Home towns struggle with legacy of Stalin and Hitler

[Jazzy]

The birth towns of Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler are divided on the issue of how to deal with the legacy of the dictators who slaughtered millions.



In some ways it would be hard to imagine two more different places than Gori in Georgia and Braunau am Inn in Austria.



Gori, with its crumbling Soviet-era apartment blocks, is set in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains.



You can still see scars from the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia, when Russian troops entered the town.



It is poor. Even in winter, pensioners try to earn a few pennies, helping cars to park.



Braunau, by contrast, is a comfortable little Austrian town, with a beautifully preserved medieval centre.



Cross the bridge over the Inn river, close to the main square, and you find yourself in Germany, in Bavaria - one of the wealthiest parts of Europe.



But the towns have one thing in common - they have become known for their most notorious sons.



Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau in 1889. Joseph Stalin was born in Gori a decade earlier.

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Interesting article. Well, at least I think it is!

 

[Evil Eye]

Hmm, I thought it was a bit short.