Eighty Years Ago: Stalin Sent German Jewish Refugees to Hitler in 1940

Eighty years ago on August 23, 1939 Communist Russia and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. The treaty had secret protocols that divided Eastern Europe between the two regimes. It was named after their respective foreign ministers, Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop.

Soviet and Nazi soldiers fraternize after conquering Poland in 1939

What they called a "peace treaty" in reality was a military alliance. On September 22, 1939 the German Nazi army joined with the Soviet Communist army in a military parade in Brest-Litovsk and the two sides celebrated their victory together.

EUvsDisinfo, February 25, 2020

80 years ago: Stalin sending German Jews to Hitler

Historical revisionism is an important strand of disinformation. The EUvsDisinfo database contains a large number of cases of this kind, most of which pertain to rewriting the history of World War II. Pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets are attempting to diminish the meaning of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, concluded between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany in late August 1939. The pact with Stalin made it possible for Germany to unleash a military attack on Poland just one week after the signing of the treaty. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact included a credit agreement between Germany and Soviet Russia, cooperation on trade, military technology and cultural exchange – and a secret protocol on the delineation of “spheres of interests” between the two totalitarian powers.

 

One example of the cooperation between Soviet Russia and Nazi German was demonstrated in February 1940, when the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre broadcast German composer Richard Wagner’s opera “The Valkyrie” for a German audience. Soviet theaters had been reluctant to stage Wagner, since the Nazis exploited his works in their propaganda. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact changed all that. “The Valkyrie” was staged and introduced to radio listeners by the world famous Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein.

Another manifestation of Soviet-German cooperation was Russia’s deportation of hundreds of refugees to German authorities. Most of them were German anti-fascists, communists, and Jews who were seeking asylum in the Soviet Union. Now they were handed over to the Gestapo. One of the deportees was Betty Olberg; the wife of a German Jewish communist who had been killed by Stalin in 1936. Olberg was sent from the ALZHIR camp in Soviet Kazakhstan to Germany in February 1940. With her traveled Margarete Buber-Neumann who wrote a book about her experiences in Stalin’s and Hitler’s concentration camps after the war. All traces of Betty Olberg have been lost since her arrival in German-controlled territory.

The transfer of refugees from the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany commenced about a month after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. The last refugees were sent to Germany only a few weeks before the Nazi invasion of the USSR in June 1941.

Betty Olberg’s mug shot from Soviet secret police

Black Ribbon Day 2016 and the Struggle Against Forgetting

Never Forget 

Nazi and Soviet soldiers greet one another in Poland (1939)

Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau today, August 23rd issued an official statement recognizing Black Ribbon Day in an important act of remembrance that, in part, read:

Today, we honour the victims and survivors of Communism and Nazism in Europe, and all those around the world who continue to endure and fight against the oppression of totalitarian regimes. Black Ribbon Day marks the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This pact, signed in 1939 between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, allowed for the illegal political and territorial rearrangement of Eastern and Central Europe.

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and Nazi German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, officially called the Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was signed 77 years ago today. Made public on August 23, 1939 the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact was a Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact with secret protocols setting out how the two regimes would divide Poland and the Baltic States.

World War 2 would begin with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939. The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the East on September 17, 1939. The double invasion is dramatized in Andrzej Wajda's 2007 film Katyn. This important date in history and cautionary tale for democrats remains largely ignored.


However the Victims of Communism through their blog Dissident speaks truth to power calling on people of good will not only to remember the crimes of the Nazi regime but to take on a new task that remains to be done:

Unlike in the case of the Nazis, however, there has yet to be a comprehensive reckoning of all of the past Soviet crimes. Moreover, in Putin’s Russia we see concerted efforts to reclaim Soviet glory and to justify Soviet repression and mass murder. Now more than ever it is imperative the world recognize the fundamentally and necessarily evil character of socialist systems. Just as we would rightly reject the contention that national socialism was simply improperly implemented, so too we should reject the same assertion in the case of international socialism. No experiment in government has been run more often in more places at different times and under different conditions while leading every time to the same results—death, depravity, degeneration, and degradation of the human soul and the natural environment alike.

 It is important to recall that the worse war in human history with a loss of life not seen before or since was planned for in a diplomatic agreement with secret protocols between the regime of the National Socialist German Workers' Party and the  regime of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Furthermore that although Nazi Germany was brought to an end in 1945 the brutality of Communist Russia continued through 1991 and today a former KGB intelligence officer rules in Russia.

The Czech writer Milan Kundera observed that "the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." This observation is especially relevant on this day and the efforts to erase this dark chapter of history must be resisted.

