Hitler-Stalin Pact

“Hitler-Stalin Pact”, Monterey Herald—Submitted Oct. 5, 2021, Unpublished

Judy Ritchie’s “Correcting the record on Hitler, World War II” Oct. 2, 2021 letter illustrates the terrible job that government schools are doing in teaching history.  No, Judy, the German National Socialists and the Soviet Union signed a formal alliance and treaty on August 23, 1939 in Moscow. It was called the Hitler-Stalin Pact, formally known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.  The invasion of Poland by the Nazis and Communists in 1939 started World War II. When the treaty became known, the New York Times editorialized, “Hitlerism is brown communism, Stalinism is red fascism.”

Yes, the Nazi-Communist alliance only lasted around 2 years, ending when Hitler stabbed Stalin in the back by invading Russia. But Communists are always stabbing other Communists in the back. Leon Trotsky was assassinated in 1940 on orders from Stalin. Moreover, Stalinists killed hundreds of Trotskyists and their allies during the Spanish Civil War.

German National Socialists and Russian Communists have much in common, along with the current crop of Democratic Party leaders.

–Sharon Wood, Carmel