British prime minister Neville Chamberlain declaring that the Munich agreement meant "peace for our time", September 30, 1938. Wikicommons/ Ministry of Information. Some rights reserved.
August 23 is European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. The day of the year is anything but random: on August 23, 1939, the infamous non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the USSR was signed, including the agreement to divide neighbouring countries, like Poland, Finland, and the Baltic States, into “spheres of influence”, ready for annexation.
Interestingly, there is no European Day of Remembrance on September 29, the day on which, in 1938, the UK and France carved up Czechoslovakia and gave a chunk of it to the Nazis. Just as well, really. What would we call it? Day of Remembrance of the Collusion between European Democracy and Nazism would probably not get voted through the European Parliament. Day of Remembrance of the Collusion between European Democracy and Nazism would probably not get voted through the European Parliament.
