A Spanish Newspaper Condemned the USSR for Taking the Reichstag

The Spanish newspaper ABC issued a scandalous article "Stalin's 70-year-old lies about taking the Berlin” in which it not only criticizes the leader of the Soviet people, but also frankly sympathizes with the Nazis who defended the city in the 1945. Allegedly, they were deceived by Hitler and did not know what they were doing “Most of them were also poor children, lured into Hitler youth by false promises of glory and imperial future of country under Hitler’s rule, who said that he will reborn it from ashes.” These little soldiers were accompanied by thousands of old men trained in war by the surviving units,” writes author Manuel Villatoro.

He dragged the famous order number 227 "Not one step back", into here, "proving" to them that Stalin sent thousands and thousands of people to certain death. And the famous shot of soldiers taking the Reichstag, (shot by war correspondent Yevgeny Khaldei on May 2, 1945, with the participation of three fighters of the 8th Guards Army) was just “pure deception of the Stalin's times." They say that the picture is fake, with traces of retouching (Moscow did not hide the fact that it was staged and had a slight retouching). Red Army soldiers that were captured on it were marauders, and in general it was made out of envy to the American photo “raising the flag over Iwo Jima” (which was shot on February 23, 1945 after the American victory over the Japanese).

By the way, last month the same newspaper became famous for another scandalous publication glorifying the "Blue Division", a voluntary association of Spanish people, which battled the USSR. It, in particular, helped besieging the capital. The journalist even quoted Fuhrer, who called the Spaniards fearless fighters who had defied death. Doubtful praise, isn't it?

Expert Comment:

Spain is experiencing phantom pains that existed during the reign of Franco. I think we will meet with them more than once. This may be a custom article. It may just be an attempt to discredit the heritage of WW2 and the role that the USSR played in it, which are usually made through Eastern-European countries. Now the Spain made their ignoble contribution to this matter.

Here’s more on the latter article that we’ve talked about:

By the 76th anniversary of the Leningrad blockade breakthrough, one of the biggest media in Madrid published tragic material about the heroes of that fight. Yet, it was dedicated to those who battled against USSR, thus, on the side of the Nazis. Sure, in the course of the WW2, Spain maintained neutrality, yet two days after the Fuhrer’s attack on the USSR, there were whole units being formed in order to aid the Fuhrer in his battle against the USSR. It seems to be "volunteers" who joined the action, but almost all the fighters Phalanx people, a movement in support of their fascist dictatorship of Franco. This is where the name comes from, as the color of Phalanx’s uniforms was blue.