My former life in WW2 Poland

[Whitey]

Hi

I have previously posted on the reincarnation questions section and here I will write everything I know about my life in Poland under WW2.


When I was a little boy, I experienced the same vision over and over.
I "saw" a darkened city and knew that many bomb planes were on their way.
I "heard" humming noises as many planes approached my darkened city.
The vision always ended when the first bombs began to fall.
I could walk down the street and get the same vision or sit in my elementary school and get it anyway.
Almost at the same time, I started to get scared of the places with a lot of people.
I had an irrational feeling that my life was in danger and that among those people there are those who want to harm me.
My abdominal muscles and my anus muscles were always tense, I was constantly under stress.
When I was a little older, about 16 years old, I started reading books about WW2.
But I was only interested in Nazi Germany, the Jews and Poland.
I was not interested in reading about wars between the United States and Japan, for example, or about Germany's wars against the Netherlands, France, England, the Balkan... but only about war against Poland.
I began to feel a strong sympathy for Jews but not all but only Polish Jews.
I live in Sweden now and I have read all sorts of books that tell about Jewish ghetto and nazi camps in Poland during WW2. I mean, at least hundreds books.
One day I went to Poland as a tourist. The feeling I got is indescribable. It felts like the air is thicker and colors stronger in Poland than in Sweden. I felt drunk.
I was close to fainting.
Eventually, I began to develop a very self-destructive game. I shouted sometimes to myself - SS is coming, they will take you and kill you.
My heart started pounding immediately, I started sweating and panicked.
Everything happened now and here in Sweden where I live a quiet life without big problems.
I met my ex fiancee in a one Southern European country.
Even though I saw her for the first time in my life, I got a strong feeling that I knew her from before and I had an indescribably bad conscience because I knew I had done something very bad to her.
I loved her a lot but we separated and now she lives in another city here in Sweden.
She lived in a rather poor family there in Southern Europe and here she has a better life, so I have a feeling that I have paid some of my carmic debts to her.

So in the beginning I was completely convinced that I was a Polish Jew in my previous life but then I had some lucid dreams where I saw myself as a German soldier who at first did horrible things to Jews and hates Nazi leaders who force him to do such disgusting things but then began to help the Jews and became himself in mortal danger.
So I do not know now if I was a Jew or a German soldier but this past life has a strong impact on my current life.
I wanted to explore more about this life with meditation but feel fear of what I will find there and several members advised me to be very careful with this because there is reason why we forget such extremely traumatic lives.

Sorry for my bad English.
Greetings to all.

 

[Whitey]

I forgot to say a few more things.
I like Poland but not so much the Poles, maybe because many Poles harassed and killed Polish Jews during WW2 or reported them to the Germans.
Or maybe because I was a German and an extremely large majority of Germans did not like the Poles during that time. Who knows.

When I watch a war movie with a German soldiers I interrupt it immediately if those soldiers in the movie speak English instead of German ( almost all of Hollywood WW2 movies). It feels completely wrong.
There is one more thing that raises the possibility that I was a German soldier. It's a bit embarrassing to say but I feel a pretty strong pull when I read about Germany 1933-39 or watch the movies on Youtube such as the color movie about Berlin 1936 during the Olympics. Something moves in my soul when I look at people on the streets, their clothes, the old cars ... We have one expression here in Sweden - to feeling the butterflies in the stomach, getting heated.

Whatever I will not explore this life more deeply because I feel that its can make my mental problems even worse.
Thank you for listening to me and giving me good advice.

 

[Ocean]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Thanks for sharing your story. This was very interesting and it sounds much to me like you were on the German side during that time. These were really complicated times no matter what side you were on, but you are certainly not alone with that.

I remember a past life during WW2 as well. I was also a German soldier and I was also in Poland during the war. I was not associated with Jews much, at least I don't remember, and I don't feel much a connection to this group of victims back then. But I was around other victims who were in concentration camps, like Poles, Russians and other Germans.

