MOSCOW, May 6 (RIA Novosti) - Vladimir Putin believes that all those who fought against the Nazis are heroes, whereas Gerhard Schroeder thinks that heroes are those who remained human during the dictatorship.

“For me all those who fought against the Nazi regime are the real heroes of World War II,” said President of Russia in an interview that he gave to the Bild newspaper together with German Chancellor Schroeder.

“These are soldiers of the Red Army, and troops of the anti-Hitler coalition. These are prisoners of war and concentration camps. These are people who worked without respite at the home front. And, the last but not the least, these are anti-Nazis, Germans of different political convictions who fought against Hitler’s tyranny. These patriots of Germany were struggling against the Hitler’s regime, for the honor of the German people,” Putin pointed out.

Chancellor Schroeder admitted that he finds it hard to talk about war heroes when it comes to millions of dead, destruction, poverty and human suffering. 

“It goes without saying that there were many dare-devils among soldiers and that quite a few officers and commanders were brilliant strategists. But a definite conduct based on definite views is decisive for my interpretation of heroism,” the Chancellor noted.

“Those who remained human despite the war and nationalist-socialist terror were the heroes. I mean those who gave shelter to Jews, saved the lives of other people, all those who displayed civil courage under the inhuman system, and who showed respect for the human dignity of others,” Schroeder said.

He specified that he meant people like Berlin Regional Senior Krutzfeld or Pastor Poelhau. “One of them made a very liberal interpretation of the SS orders and virtually opposed the Nazis during the pogroms night in 1938. Later on, they tried to bring him to book but yet nothing happened to him. Using different tricks, the other man managed to save many people from SS harassment,” Gerhard Schroeder said.

“People like those two may not have made a great exploit but they have shown to all of us that it is possible to remain human even under a dictatorship. I admire these ‘heroes of everyday life,’” the Chancellor said.