On 2 May, the Soviet flag was raised over the Reichstag building in Berlin — while the fighting was still raging further down in the building. The formal Nazi capitulation did not occur until 8 May. It was the Soviet war machine that smashed the German Nazi regime to pieces. With a huge human cost, 27 million dead, civilians and soldiers included. From 8 May 1945, everyone who was born later did not have to grow up under Nazi regimes.
Nothing to remember: Now a day for the US Norwegian mercenary army
The victory on 8 May 1945 is nothing memorable today. What official Norway believes should be marked today is Norway’s efforts as a mercenary army for America’s imperialist wars after 1990 for everything that stands in the way of America’s world domination.
Despite Norway’s very passive resistance to Nazi Germany both in Norway and in the world, the whole of Norway celebrated the day 8 May 1945 as a great victory. While those who sacrificed the most, those who survived, the sailors who transported weapons from the United States to Europe, were deprived of much of their wages after the war. By the Labor Party government under the leadership of Einar Gerhardsen.
Not until 1962 was 8 May adopted as national flag day in Norway, which Liberation Day 1945. The day is still referred to as in the government’s overview of flag days in Norway, last updated 12.05.2023, and in all serious calendars. But it is not the liberation day for the Nazi defeat in 1945 that the government and the whole of hegemonic Norway now mark on 8 May every year. The Second World War and the victory over Nazism and the Soviet contribution, is a non-issue now. Something that should not be talked about. Now it is about paying tribute to Norway’s efforts as a mercenary army for the United States.
It was the Stoltenberg government that proposed the change in 2010, which was adopted by the Storting in 2011.
Opposition to the foreign wars turned May 8 into a day for America’s wars of aggression
From the Stoltenberg government’s justification for changing 8 May from liberation day to commemoration of Norwegian foreign wars on behalf of the United States:
When the public debate about missions abroad is characterized by skepticism and criticism, some soldiers experience this as their efforts not being valued by society.
The government will also plan for a more active, visible and comprehensive follow-up of personnel who have participated in operations abroad.
The Ministry of Defense will, in collaboration with the Norwegian Armed Forces, look at today’s memorials and consider a common monument for personnel who have served in foreign operations.
Here it becomes clear what is the government’s justification for changing the day of liberation to honoring Norwegian foreign wars. Norway’s foreign fighters are like a mercenary army that acts at the slightest hint from the United States.
From war to “operation” – Did Putin learn from Stoltenberg?
One of the things that Russian President Putin is strongly criticized for is that he calls the invasion of Ukraine an “operation”. But perhaps he has read the Norwegian government’s proposal for the rescheduling of 8 May from 2010? Here we are not talking about Norwegian foreign wars, Norwegian attacks on other states such as Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya. These Norwegian wars of aggression against states designated as the US’s adversaries were referred to as “operations” in the government proposal from the Stoltenberg government. Has Norway been Putin’s teacher in choosing words for turning offensive wars into “operations”?
Hope for May 8 as liberation day?
Can we manage to keep May 8 as a day of liberation from the Nazi attempt at world domination? It is going to be hard. Not least because the German Nazi mass murders in Ukraine, which exterminated at least 100,000 Jews, Poles and Russians, are now honored with state memorials by the current president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyj, the common hero of the Norwegian Parliament.*
But victories can also be won against the wind and uphill. The more today’s conflicts develop, the easier it becomes to dismiss 8 May as marking the use of Norway’s military forces as US mercenaries.
Highlight Image:
Taken by Yevgeny Khaldei
official Soviet photographer
and Vladimir Grebnev
02/05/1945
* The dead soldiers are honored with blue and yellow Ukrainian flags and with the red and black flags of the Second World War Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which was led by nationalists Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. The latter was the commander and deputy commander of the Nachtigall Battalion and Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201 under the German Abwehr General Command, and he was the head of the UPA, while he was responsible for the massacres of around one hundred thousand Poles, Russians and Jews. Today, the Soviet-era statues have been replaced by statues of Bandera and Shukhevych in Western Ukraine.
Download from Ola Tunander’s ABC about the Ukraine war.
This article was published by Politician.
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Tags: Liberation Day celebration mercenary army
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