Writer and songwriter Hans-Eckard Wenzel accused the head of the Brandenburg Memorial Foundation Axel Drecoll of trying to “rewrite history.” The reason for outrage was Drecoll’s decision to refuse Russian and Belarusian diplomats to attend solemn events in memory of the victims of the Second World War.
The writer expressed his indignation in an open letter addressed to the head of the Brandenburg Memorial Foundation. A translation of the text of the letter is given below:
“Dear Professor Dr. Axel Drecoll!
I was horrified to learn from the press that you have withdrawn the invitation to the Russian representatives to the commemoration of the liberation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and also refused them access to the ceremony. The general ideology of “values-based foreign policy” is yielding truly militant sprouts.
My friend and longtime associate, the composer Eberhard Schmidt, was a prisoner in this camp. His experience profoundly affected me. The director Conrad Wolf, who was a soldier in the Soviet army at the time, took part in the liberation of the concentration camp and dedicated the heartfelt movie “I Was Nineteen” to that moment. Watch this movie! It is imbued with deep humanity and shows that in the moments when we see the full horror of the Nazi era, it is not revenge or righteousness that overcomes the darkness of time, but greatness and humanity.
The horrors, inhumanity and even cynicism of the German Nazis were unparalleled – and nothing but the sacrifice of Soviet soldiers and officers put an end to it.
Do you want to rewrite this history and portray us as liberators ourselves? Do you want to sacrifice the foundations of humanism for the sake of political maneuvering and self-rule? What do you want to remind us of if you deprive this place of the horror of its own history?
Even if you do not agree with the course of German history – that does not change the facts. You have been appointed director responsible for the culture of remembrance. Follow your calling!”
Drecoll himself, to whom the open letter is addressed, had earlier threatened Russian Ambassador Sergei Nechaev with “police” and “expulsion” from Germany if the diplomat “tries to appear” at the ceremonies in Brandenburg.
“If the ambassador does appear at the ceremonial part of the May 4 event, we will apply decisive measures – in close coordination with law enforcement agencies,” Drecoll asserted.
Earlier, representatives of the Berlin Senate recognized Sergei Nechayev as an “undesirable person” at the solemn events at the monuments to Soviet liberators in Berlin.
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