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This is the fourth article in this series.
AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the name used to describe a number of potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses that happen when your immune system has been severely damaged.
People with acquired immune deficiency syndrome are at an increased risk for developing certain cancers and for infections that usually occur only in individuals with a weak immune system.
Here we present a series of strong evidence that the Covid-19 vaccines are causing recipients to develop acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) or a novel condition with similar attributes that can only be described as Covid-19 Vaccine Induced Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (VAIDS).
Vaccine effectiveness isn’t really a measure of a vaccine, it is a measure of a vaccine recipients immune system performance compared to the immune system performance of an unvaccinated person.
The first time the body encounters a germ, it can take several days to make and use all the germ-fighting tools needed to get over the infection. After the infection, the immune system remembers what it learned about how to protect the body against that disease.
Vaccines allegedly help develop immunity by imitating an infection. Once the imitation infection induced by the vaccine goes away, the body is left with a supply of “memory” t-cells and antibodies that will remember how to fight that disease in the future
So, when the authorities state that the effectiveness of the vaccines weaken over time, what they really mean is that the performance of your immune system weakens over time.
In regards to the Covid-19 injections –
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publishes a weekly Vaccine Surveillance Report, with each report containing four weeks worth of data on Covid-19 cases, hospitalisations, and deaths by vaccination status.
Here are the Covid-19 case-rates per 100,000 by vaccination status for each age group over the age of 18 in England, plus the average case rate per 100,000 for all adults in England taken from the UKHSA Vaccine Surveillance Report – Week 5 – 2022 –
As you can see the case-rate per 100k is clearly lowest among the unvaccinatied population in all age groups, with case rates among the triple vaccined population approximately double the rate seen among the unvaccinated in most age groups, and case rates among the double vaccinated population approximately triple the rate seen among the unvaccinated in most age groups.
This data alone should deeply concern even the most avid vaccine advocates.
Now that we know the case-rates, we can use Pfizer’s vaccine effectiveness formula to work out the real-world vaccine effectiveness.
Unvaccinated case rate – Vaccinated case rate / Unvaccinated case rate = Vaccine Effectiveness
e.g. Double Vaccinated 18-80+: 1,846.38 – 5,226.1 / 1,846.38 = minus-183%
Therefore, the average real-world Covid-19 vaccine effectiveness in England for all adults as a whole in January 2022 was MINUS-183%.
Here’s how effective the Covid-19 vaccines are proving to be in each double vaccinated age group –
The lowest Covid-19 vaccine effectiveness was seen in the 40-49 age group in England throughout January 2022, recorded at minus-209.4%, with the 50-59 age group not far behind.
But don’t forget, as we proved with the evidence presented in Exhibit A, Vaccine effectiveness isn’t really a measure of a vaccine, it is a measure of a vaccine recipients immune system performance compared to the immune system performance of an unvaccinated person.
Therefore, the UKHSA data actually shows that the Covid-19 injections are decimating the natural immune system.
To work out immune system performance we have to alter the calculation used to work out vaccine effectiveness slightly and divide our answer by either the largest of the vaccinated or unvaccinated case rate as per the case rates provided in Exhibit B.
Unvaccinated case rate – Vaccinated case rate / largest of the unvaccinated / vaccinated case rate = Immune System Performancee.g. Double Vaccinated 18-80+: 1,846.38 – 5,226.1 / 5,226.1 = minus-65%
The following chart shows the true extent of the damage caused to the double vaccinated populations immune systems by age group in January 2022 –
This means the average double vaccinated person in England is down to the last 35% of their immune system for fighting viruses, bacteria, and cancers. But is this data just a one off, or is the performance of the fully vaccinated populations immune system declining by the week?
If we take the case rates found in previous UKHSA Vaccine Surveillance reports we’re able to track the real world vaccine effectiveness and immune system performance of the vaccinated over the past few months.
So we took the case rates found in the following reports –
Covid-19 Vaccine Surveillance Report – Week 37′ (Published by PHE)
‘Covid-19 Vaccine Surveillance Report – Week 41’ (Published by UKHSA)
‘Covid-19 Vaccine Surveillance Report – Week 45’ (Published by UKHSA)
‘Covid-19 Vaccine Surveillance Report – Week 49’ (Published by UKHSA)
‘Covid-19 Vaccine Surveillance Report – Week 1 – 2022’ (Published by UKHSA)
And then calculated the real world Covid-19 vaccine effectiveness between 16th August 2021 and 2nd January 2022 –
The first booster shots were administered in week 37 of 2021, and this graph illustrates clearly how they provided a boost in vaccine effectiveness in the following two months. But unfortunately it also shows how short lived this boost was with the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccines falling to frightening levels between week 49 and 52.
