Margot Wallstrom, a Swede and the commissioner who must sell the draft constitution to voters, argued that politicians who resisted pooling national sovereignty risked a return to Nazi horrors of the 1930s and 1940s. [...] She blamed the Second World War on "nationalistic pride and greed, and … international rivalry for wealth and power". The EU had replaced such rivalry with an historic agreement to share national sovereignty.
Her fellow commissioners also issued a joint declaration, stating that EU citizens should pay tribute to the dead of the Second World War by voting Yes to the draft constitution for Europe.
The EU executive apparently lives in a parellel universe, as Tim points out:
"Sweden was Nazi Germany's largest trading partner during the war and almost the sole source of high-grade iron ore and precision ball bearings for the German war machine. Imports of the latter from Sweden were especially important following the destruction of the VKF ball bearing plant (itself Swedish-owned) at Schweinfurt by the US Eighth Air Force in August and October 1943..."
So we have a woman from a country that was "neutral" in World War 2 effectively putting the blame for the holocaust etc. on nationalistic pride and greed and international rivalry. Now if she had made this point about WW1 or about the Asian part of WW2 I think this would be a fair point since WW1 was indeed a story about nationalistic pride and the clash of empires and Japan was still in the same nationalistic mode in the 1940s. WW2 in Europe was not about international rivalry though it was about ideology.
Mind you she is not alone in attempting to hijack WW2 and its aftermath to the cause of the EU constitution, the Dutch PM did the same thing. But it is noteworthy that l'Escroc did not do this, possibly because the French "Oui" claims the the EU is just a bit of greater France these days and anyway French nationalism is not dead yet, despite the French having lost every war they fought on their own for the last 200 years (this is not to denigrate the contributions the French made to WW1 and WW2 - in both cases the French population gave a great deal despite their leaders).
On the other hand Tim and the Torygraph's Booker column both note that the EU has managed to shaft one of the ways that we can recall WW2 by classing the last airworthy B17 as Boeing 727 for insurance purposes. As a result the insurance premium that must be paid to let the plane fly has increased to £1000 per hour of flying time.
The message to take home from this is that the EU would rather we lived its universe where Nazi Germany was defeated by the united efforts of Europeans (including some "good" Germans), rather than in our universe where it was defeated mainly by the British in alliance with the USA and the USSR. And the EU will do everything in its power to make sure that there are no inconvenient reminders of the alternative view of history. No wonder I say "Ceterum Censeo Unionem Europeaem Esse Delenda"