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Design Fail: Soviet War Veteran Calendar Uses Photos Of Nazi Troops


Veterans in the Russian city of Perm are unlikely to forget this year's 65th anniversary of the World War II defeat of Nazi Germany.

A wall calendar meant to honor Soviet war veterans ahead of the May 9 festivities has sparked outrage after it was found to feature Nazi soldiers instead of Red Army troops.

The central picture on the poster, which has already been hung up in schools and government buildings across the city, shows a close-up of a soldier wearing the Wehrmacht's trademark helmet.

Another photo features Nazi troops surrounding a captured Soviet tank.

A designer for the publishing house that issued the calendars, it turns out, was unable to tell Nazi and Soviet soldiers apart and mistakenly downloaded Nazi propaganda pictures from the Internet.

The designer, interviewed by Russian television, protested that "we are young and didn't see the war." (Watch the TV report: In Russian.)

Interestingly, a group of schoolchildren quizzed in the report immediately managed to identify the Nazi soldiers in the calendars.

Definitely a collector's item.

-- Claire Bigg

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