The following graph illustrates the overall immune system performance among all age groups in England between 16th Aug 21 and 2nd Jan 22 –
As you can see from the above the 40-49 year-olds had the worst immune system performance by the 2nd Jan 22, recorded at minus-60%. In Exhibit C we shows that the immune system performance in 40-49-year-olds had declined to minus-67.7% by the 30th January 22. This therefore proves the Covid-19 vaccines are causing damage to the natural immune system that worsens by the week.
The following chart shows the Covid-19 death-rates per 100,000 by vaccination status for each age group over the age of 18 in England, calculated from the number of deaths found in the week 5 UKHSA Vaccine Surveillance Report and the size of the double vaccinated population –
The double vaccinated population have the highest death rate per 100k in every age group except for the 18-29, and 40-49-year-olds. But we can expect in coming weeks for that rate to switch among the two anomalies based on Exhibit D proving things get worse for the vaccinated population by the week.
Now that we know the death-rates, we can again use Pfizer’s vaccine effectiveness formula to work out the real-world vaccine effectiveness against death.
Real world Covid-19 vaccine effectiveness against death in England between 3rd Jan and 30th Jan 22 was as low as -110.24% in the over 80’s, -97% in people aged 70-79, and -98.14% on average in all adults over age 18.
But don’t forget, as we proved in Exhibit A, vaccine effectiveness isn’t really a measure of a vaccine, it is a measure of a vaccine recipients immune system performance compared to the immune system performance of an unvaccinated person.
The following chart shows the fully vaccinated populations immune system performance against death according to the Covid-19 death-rates per 100,000 found in the UKHSA Vaccine Surveillance Report – Week 5 – 2022 –
Keeping in line with historical trends that show the Covid-19 vaccines have caused damage to the immune system that worsens by the week we can see that the lowest immune system performance is among those who were vaccinated first, with the over 80’s recording an immune system performance of -52.4%, and then the 70-79 age group recording an immune system performance of -49.2%.
There is however a concerning anomaly in this data in that we should expect to see a positive immune system performance among the 30-39 age group of around 29%, but instead it is currently at -15.4%. There could be several explanations for this but none of them are good.
Either the 30-39 year-olds are genuinely doing worse, or all other age groups are doing much worse than what we are being told.
Either way we can be sure that the data is reliably telling us the Covid-19 injections have caused some of the elderly and vulnerable to lose all immune system capability to the point that they are now more likely to die of Covid-19 than an unvaccinated person.
Public Health Scotland publish a weekly Covid-19 Statistical Report containing data on Covid-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths by vaccination status.
The following chart shows the percentage of Covid-19 deaths by vaccination status in Scotland between 25th Dec 21 and 21st Jan 22, according to the report they published Wednesday 2nd February –
The following graph shows the age standardised Covid-19 death rates per 100,000 individuals by vaccination status in Scotland. The data has been extracted from table 16, found on page 54 of the PHS Covid-19 Statistical report published Wednesday 2nd Feb 22.
In the most recent week ending 21st Jan the fully vaccinated were statistically over twice as likely to die of Covid-19 than the unvaccinated.
The highest death-rate in the past month among the fully vaccinated was recorded as 15.49 per 100,000 individuals in the week beginning 15th Jan. But the highest death rate among the unvaccinated came in the week beginning 8th Jan at 10..93 per 100,000.
The following chart shows the real-world vaccine effectiveness against death over the past four weeks according to figures supplied by Public Health Scotland –
Vaccine effectiveness against death has been negative since at least Dec 25th, and has dropped to a staggering minus-112% as of the 21st Jan 22.
But again don’t forget, as we proved in Exhibit A, vaccine effectiveness isn’t really a measure of a vaccine, it is a measure of a vaccine recipients immune system performance compared to the immune system performance of an unvaccinated person.
