Crossposted from Livejournal, just in case this post gets taken down
This is definitely an... interesting time to mark the 77th anniversary of the Nazi Germany surrender and, with it, the end of World War II in Europe.
Those of you who read this blog for a few years know that I feel that, even before the war, the meaning of the holiday has been steadily eroded as more and more veterans and survivors died of natural causes. There has always been talk about heroism of soldiers, guerrilla fighters and civilians, but at least when I was growing up in the 1990s, I remember being told that World War II was an ugly, cruel thing, the sheer toll it took on everyone involved, and how important it was to make sure that nothing like this happened again.
The point of the remembering was not only to remember the sacrifices, but remember what to avoid, what we must never allow to happen. And now, especially in the post-Bucha era, more than anything, I feel like we failed.
( And I have no idea where this leaves us )
This is definitely an... interesting time to mark the 77th anniversary of the Nazi Germany surrender and, with it, the end of World War II in Europe.
Those of you who read this blog for a few years know that I feel that, even before the war, the meaning of the holiday has been steadily eroded as more and more veterans and survivors died of natural causes. There has always been talk about heroism of soldiers, guerrilla fighters and civilians, but at least when I was growing up in the 1990s, I remember being told that World War II was an ugly, cruel thing, the sheer toll it took on everyone involved, and how important it was to make sure that nothing like this happened again.
The point of the remembering was not only to remember the sacrifices, but remember what to avoid, what we must never allow to happen. And now, especially in the post-Bucha era, more than anything, I feel like we failed.
( And I have no idea where this leaves us )