Molotov-Ribbentrop: The Orwellian non-aggression treaty that started World War 2

"Russia and Germany have signed a cooperation pact. War now inevitable. Went for a stroll." - Evelyn Waugh

German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop, Joseph Stalin, & his foreign minister, Molotov

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the Nazi German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, officially called the Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was signed 75 years ago today. Made public on August 23, 1939 the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact was a Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact with secret protocols setting out how the two regimes would divide Poland and the Baltic States.  World War 2 would begin with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939. The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the East on September 17, 1939. The double invasion is dramatized in Andrzej Wajda's 2007 film Katyn. This important date in history and cautionary tale for democrats is largely ignored.

German and Soviet Union soldiers greet one another in Poland (1939)

The Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact, 1939

Text of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

The Government of the German Reich and The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics desirous of strengthening the cause of peace between Germany and the U.S.S.R., and proceeding from the fundamental provisions of the Neutrality Agreement concluded in April, 1926 between Germany and the U.S.S.R., have reached the following Agreement:

Article I.
Both High Contracting Parties obligate themselves to desist from any act of violence, any aggressive action, and any attack on each other, either individually or jointly with other Powers.

Article II.
Should one of the High Contracting Parties become the object of belligerent action by a third Power, the other High Contracting Party shall in no manner lend its support to this third Power.

Article III.
The Governments of the two High Contracting Parties shall in the future maintain continual contact with one another for the purpose of consultation in order to exchange information on problems affecting their common interests.

Article IV.
Should disputes or conflicts arise between the High Contracting Parties shall participate in any grouping of Powers whatsoever that is directly or indirectly aimed at the other party.

Article V.
Should disputes or conflicts arise between the High Contracting Parties over problems of one kind or another, both parties shall settle these disputes or conflicts exclusively through friendly exchange of opinion or, if necessary, through the establishment of arbitration commissions.

Article VI.
The present Treaty is concluded for a period of ten years, with the proviso that, in so far as one of the High Contracting Parties does not advance it one year prior to the expiration of this period, the validity of this Treaty shall automatically be extended for another five years.

Article VII.
The present treaty shall be ratified within the shortest possible time. The ratifications shall be exchanged in Berlin. The Agreement shall enter into force as soon as it is signed.

[The section below was not published at the time the above was announced.]

Secret Additional Protocol.

Article I.
 In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement in the areas belonging to the Baltic States (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the northern boundary of Lithuania shall represent the boundary of the spheres of influence of Germany and U.S.S.R. In this connection the interest of Lithuania in the Vilna area is recognized by each party.

Article II.
In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the Polish state, the spheres of influence of Germany and the U.S.S.R. shall be bounded approximately by the line of the rivers Narev, Vistula and San. The question of whether the interests of both parties make desirable the maintenance of an independent Polish States and how such a state should be bounded can only be definitely determined in the course of further political developments. In any event both Governments will resolve this question by means of a friendly agreement.

Article III.
With regard to Southeastern Europe attention is called by the Soviet side to its interest in Bessarabia. The German side declares its complete political disinteredness in these areas.

Article IV.

This protocol shall be treated by both parties as strictly secret.

Moscow, August 23, 1939.

For the Government of the German Reich v. Ribbentrop

Plenipotentiary of the Government of the U.S.S.R. V. Molotov

Copy of the Non-Aggression Pact signed on August 23, 1939

Fidel Castro: Nazi Collaborator

 Fidel Castro's Nazi Connection

Fidel Castro recruited former Waffen SS members to train Cuban troops in 1962

Over the past four years this blog has highlighted the sordid relationships between the Castro regime and all sorts of brutal, genocidal governments and groups the world over and the commonality of tactics used by this regime and its allies in their respective countries and at the United Nations.

Now with the release of formerly classified documents by the German intelligence service the world is learning that Fidel Castro personally recruited former Nazi SS Waffen members to train Cuban troops and that he also reached out to Nazi operatives, Otto Ernst Remer and Ernst-Wilhelm Springer, in Germany's extreme right to purchase weapons.

It appears that after the Soviets, who grew fearful that Fidel Castro and his cohorts were hot heads all too willing to provoke a nuclear war, pulled out tactical nuclear weapons out of Cuba that the United States had not known existed that the Cuban dictator looked for other sources for support and training.

The Russians were right to fear Fidel Castro who sent Khrushchev a letter requesting a nuclear first strike in 1962 and twenty years later again asked his Soviet allies in the 1980s to launch nuclear weapons on the population of the United States which they promptly rejected.

After learning of Castro's willingness to enlist former Nazis his strategic relationship with the Argentine military junta that disappeared 30,000 leftists in 1970s and early 1980s should be viewed as not being an aberration but part of a pattern of embracing and seeking to learn from the worse human rights violators on the planet. Furthermore that the Castro regime's hostility to religious belief in general and Judaism in particular may not only stem from its communist roots but other equally evil associations.

The dictionary offers as one definition of Collaborate: " To work together, especially in a joint intellectual effort." In a real sense Fidel Castro is a Nazi collaborator.