.
.. I saw myself as a German soldier who at first did horrible things to Jews and hates Nazi leaders who force him to do such disgusting things but then began to help the Jews and became himself in mortal danger.

I can relate much to that. I also had compassion with the victims and tried to help some, at least a bit there where I could, and I avoided committing crimes myself. I was also very cautious with this and afraid of being found out. I also have a strong disdain for some Nazis today, especially those leaders at the very top, who made all the decisions, but also for others like some of my superiors and fellow soldiers. And I'm sure I had this disdain already in my past life to some degree. So it seems like we made some similar experiences here.

My past life was also traumatic at some points and remembering parts of it was difficult and depressing for me at the beginning. Many conflicting, complicated and also painful emotions and thoughts came with it. It was not easy to go about everyday life for a while. But it got much better with time and it is fine now. Remembering past lives is often a year-long process for many people, where they find out tiny bits and pieces over time. And today after several years I still don't know everything. A lot of patience is needed.

I understand very well you are curious about your past life. And I wouldn't say don't explore it at all. But you should also be careful what you wish for, especially when you say you already have mental problems. Probably it will never be easy with lives from that time and it might be a long and also painful journey. That was my experience. So my advice is to take it slow and easy. Be open and let it come to you, but don’t push for it. I think when you are really ready for it and when it is important for your present life to know about your past life, the memories will come to you anyway one day.

Another issue is that there are still so many triggers and reminders of WW2 today, be it movies, documentaries or public discussion or maybe our own family history. It's always hitting a nerve when you are aware of your past life like this. This could be sort of disturbing and even depressing in the past to me, although today I can deal better with it and I don't care too much anymore. But this also took some time to be more easy-going on this.

 

[Ocean]

I like Poland but not so much the Poles, maybe because many Poles harassed and killed Polish Jews during WW2 or reported them to the Germans.
Or maybe because I was a German and an extremely large majority of Germans did not like the Poles during that time. Who knows.

Likes and dislikes like this are a good indicator for past lives. Many Germans didn't like the Poles, that's true. This might well be the reason why you still don't like them today. Things like that can carry over to current life. I also have some likes and dislikes for certain things, groups of people or individuals from those times. This seems to be totally baseless and irrational from current life perspective, but it makes much sense because of circumstances and experiences in my past life. When it comes to Polish people, I saw many Poles suffer in camps and felt sorry for them, but I still have a dislike for Polish partisans...

When I watch a war movie with a German soldiers I interrupt it immediately if those soldiers in the movie speak English instead of German ( almost all of Hollywood WW2 movies). It feels completely wrong.

I'm much the same here. Not only when German soldiers don't speak German in WW2 movies, but also when it is a Hollywood movie with German dubbing. It's terrible to watch for me!

It's a bit embarrassing to say but I feel a pretty strong pull when I read about Germany 1933-39 or watch the movies on Youtube such as the color movie about Berlin 1936 during the Olympics. Something moves in my soul when I look at people on the streets, their clothes, the old cars ... We have one expression here in Sweden - to feeling the butterflies in the stomach, getting heated.

No need to feel embarrassed Many people with past lives in WW2 are intrigued with things and pictures from that time. This is completely normal and you are not alone with this, so don't worry. But I agree this looks odd for other people without past life experiences and talking about this with family and friends is awkward and difficult.

 

[Whitey]

Thanks a lot for your posts.
It was extremely interesting for me to read it.
I actually have several questions for you.
How did you manage to see details from your life during WW2?
Did you do that with the help of meditation?
Have you experienced any problems during that process?
How do you feel when you, for example, watch video clips on Youtube that show the German soldiers during WW2?
Or when you watch Hitler's video. Is it just hatred for him or is there something else as well?

 

[Ocean]

I got most of my memories in dreams and some in flashbacks. There was nothing specific I did for that, it always happened spontaneously, mostly out of the blue. Sometimes there were long breaks like several months in between when nothing new came up. Sometimes it happened more frequently. But in the recent years I didn't get many new memories anymore.

