Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Brexiters and Russians Abuse Their World War II Glory

Like Russia, Britain appears to have forgotten that it won World War II as part of an alliance. Germany has understood that lesson better.

October 9, 2019 at 11:37 AM UTC

By Leonid Bershidsky

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

A shared victory.
Photographer: Hulton Archive/Hulton Archive

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When the U.K.’s Leave.EU campaign posted a meme on Tuesday calling German Chancellor Angela Merkel a “Kraut” who shouldn’t be allowed to “push around” the winners of two world wars, I couldn’t help but think of the lasting trauma winning World War II has inflicted on some nations. Britain and my native Russia are prime examples.

Leave.EU and its founder, the Brexit campaign funder Arron Banks, apologized and took down the tweet after it was condemned as racist, including by cabinet minister Michael Gove, a leading Brexiter. But the use of the word “Kraut” wasn’t the only problem with it; the invocation of the war victories was equally egregious.