Russia's Foreign Ministry tweets a picture showing the difference between Nazis and Communists, but it made a big mistake

On August 23, Europe commemorates the victims of Stalinism and Nazism. The memorial day coincides with the signing of the 1939 German–Soviet Non-aggression Pact (the “Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact”). This August 23, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official Twitter account decided to demonstrate the error of comparing Nazi Germany and the USSR, pointing out that Nazis “started the Holocaust” and Communists “ended the Holocaust.”

“The USSR ended World War II and saved the world from the Brown Plague,” Moscow tweeted, referring to the Nazi “Brownshirts.”

The message included two photos: a man apparently dressed in a Nazi uniform and a woman in a Soviet uniform. In the tweet, Russia’s Foreign Ministry tagged the European Commission, the Polish Parliament, Poland’s official tourism account, the Foreign Affairs ministries of Lithuania, Poland, and Latvia.

There’s just one problem with the photo: the man on the left, Werner Goldberg, wasn’t a member of the Nazi party. Goldberg served briefly as a soldier in World War II, when his image was propagated as “The Ideal German Soldier” and used in recruitment posters for the Wehrmacht. During the war, Goldberg rescued his Jewish father from being sent to Auschwitz.

This isn’t the first time Russians have confused Goldberg’s image. In 2015, a community group in Tobolsk unveiled a monument to “the defenders of the fatherland for all time,” etching Goldberg’s iconic portrait onto a plaque. The monument was later revised to show another soldier’s face.

At the time of this writing, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has not deleted its August 23 tweet.