Earlier this month, we told you about the decision to place a bust of the brutal dictator Joseph Stalin in an installation commemorating D-Day. Despite the controversy that this decision has caused, the National D-Day Memorial Foundation—the organization responsible the memorial—has steadfastly refused to remove the offending sculpture.
A new website, StalinStatue.com, has been launched in an effort to force the removal of the statue from the memorial. Visitors can visit the site and sign a petition which reads:
I, the undersigned, STAND for the memory of all the Allied troops of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Poland, Australia, and Norway who gave their lives on D-Day or in the ensuing combat on the Western Front.
I STAND for the American veterans currently living in the State of Virginia, and in all other States, who survived D-Day, risking their lives to liberate Western Europe from tyranny.
I AFFIRM that the true history of World War II must be protected from distortion and misinformation which threaten to erase or alter well-established and documented facts.
I RECOGNIZE, on the basis of overwhelming historical evidence, that neither Joseph Stalin nor Soviet forces played any part in the D-Day landings at Normandy.
I AFFIRM that a bust of Joseph Stalin has no place at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, whose stated purpose is to “honor the valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of Allied forces on D-Day,” June 6, 1944, and that a Stalin statue should not be displayed with statues of the leaders of the Western Allies responsible for the triumph of D-Day.
I therefore PETITION the Officers and Board of Directors of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation to remove the bust of Stalin from the grounds of the Memorial immediately; I further PETITION Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar to ensure that if the National D-Day Memorial should come under the National Park Service, no bust or statue of Stalin will be included or allowed; in so acting, the National D-Day Memorial Foundation and Interior Secretary Salazar will safeguard the sacred memory of D-Day for ourselves, our veterans, and future generations.