Entering those organizations meant being reunited with Europe. That is why joining the Euro-Atlantic structures of NATO and the EU was their goal. New Europe, particularly Poland and the Baltic states, craved security. As soon as the Nazi yoke was lifted in 1945, populations across Eastern, Central, and Southeastern Europe were saddled with an oppressive totalitarian system that was to last until 1989.Įven after regaining its independence, with few exceptions, New Europe never shook off its suspicion of Russia.
The Soviet Union’s Red Army was seen not as a liberator but as an oppressor. New Europe’s view of the Victory Day Parades was completely different. Rereading British historian Tony Judt’s Postwar and American historian Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands on the war and its aftermath is a salutary reminder of the original and noble intentions of the founding fathers of the European Union. In the Soviet Union, an estimated 16 million people died, half of whom were soldiers. Over 5.7 million Jews were sent to the Nazi death camps.
Nazism managed to destroy Europe’s rich and old Judeo-Christian heritage, despite attempts after 1945 to build Jewish communities and life in some parts of Europe. Nearly half that number consisted of noncombatant civilians. It is estimated that about 36.5 million Europeans died between 19.
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