By: Dr Stane Granda
August 23rd has passed again, the day of remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. Its historical background dates back to 1939, when the Soviet Union and Hitler’s Germany made a pact and precipitated World War II in Europe. Their decades-long incestuous relationship gave birth to one of the largest mass deaths in Europe.
August 23rd was intended as a common European holiday of the sanctity of life, which was adopted by the European Parliament with the Resolution on European Consciousness and Totalitarianism on April 2nd, 2009. Its ideological background is the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, the Charter of the European Union on Fundamental Rights, and some other documents as well as the commemorative practice of the affected countries or nations. The Slovenian state has still not “adopted” it, but it “takes notice” of it every few years. It is about cynicism, which is also being observed this year in relation to the unfortunate Ukraine.
The identification of the Slovenian opponents of this European Memorial Day is not a problem. They are united by their attitude to communism. They are ready to accept Stalinism, perhaps for the sake of the information bureau, but above all they want to “save” the honour of “Comrade Tito” and exclude from the Memorial Day communist crimes in Slovenia and elsewhere in the world, from China to modern Venezuela.
The resistance of the supporters of the former Yugoslav totalitarianism against the naming of the holiday on August 23rd is incredibly strong. Not only in politicians and ordinary people, but also in the line of historians from Repe to the eternal director Lutar, who is trying to occupy the space vacated by J. Pleterski. Of course, exclusively in the ideological field, because in the other fields he does not even reach below the epidermis of the sole. Among other things, their arguments are that there is no point in mentioning communism, because it did not even exist, only socialism, that in fact even fascism was not totalitarianism, but they are immediately ready to include the Catholic Church. Since they do not even separate the Vatican-Germany concordat from its agreement with Hitler, we cannot even expect anything else from them. They do not even want to hear that Stalin handed over a number of German communists to Hitler, even less about the joint celebration of Slovenian communists and German Nazis on May 1st, 1941, in Trbovlje. Indeed, the German occupation of the former Yugoslavia is the beginning of collaboration in our country. What dilutes the content of August 23rd the most is the practice of leftists, who call their right- and left-wing opponents fascists. This is an unprecedented abuse of history and “revisionism”.
Considering that the former communists more or less do not care about the former ideology, but care about the government, we have to ask ourselves what actually bothers them when mentioning communism. After lengthy conversations, they only explain to us that this would dishonour the path and method of the communist seizure of power: the interwar and post-war massacres. Mass criminal killing, no matter how horrible it sounds, is indeed the strongest ideological bond of communism, transcending the divisions from Leninism to the latest phenomena. They are ready to talk about everything, but not about the mass industry of death, which surpasses even the Nazis in terms of its horror, let’s remember the Huda jama. Therefore, it is no coincidence that Slovenian demands for euthanasia of the sick and elderly nestle in their ranks.
August 23rd passed again. How many more will there be? How long will the communists be so strong in our country? No! As long as the democrats are so weak and our attitude towards the authorities is unprincipled. Indeed, the totalitarian left has been in power for most of the post-independence period. Not by our own merits and advantages, but by our follies. One of these is that in the opposition in the parliament we regularly demand the observance of the day of remembrance for the victims of all totalitarianisms, but there is no such demand in any coalition agreement. Only the consent that “ours” will not open “controversial” historical questions. Pure capitulation, lack of belief in one’s right, lack of fundamental self-respect. At the time of independence, the communists somehow promised through their teeth that they would not take over state-building ministries. They do not need them. Culture and education are key for them, and centres for social work are for enrichment and jobs. Mainly in these three departments, their subversive activities and seizure of power were the breeding ground. The problem is not so much the figures of the ministers, but of those who appoint them. Minister Cigler was most hindered by the staff subordinate to him, which he inherited in the centres for social work, which are one of the strongholds of the former. It is no secret that the Ministry of Education is controlled by personnel appointed by Minister Gaber. The harder Minister Simoniti tried, the more his subordinates financed Friday’s demonstrators. And then we are surprised that the culture financially supported the rapists of minors!?
“We cannot help it. The society that tolerates this is to blame,” the responsible people now say. It is not true! Society does not support them. In relation to the unfortunate pharmacist, Janković was not protected by society, but by individuals with a first and last name. There are also individuals behind the current affair. Will anyone name them?
Has any “national hero”, who during and after the war brutally killed in the name of communism, ever been “dethroned”? How many schools are still named after those whose hands were covered in blood? This is also the content of August 23rd.