The following chart shows the average immune system performance of all fully vaccinated adults against death between 15th Jan and 21st Jan 22 according to figures supplied by Public Health Scotland –
The average immune system performance against death among all adults equates to -53% in Scotland, which is slightly ahead of the average -50% seen in England as presented in Exhibit G. Because vaccination began at the same time we would expect these to be around the same.
This therefore means that we can be assured the data is reliably telling us the Covid-19 injections are not just ineffective, but damage the immune system to the point that the recipients are developing acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and are much more likely to die than the unvaccinated population.
The following chart shows the number of cases by vaccination status between 5th Dec 21 and 15th Jan 22, once we simply subtract the 4th Dec figures from the 15th Jan figures in the Government of Canada Covid-19 Daily Epidemiological Updates –
In Canada, according to the 4th Dec report, 22.2 million people are at least double vaccinated, and 23.2 million people are at least partly vaccinated. According to official statistics, the population of Canada in 2020 was estimated to be 38.01 million.
Therefore, because 23.1 million people in Canada have had at least a single dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, this leaves approximately 14.81 million people in Canada who are not vaccinated against Covid-19.
The following chart shows the Covid-19 case-rate per 100k by vaccination status in Cnada based on the population size and the case numbers provided above –
The following chart shows the real-world Covid-19 vaccine effectiveness in Canada betwen 5th Dec 21 and 15th Jan 22 based on the case-rate figures above –
But don’t forget, as we proved in Exhibit A, vaccine effectiveness isn’t really a measure of a vaccine, it is a measure of a vaccine recipients immune system performance compared to the immune system performance of an unvaccinated person.
The following chart shows the immune system performance of the fully vaccinated population in Canada between 5th Dec 21 and 15th Jan 22 –
The average fully vaccinated Canadian is down to the last 18.45% of their immune system for fighting certain classes of viruses and certain cancers etc. This is what vaccination has done to the people of Canada.
The UK Health Security Agency has found the vaccine interferes with the body’s innate ability after infection to produce antibodies against not just the spike protein but other pieces of the virus. Specifically, vaccinated people don’t seem to be producing antibodies to the nucleocapsid protein, the shell of the virus, which are a crucial part of the response in unvaccinated people.
The study titled ‘Innate Immune Suppression by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccinations: The role of G-quadruplexes, exosomes and microRNAs‘ was published on the 21st Jan 22, and presents a raft of evidence that the genetic modifications introduced by the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines have diverse consequences to human health.
A full breakdown of the study can be read here.
The following table taken from the study in Exhibit L shows the number of events in the VAERS database from 1990 to 12th Dec 2021, where several terms indicating cancer occurred in association with the Covid-19 vaccine or with all other available vaccines, along with the ratio between the two counts.
There were three times as many reports of breast cancer following a COVID-19 vaccine, and more than six times the number of reports of B-cell lymphoma. All but one of the cases of follicular lymphomawere associated with COVID-19 vaccines.
Pancreatic carcinoma was more than three times as high. Overall, in the above table, twice as many cancer reports to VAERS are related to a COVID-19 vaccination compared to those related to all other vaccines. That, in the study authors opinions constitutes a signal in urgent need of investigation.
This cannot be explained by reference to a disproportionately large number of people receiving an mRNAvaccination in the past year compared to all other vaccinations.
We know this because CDC data shows that between 2008 and 2020 over 1.72 billion doses of the flu vaccine were administered in the USA. Whereas from the start of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign up to 28th Jan 22 there were a total of 549.9 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine administered in the USA.
The reason for this increase in rates of cancer linked to vaccination could well be because the Covid-19 vaccines are decimating the innate immune system as we’ve proved in several Exhibits. By doing so the immune system is unable to fight other infections that can cause cancer.
For instance, HPV (human papillomavirus) infection has been linked to certain head and neck cancers, anal, and cervical cancer, as well as many other kinds of cancer. Lymphoma has been linked to viral infections, too.
You can read a full list of AIDS-related cancers here.
Official Government data from England, Scotland and Canada proves that the Covid-19 injections have a real-world negative effectiveness.
But vaccine effectiveness isn’t really a measure of a vaccine, it is a measure of a vaccine recipients immune system performance compared to the immune system performance of an unvaccinated person.
This means the fully vaccinated population immune systems are actually inferior to the natural immune systems of the unvaccinated population.
