3
3 . RAF Bomber Command Memorial , Green Park , London ( interior ). Beata May ( Wikimedia Commons )
the current conflict . Everyone claims victimhood status for themselves . Meanwhile , the German press universally lamented the vandalism of Treptower Park : a memorial site once dedicated to the heroes of the war had itself become a victim .
The death of the hero
In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War , the cult of the hero and the cult of the martyr were two strands of memorialisation that grew up together . In the celebratory atmosphere of VE Day in May 1945 , everyone wanted to be a hero . Allied soldiers found themselves being bought drinks and kissed by girls everywhere they went : the Dutch historian Ian Buruma has described it as a kind of “ Beatlemania ”. Military parades in London , Paris and Moscow were cheered by vast crowds . This was also the era when the myth of the Resistance was born in France , Italy and the Netherlands . One of the first monuments to the Holocaust after the war was the 1948 Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw : Jews , like everyone else , did not want to view themselves as victims but as heroic resisters .
The Soviets , especially , liked to commemorate their heroism in bronze and stone . They built monuments to their soldiers all over eastern and central Europe , proclaiming themselves the liberators who saved humanity from Nazi tyranny . The main monument at Treptower Park is a perfect example : it features a 12-metre tall bronze statue on overview
59