Profound sacrifices of Soviets essential to Nazi defeat, says CoE Secretary General

"We all recognize that our continent could not have been released from the grip of fascism without the profound sacrifices of the Soviet people," declared Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE), during a speech to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War on Saturday.

"More lives were lost in the siege of Leningrad than by the British and American forces during the entire war," the Secretary General continued. "27 million people lost their lives in the war from the Soviet Union."

Celebrated throughout most of Western Europe on May 8, the unconditional surrender in 1945 of the Nazi High Command which formally ended the war was signed late in the evening, when it was already past midnight in the Soviet Union. As a result, much of Eastern Europe celebrates the event on the 9th of the month.

In his speech, the Secretary General made a point of emphasizing the participation of Eastern Europeans in both the war effort and in suffering, paying special attention to Belarus, which is not yet a member state of the CoE.

"We must pay tribute to every life given for our freedom," he said. "We would not be here as free and equal citizens if it was not for them."

The Secretary General's insistence on the role of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in WWII appeared especially significant in light of ongoing conflict in the East of Ukraine, as well as sanctions against the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in the winter 2015 plenary session which saw Russia withdraw its representatives from the assembly for the rest of the year.

The most fitting tribute to the victims of WWII, the Secretary General said, was for the nations of Europe to "continue to work to overcome our differences."

Anne Brasseur, President of PACE, and Belgian Ambassador and Chair of the Ministers' Deputies of the CoE Dirk van Eeckhout also spoke at the commemoration.

"All of the democratic political forces must transcend their differences, and with the support of civil society and religious leaders, to combat and denounce extremism, fundamentalism and xenophobia, which constitute the breeding ground for totalitarianism," declared President Brasseur, reminding listeners of the need for vigilance.

"The obligation to remember is essential in order to fashion a new future," said Ambassador van Eeckhout.

Held on the forecourt of the CoE headquarters in Strasbourg at the Palais d'Europe, the ceremony included a laying of flowers at the foot of the flags of the CoE member states by both volunteers and permanent representatives to the CoE.

A moment of silence was also observed for the victims of WWII, and three doves were released at the end of ceremony in an act symbolic of the peace that followed the end of the war. Endit