Page 477 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo II

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Under the titel „ Prestuplenye plany i sredstva fašizma“ (The criminal plans and
means of fascism) the second room (Photo no. 6) showed the atrocities comitted by
the Nazis especially to communists victims. Vitrines displayed personal belongings of
concentration camps pri-sioners and shock-provoking photos. To evoke the visitor’s em-
pathy and to personalize the crimes of the Facists, the guide would have told individual
fates of the victims. In regard to stick to the master-narrative, the „other Germany“ was
equally mentioned. This is what the guide would have said by now: „But there was a
different Germany, the Germany of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Ernst Thälmann and
Wilhelm Pieck, who [...] fought for a truly democratic and freedom-loving Germany.“ 24

Photo 6: (n. d.)
The exhibition room:
„Prestuplenye plany i sredstva
fašizma“ (The criminal plans
and means of fascism), in the
„Muzej Kapituljacii“ (Museum
of Capitulation), in: Fotoarchiv,
Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.

In the following room the master-narrative aimed to deconstruct the myth of the in-
vincible Wehrmacht. Under the titel „Vse sily na razgrom vraga“ (All strenghts for the
destruction of the enemy), the advance of the Nazis was told as a course of events do-
minated by the fiercefull resistence of the Soviet people and the Red Army. To underline
the strengh of the Soviet people, the guide had to play the record of the famous soviet
war-hymn: „The sacred war“. Rather than displaying the initial Soviet defeats following
the german attack in June 1941, the focus lied on the battle of Moscow.
The vitrine in this room displayed iron crosses with birch twigs covered under ar-
tificial snow (Photo no. 7). The guide explained: „The Soldiers and the officiers of the
fascist Wehrmacht dreamt of having a parade on the Red Square. Waggons filled with
iron crosses were transported from Germany to Moscow, to honour the Soldiers and the
officiers. [...] Yet the iron crosses transformed to birch twig-crosses on the graves of the
battlefields“
25
24 „Aber es gab auch ein anderes Deutschland, das Deutschland von Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Ernst Thäl-
mann und Wilhelm Pieck, das [...] für ein wahrhaft demokratisches und freiheitliebendes Deutschland kämpf-
te.“ in: Text für die Führung durch die historische Gedenkstätte, 1985, p. 2.
25 „Die Soldaten und Offiziere der faschistischen Wehrmacht träumten davon auf dem Roten Platz eine Parade
abhalten zu können. Aus Deutschland kamen Güterwagen mit Eisernen Kreuzen nach Moskau mit denen das
faschistische Oberkommando Soldaten und Offiziere auszeichnen wollte [...]. Jedoch verwandelten sich die
Eisernen Kreuze bald in Kreuze aus Birkenholz auf den Gräbern der Schlachtfelder.“ in: Text für die Führung
durch die historische Gedenkstätte, 1985, p. 5.