German police announced yesterday that, from 6:00 a.m. on May 8 to 10:00 p.m. on May 9, those attending any of the three Soviet war memorials in the Berlin area may not wear military uniforms and insignia and may not exhibit any of the following: St. George’s ribbons, flags and objects with Russian symbols, flags of the USSR, Belarus, the Chechen Republic and/or portraits of their leaders, and the letters ‘Z’ or ‘V.’ Further, any images of Ukraine must include the pre-2014 territories. All Russian military and marching songs, in particular, all variants of “The Sacred War,” are banned.
“The Sacred War,” a WWII rallying cry against the “rotten fascist filth... the scum of humanity,” was composed, practically overnight, in the first days of 1941 Nazi invasion of Russia. The composer, Alexander Alexandrov, was the founder of the legendary Alexandrov Ensemble.
