Image from 'Anonyma: Eine Frau in Berlin
 
 
 
The new film Anonyma: Eine Frau in Berlin depicts outrages by the Soviet military in Germany after World War II. It’s another sign that mainstream media in the West are finally beginning to criticize communism—now that its partisans have far fewer threats and rewards to offer after the downfall of their imperial patron, the Soviet Union.
 

Here it is a mere fifteen years after the fall of communism, and Europeans are already beginning to criticize the manifestations of their former ideal. That was fast!

This week the film Anonyma: Eine Frau in Berlin opened in German theaters. It tells the story of German women raped by Soviet military personnel after World War II, an all-too-common occurrence which Germany and the rest of the West refused to acknowledge, lest the Kremlin and its lackeys strategically placed throughout the Western nations take offense.

The film is based on a book published in 1950 but "shunned" by the Germans upon its release, according to Reuters. The book was republished five decades later, however, well after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and became a bestseller.

The Reuters story reports that the film is receiving mixed reviews, and without seeing the picture it’s difficult to know whether the differences are motivated by politics—those who are now willing to see communists criticized, and those who still refuse to admit that their god failed—or by honest disagreements over the film’s aesthetics. Most likely the latter just happen to coincide with the former.

In any case, it’s heartening to see a little honesty slowly creeping into the West’s view of communism. It’s long overdue.