I tried meditation and self-regression with YT videos several times and regression with a therapist once. But I had almost no results. There were only very little memories I could retrieve this way, so I gave up on that long ago. Unfortunately, these methods don't work well for everybody. So I'm sorry, but I can't help you with this or give you any recommendations.

With my dreams and flashbacks it is never like I would remember details like dates, names or locations. It is like finding yourself in a random movie scene without knowing the context. Sometimes I didn't even know where a particular memory would fit in chronologically into my past life timeline. So I had to do a lot of research to figure out some locations and dates looking closely at what I saw and heard in my memories. I could find out the place where I was in Poland for example. Once I had a suspicion about it, I discovered over time that many little details I remembered matched with what was recorded about this place. So researching and putting the pieces together was the other important part. Some things only made sense years later after I got more memories or after I read something somewhere accidentally, and some things are still much a mystery.

As for problems during the process there wasn't much more than I already described above. When I got my first past live dream it was quite a shock at first. It could have been just a dream, but it was of a different quality than normal dreams. It was very emotional and as soon as I woke up I simply knew that it was a memory from a past life. I didn't have any memories as a child or any suspicion before that I might have lived during WW2. I felt much more connected to and interested in other periods of time, actually. So it was shocking to find out that I was a German soldier and what I was involved in. In the first days after that I became quite paranoid that people would find out who I was in my past life like they could read it in my face or something. I was scared of being met with hostility and judged by other people or even arrested and interrogated about my past life. It was pretty crazy! And as I said it was difficult to go about everyday life sometimes. Luckily these fears ceased after a while.

The next memories weren't shocking anymore, but could still be very emotional.

Then I had long phases when I thought a lot about history and everything that happened during WW2 and the Third Reich era. I visited historical sights and museums. I thought about my own role during these times and I pondered about questions of guilt among other things. I had to rethink my attitudes towards certain things and historical events. Of course, I also thought much about the experiences I remembered and private stuff that happened in my past life. Many emotions came up with all of this which were sad and painful and sometimes contradicting each other. So that wasn't an all too easy time. But I don't regret today I went through this.

Still today when I see or read things that remind me of my past life, this can cause strong emotions. But I can ignore it and brush it off when I'm not in the mood to go into it. So it is manageable. And I don't get as easily triggered now as I did when my memories had started.

But I've never had things like PTSD, panic attacks or phobias if you mean these kind of problems that might occur during the process.

Will answer your other questions later.

Best regards!

 

[Whitey]

Thank you for answering. It is very interesting to read your posts. When you said you found the place in Poland where you were stationed, was it a big city like Warsaw, Krakow or something else?

One more thing too, maybe you can help me. I can not find the answer on the internet and there is a small chance that you (or someone else reading this) can.
As I wroted earlier, as a young boy, I had my visions of a city in the dark, with extinguished lights, bombed by a lot of warplanes. But in my visions it was always about night bombings. I know that Nazi Germany was bombed many times during the nights but I could not find information if Poland in September 1939 was also bombed during the night or it was only during the day. Do you have any information about this?

Have you read the book Scroll of Agony? This is a diary of a Warsaw Jew Chaim A Kaplan? He was killed in Treblinka in early 1943.
A great book, I can recommend it to anyone. You can read more about it here.

https://www.amazon.com/Scroll-Agony-Warsaw-Diary-Kaplan/dp/0253212936

All the best

 

[Inhaltslos]

I agree with Ocean that you probably were on the German side...I’ve met quite a few ppl over the years who weren’t sure what side they were on at first.
I can probably help you with your bombing question regarding the Polish invasion. Let me check some stuff out and I’ll get back to you.

 

[Whitey]

Thanks in advance. However, I think that this particular information is very difficult to find.

 

[Ocean]

Warsaw was heavily bombed many times throughout the war. There are almost no old houses left anymore today.

