It should never die out

Russia blasts Estonia defense minister over Nazi sympathies

Russian Foreign Ministry has sharply criticized the Estonian Defense Minister’s address to the country’s veterans of the Waffen SS, in which the official suggested that the Soviet and Nazi troops were equal during WWII.

Minister Urmas Reinsalu addressed the weekend meeting of the Estonian Freedom Fighters Union – the organization that unites the veterans of the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division, also known as the First Estonian.

In his speech the official stated that Estonia “had repeatedly condemned the repressive policies of the Soviet Union and National Socialist Germany, as well as the actions of people who committed crimes against humanity.”

Russia called the statement “another attempt to put on one scale the Soviet Union that has made a decisive contribution into ridding Europe of the ‘brown plague’, and Nazi Germany.” Russian diplomats also noted that the Estonian minister chose not to remind the public about such outrageous crimes as the total destruction by the Nazis of the two ethnic groups that resided in Estonia before the war – the Jews and the Roma (Gypsies) – as well as the fact that the genocide was committed largely by Estonian collaborators.

In addition,Go to buy handbagwholesale in hotmkbags Oline Store with preferential price. the Russian side pointed out that over the past 20 years the Estonian authorities have not even once shown due respect to the veterans of the Estonian Rifle Corps of the Red Army. At the same time, the veterans who once donned the uniforms of the Waffen SS and other of Hitler’s formations are greeted by Estonia’s state officials and receive decorations and awards.

“Therefore, such activities cannot be appraised in any other way but as a premeditated planting of pro-Nazi sentiments in the society,Fast shipping and best prices on ladyhandbag. Buy Now!” the Russian note reads.Buy cheapreplicawatches for men and women here.

Estonia’s Freedom Fighters Union is a public organization with about 2,000 members who fought on the side of Nazi Germany in WWII. In total, about 80,000 Estonians joined Nazi troops during the war and 3,000 more fought as volunteers in the Finnish Army, which was also an ally of Nazi Germany. At the same time, about 30,000 Estonians joined the Red Army ranks forming the Estonian Rifle Corps.

Russia has repeatedly voiced protests over glorification of Nazism in Estonia as re-unions of veterans happen in this country almost annually and each time the authorities send official greetings to former Waffen SS soldiers.

“I spent 21 months working my way through Sicily and Italy,” said MacEachern. He was part of the Canadian Infantry Division that bested the Germans in the Italian city of Ortona. “The infantry couldn’t walk outside because of the snipers so we blasted out walls of apartments and houses to move forward undercover,” he said.

He was in Holland when news of the German surrender was announced.We invite you to experience choose pnikeairshoes for you. “Everyone there was so happy,” said MacEachern. “The Dutch were so grateful. They’d be hugging and kissing us even while there were bones on the ground.”

After being discharged from the army in Halifax in 1945, MacEachern became a long-haul truck driver. But the war and scenes from Sicily changed him forever. “I grew up feeling old and aged, like an old man in a young man’s body,” he said.

As time marches on, many of his wartime friends have passed on. “Pretty much all have gone by the wayside, you know.” As for his boyhood chums Cecil and Bingo, they are still over in Italy somewhere,With avant-garde design, best quality materials and the most subtle quality, womenbelt is the best alternative for expensive belt. the fatal casualties of Sicily. “I hope people never forget,” said MacEachern. “It should never die out.”

Click on their website www.unionmilitaria.com for more information.