Europe Day or Victory Day

Death to fascism - freedom to the people!

Today we are divided again over what to celebrate - Europe Day or Victory Day. We argue about who was on the right side of history, whose ancestors were heroes and whose were traitors. We beat our chests, divide the people and awaken the ghosts of the past.

And we forget the most important thing.

We live in freedom, peace and democracy today thanks to the people who went through the hell of war, fascism, hunger and death. They died not so that we would hate, divide and return to the darkness of the past, but so that we could live together - as people.

Victory Day over Fascism and Europe Day are not opposites. Quite the contrary. The European idea was born precisely on the ruins of World War II, with the desire that the evil of fascism would never happen again and that the peoples of Europe would never again wage war against each other.

And today, instead of preserving peace, freedom and unity, we often do the opposite. We hate each other because of our nation, religion, language and past. We compete in divisions, while forgetting that the greatest victories of our ancestors were precisely freedom, anti-fascism and human dignity.

The greatest betrayal of our ancestors is not having a different opinion. The greatest betrayal is when we forget why they fought.

They fought for man to be free. For children to live without war. For nations to live in peace.

And I celebrate May 8th because I believe that Europe is our future. I celebrate the day when the peoples of Europe, after the horrors of World War II, found the strength to forgive each other and to build peace, cooperation and a common future on the ruins of war.

The Allied Powers did not just defeat fascism - they showed that humanity can overcome hatred and choose togetherness over revenge. Thanks to this, we live in freedom and peace today. The European idea is not perfect, but it is the greatest peace project in the history of mankind and we must not allow it to be lost.

I also celebrate May 9th. Every year I lay flowers to the heroes of the Soviet Union and all the allies who gave their lives across Europe so that we can live freely, with dignity and without fear today. Their sacrifice obligates every person who believes in freedom.

When I lay flowers and walk past the hundreds of graves in the memorial alley at the Frankfurt cemetery, I see the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, the names of people from all corners of our globe. Then I realize that all of them, regardless of religion, nation or language, were united in one goal - to defeat fascism.

In that quiet walk through the alley, I feel deep humility before their sacrifice and shame for those of us who so easily forget today what real heroes paid with their lives.

That's why it hurts me when some today try to equate liberators and fascists, to rewrite history and once again invoke the spirits of hatred and division. We must not allow that. Not for the sake of the past, but for the sake of the future of our children.

Today, we often don't know what to do with the freedom and good that our ancestors left us. Instead of unity, we choose division, instead of respect, we choose hatred, and instead of the future, we dig into the wounds of the past.

And it was our ancestors who dreamed of a different world - a Europe without wars, without fascism, and without hatred between nations.

That's why today we don't have to choose between Europe Day and Victory Day. It's the same path - the path of freedom, peace and a common future.

A people who forget why they are free easily lose their freedom again.

Not once, but forever:

Death to fascism - freedom to the people!

And that's why I will always celebrate May 8th and 9th - the days of victory over fascism, because it is just, honorable, and humane.

The author is a recipient of the Order of Merit for the People of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz); he is the recipient of the “30. September” Plaque - the highest award of the city of Rožaje