Bianca, I am sure that you wrote your post from a desire to be helpful, and I do appreciate that. However, may I correct a mistaken impression that you may hold? In no way do I dismiss or think lightly of the agonies of German mothers, Russian mothers, Chinese mothers, or of the pain of anyone anywhere who has suffered. If possible, I would comfort and help every one of them. My posts are not a reflection of who suffered more and who less. Instead, they are a direct reaction to Moscow’s ongoing offensive lies about its Soviet-era Baltic crimes, and to the present-day on-going antagonism in its Baltic pronouncements and policies which ensures that closure about the past cannot happen. This is not some kind of quirky personal aberration on my part, Bianca. You will find that most of Russia’s neighbors feel pretty much the same, and for pretty much the same reasons. In response to such doleful Russian initiatives which occur on almost a weekly basis, I try to redress the balance by presenting facts which Russian sources generally do not present. Many Russians and Russian apologists, being somehow inured to Russia’s ongoing outrageous behavior and consider it to be normal, wonder why Russia’s neighbors say the things they do. Yet the reason is precisely because Russia does think that its ongoing behavior is normal! The current article is a good bad example of this. Russia notices that its neighbors are unhappy with it. Not for a moment does Russia think that this has anything to do with its own behavior. No, it is all because their neighbors are “looking for their identity” – whatever that means. And if you can find a French academic to say so in an interview, well, so much the better. For every one character like that you could find ten thousand others who identify the cause of the unrest surrounding Russia as being precisely Russia’s own unlovely behavior.

Marzipan6, it is understandable that you love your country and that you are proud of who you are. However, you choose to be insulting to other points of view, and pick and choose your "facts" as they suit you. Any honest historical overview cannot just pick "villians" and "victims", while only the superior beings are entitled to write history in which some are their "pets", while others are "ogres". The history of the world is not a fairy tale. It is a story of tragedies, where the innocents often suffered the most. You have heard of "Einsatzgruppen", I am sure. However, insisting blindly on your view of injustice to your nation only, and only yours, is to ignore the pain and suffering by millions of ordinary people throughout Europe. And to think that a German mother was any different then any other mother whose child was killed in the senseless war, is to deny our common humanity. Marzipan6, if only you would allow that it is the the elites of any country that really make the decisions that affect the future of millions, it may be easier for you to comprehend the lessons to be learned. And in it, Polish elites were not the innocents. They gambled, and lost. And Chamberlain was not just an "appeaser", but someone, who along with French, Polish and Italian elites, knew very well the pact they signed at Munich. Otherwise, you are one of those who remember everything, and learn nothing.