Heart of Stone

A memorial statue for World War II “comfort women” who were made sex slaves for Japanese troops during the conflict, stands in Manila, Philippines. Photo: AFP/Noel Celis.

Forget-them-not

Buchenwald, Germany: Nazi concentration camp survivor Alexander Bytschok of Kiev, Ukraine, mourns during the commemoration ceremonies for the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar. Photo: Jens Meyer/AP.

Leningrad Blockade

Saint Petersburg, Russia: Tanks from the World War II are displayed in Dvortsovaya Square (Дворцо́вая пло́щадь). Photo: Dmitri Lovetsky/AP.

On the same day (June 22, 2016), in the same city, FIDE President Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov’s daughter, Alina Kirsanovna Ilyumzhinova (centre), was celebrating her 18th birthday with her father at a sumptuous party in the Olympia Palace. Photo: ecogazeta.ru.

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

President lays flowers at memorial in Japanese city where U.S. killed 140,000 people in world’s first atomic bombing Barack Obama has become the first sitting U.S. President to visit Hiroshima, 71 years after the Japanese city became the target of the world’s first atomic bombing and ushered in a nuclear age he has vowed to bring to an end. In a scene many survivors of the U.S. bombing believed they would never live to see, Obama laid flowers at a memorial to the dead before paying tribute to the people of Hiroshima and calling on humanity to learn the lessons of the past to make war less likely. [Read more].

• Justin McCurry, Barack Obama says memory of Hiroshima “must never fade”, The Guardian, May 27, 2016

Barack Obama lays a wreath in Hiroshima
Photo: Shuji Kajiyama/AP

Night and Day

Saint Petersburg, Russia, May 9 2016. Fireworks explode over the Neva river to mark the 71st anniversary of Soviet victory over nazi-fascism in the WWII. Photo: Ruslan Shamukov/TASS.

День Победы (Victory Day)

Service personnel march in Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, on May 9, 2016. Photo: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images.

Members of a military band take a selfie at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Tbilisi, Georgia. Photo: Vano Shlamov/AFP/Getty Images.

A military band playing during the Immortal Regiment march in Vladivostok, Russia. Photo: Yuri Smityuk/TASS/Getty.

May 9

Moscow, Russia: Military helicopters fly over the Ivan the Great Bell Tower and Moscow’s Kremlin during a rehearsal for the Victory Day parade. It is worth remembering that today, May 9, is the day that Russia commemorates the enormous sacrifice paid by the people of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War against nazi-fascism, which costed the lives of about 27 million Soviet citizens. Photo: Ivan Sekretarev/AP.

73rd Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Warsaw, Poland: People lay daffodils at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes during the official ceremony marking the 73rd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Photo: Tomasz Gzell/EPA.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Moscow, Russia: A Russian Presidential Regiment soldier guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Photo: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images.