But as we’ve clearly shown this immune system degradation is something that is getting worse by the week, and has now started to result in a negative immune system performance against death among the elderly and vulnerable in England and Scotland.
A recent scientific study has also found that the Covid-19 vaccines suppress the innate immune system with genetic modifications introduced by the jabs having diverse consequences to human health that include immune thrombocytopenia and myocarditis. Both of which are autoimmune diseases.
The same study also found an increased production or formation of tumours, which is again linked to a supressed immune system that is incapable of combating certain viruses that can cause cancer.
AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is the name used to describe a number of potentially life-threatening infections and illnesses that happen when your immune system has been severely damaged.
People with acquired immune deficiency syndrome are at an increased risk for developing certain cancers and for infections that usually occur only in individuals with a weak immune system.
We therefore propose that the Covid-19 injections are causing either acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or a new novel condition with similar attributes than can only be described as Covid-19 Vaccine Induced Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (VAIDS).
Exclusive: United States Fast Tracks Proposal to Change WHO Rules on International Health Emergency Response
In the wake of the chaotic, and often failed, global response to the COVID pandemic, the United States is not waiting for an elaborate international treaty or convention on future pandemics, which will take years to negotiate.
Instead, Washington wants to fast track a series of nitty-gritty, but far- reaching changes in the existing International Health Regulations that govern WHO and member state emergency alert and response – for consideration at this year’s World Health Assembly, 22-28 May.
The US proposal for major IHR rule changes, obtained by Health Policy Watch, has been a topic of discussion in a series of closed-door meetings of WHO member states, which are considering ways to reform the existing IHR, as well as advancing a whole new WHO convention or other international instrument on pandemic prevention and response.
The US proposal, delivered to WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in late January, is also featuring in the agenda of US Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, Loyce Pace, currently on a visit to Geneva. See related Health Policy Watch story.
The US is expected to lead a parallel track of tightly-paced “informal” member state negotiations to reach consensus on an IHR reform resolution for approval at this year’s 75th WHA, which is only three months away.
The US proposals are presented as a detailed series of text additions and deletions in the 2005 IHR rules. The amendments set out more defined criteria, terms and timelines for alerts, notification, and response to emerging disease threats or outbreaks. The proposed rule revisions clearly aim to “incentivise” countries to collaborate more closely with expert WHO pathogen SWAP teams in the event of an emerging threat – while avoiding an outright requirement.
The proposed rules also specifically ask member states to share the “genetic sequence data” of suspect pathogens right away.
And they call for WHO to develop new “early warning criteria for assessing and progressively updating the national, regional or global risk posed by an event of unknown costs or sources.” Such criteria, would in turn, better define, member state’s responsibilities for both monitoring and rapidly reporting on threats.
It’s unclear how the top WHO echelon will react to the changes – which have not yet been posted by WHO in the online agenda for the 75th WHA meeting, 22-28 May.
Notably, Tedros has been personally identified with advancing negotiations on a much broader multilateral instrument, such as a new pandemic convention or treaty. That approach also ahs been backed by a large bloc of European states, and it received conditional approval in a special WHA session last year, including lukewarm US support.
So In contrast to the grand political vision and extended timeline of a new accord, digging into a set of very prescriptive revisions to the IHR, may, in fact prove to be more politically difficult for WHO’s leadership.
That is particularly the case since major member states, notably Russia and China, are already at odds with the US over geopolitical issues ranging from the Ukraine to Taiwan. And even in normal times, they and other more authoritarian regimes would likely balk at any US initiative that creates stronger compliance mechanisms – perceived as an infringement on sovereignty.
But as a set of practical proposals to address the real problems that the pandemic has laid bare, the US move may be quietly welcomed by many WHO insiders – as well as European and other allies. Civil society groups have also been cynical about the ambitions around a new multilateral treaty instrument – worrying about the excessive time and energy such negotiations might entail.
“Overall, I am happy that the US has proposed these amendments because it breaks this surreal dogma that has been in WHO for the past ten years, that the IHR should never be amended,” said one former WHO official, speaking to Health Policy Watch on condition of anonymity.
“The US took the initiative, and said there are flaws in the design, let’s change the design,” the former official added.