As far as I know the German attacks in September 1939 took place during the day starting early in the morning. The worst air strike on 25th September 1939 has become known as "Black Monday" in Poland. The bombs dropped for 11 hours from 7 am to around 6 pm, so from sunrise to sunset approximately. A few days prior to that the Jewish districts of Warsaw were bombed during a Jewish holiday.

Then there was a series of Soviet air strikes from 1941 to 1944. The worst of those happened at night, in August and September 1942, and in May 1943. The targets of these air strikes were German military facilities and important infrastructure. But many bombs hit civilian districts and houses instead causing many deaths among the Polish civillians. A few bombs also hit the Jewish ghetto. The longest air strike was during the night of 12th to 13th May 1943.

I couldn't find any information on this in English so quickly, but there is a lot on that in Polish. Here's the link to the Polish Wikipedia. Maybe you can run it through Google translator, if you are interested:

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sowieckie_naloty_na_Warszawę_w_czasie_II_wojny_światowej


Then in 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising the city was bombed by the Germans again. I think that was also during daytime, but I'm not sure.

Krakow wasn't bombed that much compared to Warsaw, it has still a beautiful old-town. It was bombed somewhat on 1st September 1939 in the morning.

Another Polish town that was bombed on 1st September 1939 was Wielun, very early in the morning around 5am or 6am.

If you remember a city that was bombed repeatedly during nighttime that could have well been a city in Germany, of course. Or maybe it was Warsaw during the Soviet air strikes if it was in Poland. Do you remember any emotions connected to this memory of a bombed city? If the bombing was terrifying to you and you were a German soldier for example, then it would make sense if this was an air strike against the Germans. If you were a Jew living in Poland, then the German air strikes against Polish cities would be most scary to you, but also the bombing of Warsaw by the Soviets would be a possibility when you were in the ghetto for example.

I hope this helps a bit and gives you ideas for further research.

 

[Whitey]

Thank you so much for your help. I read a lot about Poland during WW2 but missed the information that the Soviets bombed Poland too, this is really a whole new thing for me.
When I had my visions it was a mixture of different emotions. There was fear naturally but there was also a feeling of stillness and a sad beauty. You know, a whole city that is almost completely in the dark, it looked like a medieval city. And then came a lot of bombers ...
This can not lead me to any conclusions because it could be both bombing of Poland and Germany. On the other hand
there is a greater chance that it was Nazi Germany because there were hundreds if not thousands of night bombings by the English RAF.
I have read that some German cities during night bombings were so dark that some of the people who went out were seriously injured when they fell or hit the wall.

Is there another place in this forum where you wrote details about your past life as a German soldier in Poland during WW2?
I would love to read it.

 

[Ocean]

Hi!

I'm happy I could help

No, there is no place on this forum about my past life. I don't like to share too much about it in public. But I'll try to send you a PM soon with some more details, if that's okay.

Have you read the book Scroll of Agony? This is a diary of a Warsaw Jew Chaim A Kaplan? He was killed in Treblinka in early 1943.
A great book, I can recommend it to anyone. You can read more about it here.

Thanks for the book recommendation. I didn't know it yet. Treblinka was a terrible place to die for sure. In fact I haven't read much about the fates of Jewish individuals (except for Anne Frank maybe), because I mostly focus on other prisoners of concentration camps. Some accounts are hard to swallow, however, and I have a few books I've started to read but couldn't finish... Was this one easy to read or was it difficult for you? And how was the tone of the book? I’ve come to realise that the tone can be very different in witness accounts.

When you said you found the place in Poland where you were stationed, was it a big city like Warsaw, Krakow or something else?

No, I wasn't in one of the major Polish cities. There was a big city nearby, but I would only be there in my rare leisure time maybe.

How do you feel when you, for example, watch video clips on Youtube that show the German soldiers during WW2?
Or when you watch Hitler's video. Is it just hatred for him or is there something else as well?

