Eastern Europe under the Nazis and under the Soviets can not be compared. Post WWII Communism in Eastern Europe was what it was, but it was very mild in comparison to what the Nazis had in store. You forget the only reason Hitler ended up killing less people than Stalin was that Hitler was defeated relativley early. The Nazis planned on eventualy exterminating most of the Czechs, Poles, Belarussians and Ukrainians and Germanise the rest. You can not possibly compare that to imposing a local communist puppet government which the USSR did.

You forget the extreme racism of Hitler and the Nazis. Probably becasue it was only ever turned Eastwards and not towards you. Over 3 milllion Soviet POWs were starved to death in German camps while barely any Western Allies died while imprisoned by the Germans. Plenty of German POWS died in Soviet camps as well to be sure, but the death rate was far lower and that in a country that had trouble feeding her own people and army.

What the Nais commited against the civilians on the Eastern Front was attrocious. The Red Army commited attrocities of its own, namely the mass rapes of German women towards the end of the war. These were despicable, criminal and evil deeds, but it is a fact what the German army did to civilians of the Soviet Union was even worse. It wasn`t just raping it was mass killings.

But I must take exception of your Stalin-Hitler comparision, especially the view that Hitler was more qualitatively evil. Of course Hitler was truly horrendous, but everything the Nazi’s did the Communists did FIRST (by and large) and on a much larger scale. Just read the Gulag Archipelago for the list of brutal atrocities the Communists did daily for 40 years.

Stalin was without doubt far worse, and I question the reason why Hilter receives all the focus. It is quite a distortion of the atrocities of last century. Alas the sophistication of our moral compass seems to be either your’re good or you’re HITLER and nothing else.

I must also comment that while it is a crime by FDR to have allowed 2 million russians to be repatriated to torture and death by the soviets, there is clearly a big distinction between an accomplice and the actual murderers here. Nobody but Stalin and the Soviets made the decision to commit the final barbarities on their people. To equate the two grossly downplays the responsbility of the Soviets here.

One would think that Roosevelt’s deplorable decision to treat Americans of Japanese descent like cattle would be evidence enough of his callous disregard for people, but his treatment of the soldiers sent back to Stalin for certain execution really takes the cake.

To those who idolize FDR as America’s savior, what say you?