I Remember...A Memoir of Nazi Invasion Forced Exile and Conce... by Lorissa Wilfong Holt

Nazi Germany's surprise invasion of Soviet eastern Europe began on June 22, 1941. Melnyk's 'sweeping' criticism of current Germany's commemorative practices was a 'disservice' to the legitimate interests of Ukraine, and German-Ukraine ties, said Steinmeier's office, referring to EU backing for Kyiv over issues such as Crimea. The office of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Ukraine's invitation rebuff 'contradicted' the German head of state's intention that Friday's exhibition opening 'should have a unifying effect across all differences and conflicts.''

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video President's office says event should transcend current tensions The renovated facility in Berlin-Karlshorst was where Soviet forces got three commanders of Nazi Germany's military to capitulate - two days after a Nazi naval commander had surrendered to Allied forces at Reims in France.īerlin-Karlshorst became a Red Army base and then the Soviet headquarters in former East Germany, including a large KGB intelligence outpost, until German reunification in the early 1990s. 'The guilt of the Germans for the Nazi crimes is still only being considered in terms of Russia and the Russians,'' wrote Melnyk to the museum's director.

Staging it at Berlin's German-Russian Museum was 'an affront, very regrettable and bewildering,' said Melnyk, because immense wartime persecution of other nations such as Ukraine, Belarus and Baltic nations, was being 'simply ignored.' Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk Image: Susanne Huebner/imago Images

Ukrainian ambassador Andrij Melnyk has rejected Germany's invitations to 15 ex-Soviet states to a Berlin exhibition opening this Friday for 27 million Soviet victims of Hitler's 1941 invasion of eastern Europe, codenamed Operation Barbarossa.

I Remember...A Memoir of Nazi Invasion Forced Exile and Conce... by Lorissa Wilfong Holt