Soviet Victoria in Plaza Venezuela

In my adolescence, when the passion on the study of world war II became systematic, the scene of the taking Reichstag In the battle of Berlin (from April 16 to May 2, 1945) by the Red Army that reconstructs the film On behalf of all mine/ For those I loved (Roberto Enrico, 1983) noticed my memory forever. The film is the adaptation of Martin Gray’s autobiography; A Jewish Polish who loses his whole family, manages to escape the extermination fields and joins the partisans to finally be part of the Soviet forces that advance in the direction of Germany. The soldiers fight through the streets and stairs of the German Parliament, then they are running through the roofs to raise the flag (the image that would later immortalize the Soviet correspondent Evguéni A. Jaldei and that is probably the best known of the conflict in Europe). It was a glorious end after so much suffering, although the conquest of the capital of the Reich had the cost for both sides of about one million people among which a room were civilians. I always dreamed of being in that place, and when the time came when walking through the same steps I watched the columns that have the vestiges of the fight and the pediment where he says “Deutschen Volke”, imagining the story of that last days.

Monument in Plaza Venezuela

And what does all this have to do with the Plaza Venezuela in Caracas? The relationship is that when I studied at the Central University of Venezuela, I bought books on World War II in the elite bookstore that was left in Plaza Venezuela on the Great Avenue. Precisely one day I bought: Earl F. Ziemke, 1982, The battle of Berlin. End of the Third Reich with the famous photo of Evguéni A. Jaldei on the cover; And I could never have imagined that in front of the bookstore a monument was to be built for – according to the Government – “commemorate the 80th anniversary of victory in the Great Patria War over fascism” (it will be inaugurated on May 9, which is the date that the Russians celebrate the end of the war). The monument reconstructs the image of the flag’s raising on the Reichstag, and this is inclined in the direction of the beautiful source of Plaza Venezuela, which only separates them an avenue. I agree that our country recognizes the effort to overcome Nazi Germany but not unilaterally (only the USSR beat the axis?), And even more so when we already had an avenue (called victory that later changed the name) dedicated to the fact and a sculpture (“allegory to the victory” of the artist Ernesto Maragall) that unfortunately was hidden in the internal Central America (I have a micro -termination about this fact called “El Indio Prometheus” published on the Contexturas.org). All this could be resumed and pay tribute to all allies without distinction, and especially the Venezuelans who died in it.

Let us apart the uses made by the current policy of historical memory, and return to the last days of World War II with the advance of the allies from the west (the Anglo -American) and the Soviet from the East through the German territory where they discovered the horror of the concentration and extermination fields. Although the Red Army had already released Auschwitz on January 27, 1945 the world could know the truth thanks to the greatest credibility and communicational capacity of the western press, as can be seen in the biopic of the war correspondent of Vogue magazine: Lee Miller: Lee (Ellen Kuras, 2023) and the Netflix documentary: Five came back (Laurent Bouzereau, 2017). In the case of the series Band of brothers (Tom Hanks & Steven Spielberg, 2001), the period that goes from the crossing of the RIN in Remagen (March 9, 1945) to Adolf Hitler’s suicide (April 30) is treated by the series in the ninth episode “Why We Figh?”. It is likely that this is the one that best describes the central argument of the same: the heroicity of the simple American young people who crossed the Atlantic to offer their lives and get rid of the Nazi totalitarian threat, threatens that it is clear when discovering the tests of the genocide when they get the Kaufering field near Landsberg on April 28. In the Netflix documentary: Greatest events of World War Two in colour (2019) His ninth episode deals with the release of the Buchenwald field (April 11). Soviet and Americans found themselves in the Elba River on April 25 so that the country was divided between the north and south, and that same day Berlin was surrounded.

The battle of Berlin was rebuilt in the cinema for Soviet propaganda, with everything that it implies, that is, the atrocities they committed for their thirst for revenge are not seen (understandable, more never justifiable) and that we already described in previous deliveries. We refer to Berlin’s fall of Mikjeil Chiaureli, 1949 and the last two episodes of the Urss of the USSR of 5 episodes: Release from Yuri Ozerov, 1970-71. Both describes Hitler’s suicide and the flag-raid scene, and the Russians are seen as the Liberators of Nazi-Fascism and founders of a time of peace and justice. Western documentaries did show reality as it can be seen in the British documentary series The World at war (1973-74) in its episode 21 “Nemesis: Germany (February-May, 1945), but also in the Ukrainian Docudrama series: Soviet Storm: WW2 in the East (Address: Anna Grazhdan and script by: Artem Drabkin and Aleksey Isaev; 2011), who dedicates his episode 16 “The battle for Germany.” With regard to the facts the former focus on the battles and the cost they had for the Russians, and the latter have tried more the last days of Adolf Hitler locked in the bunker until their suicide. Of the latter the best are undoubtedly the German The downfall/ The sinking of Oliver Hirschbiegel (2004) and The Bunker by George Schaefer (1981) with Anthony Hopkins as Hitler. In both Albert Speer’s myth is maintained as “the Nazi good.” The recent German documentaries manage The storm in Berlin (2015) of the TV channel: The Spiegel and Berlin 1945: Diary of a big city (2020) Distributed by Amazo Prime.

On May 2, the Berlin and Admiral Karl Doenitz troops inherited the maximum headquarters of the State (which remained of him) from Hitler’s suicide on April 30, delegated the general colonel (the highest authority of the Wehrmacht) Alfred Johl negotiate with General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Germans tried to give him long and that the flight of the greatest number of soldiers and civilians of the areas occupied by the Russians in the west direction was facilitated, but the unconditional surrender were required which they accepted and signed it in Reims (France) with delegates of the allies including a Russian one. The cessation to the fire would begin at 11 at night of the next day, for this on May 8 it is considered the day of victory in Europe except for the Russians who commemorate it on May 9 because Stalin demanded another firm of surrender in Berlin the day before with the marshal and highest authority of the German high command: Wilhelm Keitel, and on the side of the USSR: Marshal Gueorgui Zhukov. War ended in Europe but not in Pacific and Asia.

In the last installment of the United States Cinematography Academy, the Oscars, the biographical film about Hungarian architect Lazlo Todh, founder of the architectural movement Brutalism, We move us in his first minutes to the Hungary of the last months of World War II. The persecution of the Jews, the Nazi occupation and then the Soviet. The protagonist to win the award for best actor left us these words with which we can conclude:

«I am here, again, to represent the drama and the impact of war, systematic oppression, anti -Semitism and racism, and pray for a happier, healthier and more inclusive world. I think that if we have learned something from the past, it is not to let hate get out of control. Let’s fight for what is fair. We are going to love each other and smile. Let’s build together »(Adrien Brody’s speech, March 2, 2025).

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