By submitting it to WHO formally in January, the US has ensured that the reform proposals must be put on the WHA agenda already in May, and be publicly debated there: “So clearly the US wants to put pressure. It wants to go quickly to get some kind of agreed package.
“I think there will be push back on this ‘draconian’ timeline for alert and notification,” the former official added. “But the purpose is good. It’s a way to increase transparency.
The US proposal creates a series of clear timelines and trigger points regarding the responsibilities of a member state with a suspected disease threat to notify WHO – and WHO to notify other member states – both within a framework of two days each.
Significantly, member states would be required to inform WHO about emerging threats identified by its national IHR focal point within 48 hours, and then accept any WHO offer to “collaborate” on further assessment.
WHO, in turn, would be mandated to make widely available within 48 hours the information it has about a significant emerging – if the member state rejects the collaboration.
“If the State Party does not accept the offer of collaboration within 48 hours, WHO shall, when justified by the magnitude of the public health risk, immediately share with other States Parties the information available to it, whilst encouraging the State Party to accept the offer of collaboration by WHO,” states the proposed amendment to Article10-4.
This, in contrast to existing language, which does not explicitly mandate collaboration with WHO on threats, and requires open-ended WHO “consultations” before the Agency even makes available information about emerging threats to other member states or the public- something that currently delays notifications for weeks and months.
The rules also would give WHO the authority to declare a public health emergency threat at the intermediate and regional level – rather than only globally – as it does now.
Creation of a kind of “yellow” warning light before declaration of a full-scale global emergency has long been discussed in connection with the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, as a measure that could have alerted countries earlier about risks of the fast-spreading coronavirus infection in the first weeks – even when the epidemic remained geographically confined to Asia.
And in the case of other emergencies, such as the West African 2014 Ebola outbreak, and prior coronavirus outbreaks of MERS in the Middle East as well as the first 2003 SARS outbreak in Asia – a much more regional spread of pathogens was more immediately obvious than the dynamics of global transmission.
Finally, the amendments would create an IHR “compliance” committee for monitoring member states’ adherence to the IHR rules, which are legally binding. A compliance mechanism, a standard feature of most international treaties, has been a gaping omission in the existing IHR system, observers say.
While Washington has provided support, in principle, to a new pandemic convention or other multilateral accord, it has never been as enthusiastic about the proposal as Europe, noting that it will take years to negotiate. Preliminary deliberations by a a new Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, which begn Thursday (February 24) are set to continue through June 2023 – and would only come before the WHA in 2024.
In contrast, the US proposal on IHR reform would already go before the World Health Assembly at its upcoming May session, as per the letter from the US Mission in Geneva to the WHO Director General 20 January 2022 – noting that its submission to the WHA agenda was made within the four-month deadline. .
The US message to the WHO DG underlined, “the critical importance of strengthening the IHR (2005) along with other efforts to strengthen the ability of the WHO and Member States to prevent, detect and respond to future public health emergencies of international concern.”
Pace, when asked for her take on the IHR reform proposal, at a media briefing Wednesday at the US Mission in Geneva, said:
“We really tried to skim off what we thought would be the most critical enhancements that could be made. In terms of what they entail, whether we are talking about improved alert systems or other components, some of the issues are maybe tougher to tackle than others.
“I think what is encouraging for us is that we had close to 50 member states signing onto this approach. We are really quite hopeful that we will see success in this effort, sooner rather than later.”
But Pace acknowledged that the first real litmus test of the US initiative will be Thursday, at the initial formal session of a new “Intergovernmental Negotiating Body” on pandemic response reform: “When it comes to the instruments of this process, we are really mindful of the process kicking off tomorrow.”
In his 1998 classic, ‘The Greatest Generation’, famed NBC journalist Tom Brokow examined the lives and experiences of some of the millions of American men and women who fought in the Second World War.
“At a time in their lives when their days and nights should have been filled with innocent adventure, love, and the lessons of the workaday world,” Brokow observed, “they were fighting in the most primitive conditions possible across the bloodied landscape of France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, and the coral islands of the Pacific. They answered the call to save the world from the two most powerful and ruthless military machines ever assembled, instruments of conquest in the hands of fascist maniacs. They faced great odds and a late start, but they did not protest. They succeeded on every front. They won the war; they saved the world.” Brokow had “come to understand what this generation of Americans meant to history. It is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced.”