There is certainly nothing positive I feel when watching a Hitler speech. I know it is said by historians that he was a very good orator who could inspire a crowd. And I've heard from other people who had past lives during that time that they can still feel the enthusiasm when they watch him speak. Well, I can't relate to that at all. But as I don't remember watching him in my past life, I'm probably speaking from current life perspective. To me he looks rather ridiculous and it's unpleasant to listen to him because of his intonation and hard pronunciation. I'm always wondering how so many people could fall for him. But it was probably something completely different to stand in those crowds back then than to watch and listen to him now. I'd actually like to know what I thought of him in my past life, but I don't remember at all.
I wouldn't say I feel hatred towards him, either. I view him more as a madman and it would be a waste of time to hate him for being mad. I blame rather those around him who let him into this position of power and who followed him blindly into destruction without seeing him for what he was. Yet, there were some decisions he made at the end of the war which caused so much unnecessary death and suffering during the final days, additionally to everything bad that happened before, that it is hard for me to forget and forgive.

As for the soldiers this is a different thing. There is much more positive emotional connection for sure.
More in PM, if you are interested.

 

[Whitey]

Its ok with PM, thanks.

To me, the book was exceptional but I'm still not sure you will love it. I'm copying a review from Amazon.

-This is the 4th Warsaw ghetto diary I've read and the 3rd I've reviewed. If I had to do it over again, I'd pick this one first. The author was a teacher and more than just a recorder of events. He was a gifted writer and master storyteller who was never deluded for a moment about what was going to happen and who never lost sight of the universal perspective. He writes in a wry, almost sarcastic style that makes his point effectively as he blasts the Nazis, Polish and Jewish collaborators, corruption in the ghetto, etc. He had me asking myself deep questions as I was reading ...

About Hitler.
Those video clips with Hitler that are on Youtube do not show the real orator Hitler was. They are incorrect for two reasons.

1. They almost always just show the end of his speech when he starts screaming.

2. His speeches before he took power was very different.

Before 1933, he began his speeches almost whispering. He waited for the reaction from the audience and when it came he started talking normally. When he saw that the audience is excited then he started to excite himself and started raising and raising his voice. It was as he made love with his audience, he reacted to every change of atmosphere in the hall.
Ernst Hanfstaengl who lived part of his life in the United States and listened to many American politicians and orators listened to Hitler in 1922 too and was knocked out immediately. He wroted that Hitler was an incredible orator, several levels above all Americans.

When A. H spoked normally, he had an actually pleasant voice. There is only one of his private recording.

My feelings about him.

A big part of me, let's say 90%, hate him and I really hope that there is hell and that he is there now.

He wanted to break the Treaty of Versailles, fine, I can accept that.
He wanted to crush the German Communists,fine, I can accept that.
He wanted to reduce Jewish influence in Germany, fine, I can accept that.
He wanted to break Anglo-Saxon hegemony, fine I can accept that.

But no normal human can accept Zyklon B, Auschwitz, Treblinka, murdering of babies, small children, racial laws, etc., etc. He had a lot of competition but he still committed the biggest crime in human history. Disgusting. I really hope I was not his soldier in my past life.

 

[Bellona324]

I know the feeling. I was a German and partly involved in the Holocaust which I’m not proud of. I was forced into participating in massacres such as the Babi Yar. There’s a reason why I wanted to escape and focus on just espionage. I didn’t want to kill innocent people. Communists, fine, but not random civilians for being a certain religion. I didn’t like how my own people treated Slavs considering that I was partly raised in Ukraine and I loved the people there. I only participated so that my family wouldn’t be killed. I wish I wasn’t involved.

I ended up defecting in the end because I couldn’t take Hitler anymore. He wasn’t listening to his own generals and decided to send kids and the elderly to the battlefield which was total bs for me. I pointed the middle finger and said ‘bye’, going to the UK. Thank goodness I was partly British too so it wasn’t hard for the Brits to accept me since some of my cousins were actually British soldiers.

