French veteran groups reacted with outrage last week after former German SS soldiers laid wreaths at two cemeteries on the Normandy coast where their fallen comrades are buried.
In a ceremony last week, some 15 members of two SS Panzer divisions left wreaths at the cemeteries as the mayors of the nearby villages looked on.
The group of former SS soldiers even signed the official visitors’ book at one of the nearby villages.
One of the mayors explained that he did not know who the soldiers were, saying, “It is not written on their foreheads that they are former SS soldiers.”
He stated that he only realized who the soldiers were after reading the inscription on one of the wreaths: “From veterans of the Waffen SS in memory of the dead 1944.”
The mayor, Roger Boulais, who was from the western French town of Maizet, told French radio that he “took everything away as soon as (the Germans) had left.”
A group of French war veterans termed the incident “a catastrophe.
“If they (the SS soldiers) led the mayors on, then they were acting as they did in the old days. Otherwise, the mayors should resign since they should have canceled the ceremonies,” the group said.
This was the latest embarrassing incident surrounding the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the Allied forces’ D-Day landing on the Normandy coast on June 6, 1944.
A controversy erupted recently between France and Germany when it became clear that the Germans would not be represented at the landing beaches on June 6.
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was said to be eager to attend, but veterans groups representing former Allied soldiers strongly opposed this.
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.