I was born in 1961, some two decades after the United States entered the Second World War. By this time, the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had receded into the history books, replaced by a new and even more menacing foe, the Soviet Union. My father was a US Air Force officer whose career path up to 1977 looked like a Cold War-era tourist map, with service in Vietnam, Korea, and Turkey. I grew up with the mantra “better dead than red” drilled into my head, convinced that the service my father was providing to our nation was essential for the survival of the free world.
In 1977, my family moved to West Germany. My father had been reassigned to the 17th Air Force, headquartered at Sembach Air Force Base. We opted to live off base, in “the economy” as we called it, eventually settling into a magnificent house in the village of Marnheim owned by a German family who had been renting it out to US servicemen for decades. The house had a history, too. In 1945, it had served as a temporary headquarters for General George S. Patton as his 3rd Army advanced through the Rhein Pfaltz region of Germany during the Second World War.
We were three decades removed from that war when we moved to Germany, but reminders of that conflict were all around us. I spent the summer of 1978 working in a meat inspection facility staffed by what we euphemistically called “DPs,” for “displaced persons.” When the Second World War ended, millions of Europeans who had been enslaved by Nazi Germany found themselves liberated from their prison-like existence, but with no home to return to. This population included many children. The United States provided many of these permanently displaced persons with jobs and a place to live. For thousands this existence became a way of life, and they were employed in service of America’s expansive military presence in West Germany. By the time I became acquainted with the “DP” community, some 33 years later, these children had grown into adults who were deeply grateful for the opportunities provided by the United States.
They were also deeply resentful of the German people for having imprisoned them and destroying the Europe of their childhood.
The experience of the “DPs” was a wake-up call for an American teenager who, by living among the Germans, had grown to view them as simply a foreign-speaking mirror image of myself and my family. But it wasn’t that simple.
In January 1979 West German television broadcast, over four consecutive nights, the ABC miniseries ‘The Holocaust’. After each episode, the Germans ran a live panel of historians who would take questions from the audience (it is estimated that over half of Germany watched the series.) Like most Americans living in Germany, I had missed out on the series when it was originally aired in the United States the previous year. My family tuned in and, out of curiosity, remained tuned in during the panels. We were shocked by what we heard – the children of Germans who had been alive during the Second World War were calling the panel, in hysterics, denouncing their parents and their nation for allowing such a thing to happen. The distinguished academics and psychologists that had been assembled for these panels were stunned into silence by the outrage and anger – they simply had no answer to the question of not only how such a thing had been allowed to happen, but why they had not been taught about it growing up. Germany, it seemed, had tried to erase the criminality of its Nazi past from its present reality.
As focused as my family was on living less than one hour’s drive from the border between East and West Germany where, on the other side, hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers were stationed, poised (in our minds, at least) to launch an attack at any moment which would bring our idyllic life to a sudden and horrific halt, we could not escape the constant reminder of what had transpired on the European continent a scant three-and-a-half decades past.
One of the most poignant reminders lay across another border, this one to the west, where, near the Luxembourgish town of Hamm, the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial was located. The final resting place for more than 5,000 Americans who died fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, Hamm was also where General Patton was laid to rest following his accidental death in December 1945 (his widow believed he “would want to lie beside the men of his army who have fallen.”)
My parents made it a point to take us to Hamm on several occasions while we lived in Germany; it was a short, scenic drive, and the cemetery itself was beautiful, a fitting memorial for those who had made the ultimate sacrifice. We would always visit the nearby Sandweiler German Cemetery, also in Luxembourg, where the remains of more than 10,000 German soldiers who died fighting the Americans were interned. Both cemeteries were a somber, sobering experience.
But it wasn’t until my Uncle Mel visited us that the reality of what those cemeteries represented hit home. Mel was the living embodiment of Tom Brokow’s ‘The Greatest Generation’, having served in the European theater during World War II, coming across the Normandy beaches a week or so after D-Day. His unit – a transportation company tasked with driving trucks along the famous “red ball express,” had enjoyed a relatively easy time of it in France. Part of Patton’s 3rd Army, they participated in the liberation of France, and by the time they rolled up to the Benelux (Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg) border with Germany, had suffered no major casualties.