If you happen to have been his soldier, I’m telling you that I would be relating to the guilt of being brainwashed by him to begin with. Really a dark part of history.

 

[Whitey]

Without the Holocaust, he would become just an ordinary dictator, conqueror, something like Napoleon but instead he became the worst mass murderer in history.
I read that Goring in Nurnberg's prison said the following to other Nazis - because of his madness against the Jews we will get rid of our heads and Germany's reputation will be tarnished forever.

 

[Stewardess Ester Ősz]

Ah, Hitler this badass, Hitler that badass... Yes, he was mad, in the sence of being angry. But, no he didnt invent zyclon B and concentration camps. Those were already invented before his time. And he didnt invent human suffering and death either. No, no. Those are much older inventions.

And Hitler was really a peanut of an evil-doer, compared to f. ex the boshevicks, Stalin, the belgian colonialists in Congo, french colonialsts in Africa, brit slave traders between Africa and the new world in the 18th and 19th centuries, Mao, Pol Pot, the human trafficers and pedophile chartells of contemporary global scene. Compared only to this evil I mention here, Hitler was only a small peanut. As a real German in my previous life, and as part Polish in my current life, I dont think there is any reason to paint his actions any further out. Not at all. The polish people know everything of this. Yes, Germany fell over Poland in 1939. And that just could not have been different. That was written in the stars, one could almost say. Destiny, could be hard. We all got to live with it, and its consequences. (Thats how diamonds are born, after an ethernity of heavy preassure.)

I honestly say, those who think Hitler was one of the big evils in this world, have really not concidered the depts of hell on this planet. Pointing to Hitler and calling it things like "the evil beyond all evils", is to be deceiving oneself. That is blindness to the real evil going on. That is like not seeing the woods, because one have a timber in the eye.

And this is all part of the waking up from the spiritual desillusions we live under now. We all need to wake up. Look at the world we live in.

 

[Whitey]

I have seen such arguments several times before. They are fake of course.
Hitler did not discover Ziklone B but he was the first to use it on human beings. Do you know how many children were gassed to death in Auschwitz alone? If you do not know, read this. Her name is Janina Kosciuszkowa, she was a prisoner and doctor in Auschwitz and a witness in the Auschwitz trial.

https://www.mp.pl/auschwitz/journal/english/205964,the-fate-of-children-in-auschwitz

Stalin was also a mass murderer, but he did not use toxic gas to kill babies and young children.
His gulags were not extermination camps.
Millions of people did survive the Gulags and among the 20–40 percent of the camp population released on a yearly basis. As many as 16 million who entered the Gulag came out alive.
I can in a way understand that you want to defend A. H. if you were a Nazi in your past life but this is a very bad defense.

 

[Stewardess Ester Ősz]

I have seen such arguments several times before. They are fake of course.
Hitler did not discover Ziklone B but he was the first to use it on human beings. Do you know how many children were gassed to death in Auschwitz alone? If you do not know, read this. Her name is Janina Kosciuszkowa, she was a prisoner and doctor in Auschwitz and a witness in the Auschwitz trial.

https://www.mp.pl/auschwitz/journal/english/205964,the-fate-of-children-in-auschwitz

Stalin was also a mass murderer, but he did not use toxic gas to kill babies and young children.
His gulags were not extermination camps.
Millions of people did survive the Gulags and among the 20–40 percent of the camp population released on a yearly basis. As many as 16 million who entered the Gulag came out alive.
I can in a way understand that you want to defend A. H. if you were a Nazi in your past life but this is a very bad defense.

No, my comment is not fake. And the one trying to defend something here is obviously you yourself.

You see, this womiting over and over again of Stalin and what evils he did not do... He did not cause the suffering and deaths of at least 50 mill inmates in Gulags? Yes, of course he did. And so much more. He even sent a murderer after his own daughter. He brainwashed everybody around himself. He ruined their lifes. Does it change anything, sitting over 80 years later over a computer on internet denying the fact of it. No, it doesent.

