From the Huffington Post:

Astonishingly, in America, the National D-Day Memorial is honoring Stalin by placing his bust on a pedestal at its museum in Bedford, Virginia.

This misguided move will haunt millions of Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Jews, etc. whose families were massacred by this Soviet tyrant. Stalin’s killing machine slaughtered more people than Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did.

Although Stalin eventually became an Ally to the West, does he deserve a monument?

Stalin only gave lip service to the allies so that they would attack Nazi Germany on the Western front. Stalin did not liberate Eastern Europe from the Nazis in 1945; he sent in Soviet troops that occupied half of Europe until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. Stalin the communist barely hid his disdain for capitalist America during WWII, and once the war ended, he began the Cold War and ordered his scientists to work on missiles and nuclear weapons that could destroy the United States.

Given McIntosh’s logic, should America put up a statue of Saddam Hussein because he was an ally of the U.S. in the 1980s when we supported Iraq in a war against Iran?

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WSET covered this last month:

Memorial officials say the statue is not meant to celebrate, but rather illuminate a moment of time.

“Stalin is a part of the story, he’s not there because we honor him, he’s there because he’s a critical piece of the puzzle and if you want to understand D-Day, that’s what its there for,” McIntosh said.

The statue was made possible by a private donation.

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You can contact the offices to let them know your thoughts and if you would ever visit their memorial site or donate after they erect this monstrosity.

From the White House:

Statement by the President on the Ukrainian Holodomor Remembrance Day

Seventy six years ago, millions of innocent Ukrainians – men, women, and children – starved to death as a result of the deliberate policies of the regime of Joseph Stalin.  Tomorrow, we join together, Ukrainian-Americans and all Americans, to commemorate these tragic events and to honor the many victims.

From 1932 to 1933, the Ukrainian people suffered horribly during what has become known as the Holodomor – “death by hunger” – due to the Stalin regime’s seizure of crops and farms across Ukraine.  Ukraine had once been a breadbasket of Europe.  Ukrainians could have fed themselves and saved millions of lives, had they been allowed to do so.  As we remember this calamity, we pay respect to millions of victims who showed tremendous strength and courage.  The Ukrainian people overcame the horror of the great famine and have gone on to build a free and democratic

country.

Remembering the victims of the man-made catastrophe of Holodomor provides us an opportunity to reflect upon the plight of all those who have suffered the consequences of extremism and tyranny around the world.  We hope that the remembrance of Holodomor will help prevent such tragedy in the future.

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We’ve been covering this movie since it’s debut a year and a half ago, and just a reminder this is the last week (until Friday) the PBS program POV is viewing the documentary online. It won Hot Docs last year and is a great film. Enjoy! After that, you might not be out of luck just yet 😉