Mel had asked to visit some of the areas he had passed through during the war. Most brought back good memories, but at one location he stopped talking. Here his unit had been bracketed by German artillery, and in an instant more than 200 of his comrades were killed or wounded; many of those who died were buried at Hamm.
The crosses and Stars of David that were so beautifully laid out on the manicured grass suddenly had faces, names and personalities that could not be ignored. What had been a peaceful haven transformed instantly into a horrible reminder of the awful cost of war. To this day, I can’t pass a military cemetery without visualizing the circumstances of the events that took the lives of those buried there. All the hopes, dreams, and aspirations that I and others have been able to act out during our lives were denied these young men, usually under circumstances that the average person cannot imagine.
And the persons responsible for their deaths were the same Germans with whom I so peaceably co-existed back across the border. The same ones whose children became infuriated at their parent’s forgetfulness about the nature of the regime which killed so many millions in pursuit of the ambitions of one of the most odious ideologies of all humanity – Nazism.
In college, I studied Russian history; indeed, my honors thesis discussed the historical links between the Tsarist and Soviet militaries. I was intimately familiar with the campaigns and battles fought between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and the horrific toll paid by the Soviet nation, whose casualties numbered in the tens of millions.
But it wasn’t until I had the opportunity to live and work in the Soviet Union, as part of a US inspection team stationed outside a Soviet missile factory in Votkinsk, tasked with implementing the provisions of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty, that I realized the extent to which this sacrifice marked the daily reality of the Soviet people. In downtown Votkinsk, there was a monument to the citizens who lost their lives during the war, as well as those who had been awarded the title “Hero of the Soviet Union” for their wartime service. Everywhere one traveled in the Soviet Union there were similar monuments constructed in communities that had made it an essential reality of their being never to forget the sacrifices made by their version of the “Greatest Generation” in saving not only their fellow citizens, but much of Europe as well, from the scourge of Nazi Germany.
This remembrance continued even after the Soviet Union collapsed; the heritage of the Soviet Union was passed to the new Russian Federation, which sustained the duty of honoring those who had served. Russia celebrates this service on May 9 – “Victory Day” – marking the defeat of Nazi Germany. One of the great traditions of this celebration was the image of those aged veterans of that conflict, bedecked in their campaign medals, parading before a grateful nation. Even as time and old age removed the Russian “Greatest Generation” from the society and nation they had served, the Russian people continued to honor them, with the children and grandchildren of the departed veterans marching in their stead, holding aloft a photograph of the veteran, part of what is called “The Immortal Regiment.”
Unlike the Germans, the Russian people don’t forget.
Sadly, I cannot say the same thing about the American people. There will be no Victory in Europe celebration in the United States this year, just as there hasn’t been for years past. We have forgotten our “Greatest Generation” and the sacrifices they made for our future. There is no American “Immortal Regiment” of family members marching proudly down the main streets of US towns and cities honoring the cause for which these young men and women served.
We have forgotten what they even fought for.
There was a time when the United States and Soviet Union fought together to overcome the scourge of Nazi Germany and the ideology it espoused. Today, when Russia is locked in a struggle with the progeny of Hitler’s Germany, in the form of the ideological descendants of the Ukrainian nationalist, Stepan Bandera – one would logically expect that the United States to be on Moscow's side.
Bander's followers fought alongside German Nazis as members of the Waffen SS, slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent civilians, many of them Jewish. By rights, Washington should be ensuring that the hateful cause so many had given their lives and livelihoods to eradicate from Europe never again raised its evil banners on European soil.
Instead, the United States is providing succor to the present-day adherents of Bandera, and by extension, Hitler; their hateful ideology disguised as Ukrainian nationalism. American military personnel, whose traditions are born from the heroic sacrifices made by hundreds of thousands of their fellow soldiers, sailors, and airmen who gave their lives to defeat Nazi Germany, are today providing weapons and training to Ukrainians whose bodies and banners bear the markings of Hitler’s Third Reich.
On May 9, Russia will celebrate Victory Day, marking the 77th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, the struggle against Nazi ideology continues to this day and, sadly, the United States finds itself on the wrong side of history, supporting those whom we once were sworn to defeat, while fighting against those whom we once called allies.
I can’t help but think that Tom Brokow’s “Greatest Generation” would be ashamed by the actions of those for whom they sacrificed everything, and who have still proven insufficient for the task of honoring their memory in action and in deed.
