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Transcript/ScriptUSAGM SHARE
((PLAYBOOK SLUG: RUSSIA UKRAINE NAZI MUSEUM
HEADLINE: Nazi Surrender Museum Caught Up in Russia-Ukraine War
TEASER: Site of Nazi capitulation in Berlin flies Ukrainian flag in solidarity
PUBLISHED AT: Monday, 02/28/2022, 4:10p
BYLINE: Henry Ridgwell
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Berlin
VIDEOGRAPHER: Henry Ridgwell
VIDEO EDITOR:
SCRIPT EDITORS: DLJ, pcd
VIDEO SOURCES: VOA, APTN, REUTERS
PLATFORMS: WEB _X_ TV _X_ RADIO __
TRT: 3:22
VID APPROVED BY: Reifenrath
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES:))
((INTRO))
[[The site in Berlin where the Nazis surrendered to Soviet and Allied forces in 1945 — now a museum — has become embroiled in the current war between Ukraine and invading Russian forces. Henry Ridgwell reports from the German capital.]]
((NARRATOR))
May the 8th 1945 – victorious Allied commanders arrive at Berlin’s Tempelhof airport. The official Nazi capitulation is signed at this former military barracks in East Berlin, captured by Soviet forces. War in Europe is over.
The site is preserved — sponsored by an association of German, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian historians — and known as the German-Russian museum. Until now.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week, the director decided to fly only the Ukrainian flag at the front of the museum. The German-Russian Museum name plaque has been obscured.
((Jörg Morré, Museum Director (male, in German) ))
“Normally we display all four flags: Germany, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. We see it as an important symbol that we sympathize with Ukraine. Ukraine is the victim here. She was attacked – that's the only point to make. So today we raised only one flag.”
((NARRATOR))
The dispute goes far deeper. In World War Two, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.
Nazi atrocities against the Soviets are well documented. Many of those crimes took place on what is now Ukrainian soil.
The site of the Nazi capitulation became the ‘German-Russian’ museum in 1994, after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Two decades later, Russia invaded Ukraine, annexing Crimea – and the museum found itself at the center of a dispute over its name.
((Jörg Morré, Museum Director (male, in German) ))
“Our Ukrainian colleagues have difficulties working in a museum called the German-Russian Museum. From the German point of view, it was sufficient for quite some time to say: ‘We have a museum with Russia.’ But it's a bit inaccurate. Russia was taken to mean the whole of the Soviet Union. For a long time, that didn't bother anyone. For the Germans, it's very important to have a museum together with our former enemies in war. But we've learned now that it's important to distinguish between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.”
(NARRATOR))
On the eve of launching his latest invasion, Russia’s president said it was aimed at the ‘denazification’ of Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly compared Ukraine’s government to the Nazis – and accused them of committing genocide.
Ukraine has strongly rejected such claims – and points out that its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish, and has a grandfather who fought against the Nazis.
Museum director Jörg Morré is outraged by Putin’s language.
((Jörg Morré, Museum Director (male, in German) ))
“This is a misrepresentation, a corruption of history that I would have never expected. Perhaps we have indeed learned nothing from history.”
((NARRATOR))
It is a history that is still contested.
((Henry Ridgwell, VOA Europe Correspondent))
((NARRATOR))
Germany – and Europe – believed war was a part of history never to be repeated – to be remembered in museums like this. But as conflict returns to Europe, Russia is invoking the language of twentieth century conflicts, as its tanks roll into Ukraine.
((Henry Ridgwell, for VOA News, Berlin))
NewsML Media TopicsConflict, War and Peace, Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateFebruary 28, 2022 16:18 EST
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