All those leaders i mentioned, including Stalin, are evil sadists, far worse than you have ever met or lived through the actions of.

 

[Whitey]

No, my comment is not fake. And the one trying to defend something here is obviously you yourself.

You see, this womiting over and over again of Stalin and what evils he did not do... He did not cause the suffering and deaths of at least 50 mill inmates in Gulags? Yes, of course he did. And so much more. He even sent a murderer after his own daughter. He brainwashed everybody around himself. He ruined their lifes. Does it change anything, sitting over 80 years later over a computer on internet denying the fact of it. No, it doesent.

All those leaders i mentioned, including Stalin, are evil sadists, far worse than you have ever met or lived through the actions of. Grow up.

1.
I have already written that Stalin was a mass murderer as well.

2.
No, he did not kill 50 million in the Gulags. I'll quote Britannica now.

- It is estimated that the combination of very long working hours, harsh climatic and other working conditions, inadequate food, and summary executions killed tens of thousands of prisoners each year. Western scholarly estimates of the total number of deaths in the Gulag in the period from 1918 to 1956 ranged from 1.2 to 1.7 million.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Gulag

 

[Stewardess Ester Ősz]

Fortunately, it's not you who decides if I'm ready or not ready to explore my WW2 past life. I have already told you that I do not accept self-appointed spiritual experts.



1.
I have already written that Stalin was a mass murderer as well.

2.
No, he did not kill 50 million in the Gulags. I'll quote Britannica now.

- It is estimated that the combination of very long working hours, harsh climatic and other working conditions, inadequate food, and summary executions killed tens of thousands of prisoners each year. Western scholarly estimates of the total number of deaths in the Gulag in the period from 1918 to 1956 ranged from 1.2 to 1.7 million.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Gulag

Britannica is biased, as the Brits have had their own agenda in the war and were allies of Stalin. Im not intersted in the british version of the history of Gulags and communism. I am not going to read it. I have lisened to expert historians on the subject, so I know better than britannica.

 

[Ocean]

I agree with you 100%. Stalin's deeds have been whitewashed by history. While Hitler's deeds were horrific, they pale in comparison to what Stalin subjected his own people to and those people whose lands he occupied.

Can you imagine being put in a position where when the Nazi army invaded, you cheered because they liberated you from the Communists?

Both Nazism and Stalinism were totalitarian regimes that caused deaths and tremendous suffering. This is beyond question, and I think it is no use to compare which one of them was worse. They were both bad enough. If one caused a lower number of deaths than the other, it doesn't make this one less evil. Nor is it an excuse to shrug off the misdeeds of any regime or any person because there were others around in the present or past who did similar things.

Although I agree that history is always written by the victors and some historical sources may be biased, I don't think that the deeds of Stalin and the Soviets were whitewashed. In some countries today there is maybe less common knowledge about it than there is common knowledge about Nazi crimes. This is probably true as Nazi crimes were better recorded and made public very much by the victorious powers. In Poland, however, events like the Katyn massacre are very strongly remembered today, just like Nazi crimes. Soon after they were "liberated" by the Soviets the Poles realized that it was just one evil replacing another evil. And today there is as much resentment and grudge against the Germans as there is against the Russians among the Polish people (the Polish Jews excluded). Soviet crimes being officially swept under the rug during Communist times in the Eastern Bloc is another story, of course.

When talking about past lives I think it is understandable that some people feel a stronger aversion against the one or the other, depending on their past life experiences. There is no right and wrong in this and I think we shouldn't judge or lecture others about what the right attitude is, but respect and accept each others feelings and also try to understand where others are coming from.

Current life experiences, like family history, upbringing and school education, or political attitude may also be a reason why people are more aware and more upset about one thing, but tend to be more forgiving or ignorant towards another. I think nobody of us is completely free from that and we are all a bit biased one way or the other about all historical and also about current events.