Governor Mario Cuomo yesterday criticized President Reagan for his statement to reporters last week explaining why he would not visit Dachau, the site of the Nazi concentration camp, when he goes to West Germany in May to observe the 40th anniversary of the Allied victory in World War II.
In a strongly worded letter to the President, Cuomo wrote that Reagan’s remarks “may suggest an insensitivity that is not appropriate to your high office. Your remarks can be seen as an affront to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and an insult to the survivors. One would hope that your remarks were inadvertent and that you will correct them.”
A statement issued by the White House last night said: “The President is very sensitive to the colossal tragedy of the Jewish population during World War II. He has often said the Holocaust should never be forgotten. But we also have to look for the future of peace and sharing with the German people.”
At a nationally televised news conference last Thursday, Reagan said he wanted to emphasize relations that have developed between United States and West Germany. The German people, Reagan continued, have had a “guilt feeling that’s been imposed upon them. And I just think that’s unnecessary.”
Cuomo, in his letter, said “Your comments … only serve to aid the cause of those who have spent the years since 1945 attempting to expunge the memory of the Holocaust and to deny its reality.” He added, “Your comments, I’m afraid, have made it more difficult to explain to young people the necessity of remembering the events and meaning of the Holocaust. Those who counsel to forgetting the Holocaust and its lessons expose humanity to a very serious danger.” Cuomo is a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
