Cambodians were butchered by Communists and millions of Vietnamese were “reeducated” or escaped in rickety boats. 

If communism was really remembered as it actually was, no one would be forming a new communist bloc of nations in South America today unopposed.

And, to prove they aren’t Mao’s China anymore, China threatens to step up war preparation against Taiwan because President Bush shook hands with Taiwan’s representative at the ceremony, Joseph Wu. 

More on the lack of media coverage of the event from Newsbusters’ Michael Chapman.

I may put some more pictures of the Inter-German border on this post tonight if I can remember which file I put them in when I get home.

Well, I couldn’t find where I hid my scanned photos of the Border, but I found an early draft (in .pdf) of a book I started years ago that includes a bunch of photos and some stories tentatively titled Hier Grenze.

Category: Foreign Policy, Historical, Hugo Chavez, Jimmy Carter