Bitburg ceremony sparks mixed reactions
Protests, cheers greet Reagan’s group
BITBURG, West Germany
(AP) — President Ronald
Reagan’s visit to the military
cemetery inspired jeers, chants
and whistles of opposition here
and around the world Sunday.
But cheers were heard too, as
many Germans thanked Reagan
for defying a storm of criticism
to honpr their war dead.
A handful of protesters
shouted “Please don’t go” as
Reagan’s motorcade carried him
through the narrow streets of
this small farming community
to the graveyard in the nearby
hills.. - . •••.•>.
A grim-faced Reagan and
West. German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl laid wreaths at
Kolmeshohe. Cemetery,' where
49 Nazi SoS troopers are buried
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among some 2,000 war dead.
Several thousand people lin
ed the streets to see the presi
dent’s limousine motorcade
speed by. Protesters' chants
were matched at times by cheers
from supporters. Posters and
banners were held aloft amid
the throngs.’ •
About 20 minutes before
Reagan passed thrbugh the
center of Bitburg, riot gear
equipped German police scuffl
ed briefly with about 200 Jewish
students and their supporters.
No arrests were reported.
Demonstrators also greeted
Reagan and Kohl at the Bergen
Belsen concentration camp
about 220 miles to the north.
After the two leaders left the
death camp, about 50 people,
most of them American Jews
who are the children of
Holocaust survivors, were
allowed onto the grounds to
conduct their own memorial
service.
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Wiesel, Wiesenthal give
Reagan trip perspective
(AP) — Jewish leaders dismissed President Ronald
Reagan’s visit to Bitburg cemetery as a misguided “political
gesture” Sunday, but Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said the
trip might prove beneficial if it brings alive the lessons of
Nazi persecution for a generation too young to remember.
Wiesel, chairman of the.U.S. Holocaust Memorial Coun
cil, said the world's awareness of Nazi crimes against
millions of Jews and .other people was heightened by
Reagan’s much-criticized decisioh to lay a wreath with
Chancellor Helmut . Kohl at the German military cemetery
where 49 Nazi SS troopers are buriejd.
Interviewed by NBC-TV, Wiesel said the public,, the
news media and Congress "all found that an injustice had
been committed and they, worked hard to correct it.’-' •
Simon Wiesenthal. another Holocaust survivor and fam
ed Nazi hunter, said Reagan’s late addition of a visit, to the
site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp did "absolutely
not” offset his appearance at Bitburg. „ ■ .
As for the two leaders’ goal of dramatizing U.S.-West
German reconciliation. Wiesenthal said: "They absolutely
don’t need it.... Sixty percent of the German population was
born after the war.
“Ninety percent of the young Germans are pro
American. They knew their fathers and grandfathers are guil
ty. They are ashamed for, this.” \ ° ,
Wiesenthal, interviewed on CBS-TV’s “Face the Na
tion.” said his work of tracking down Nazi fugitives is “a
warning for the murderers of tomorrow. It can happenagain.
even after this Holocaust.”
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