Powerlessness and helplessness were the prevailing mood in West Germany’s Jewish community today in the aftermath of President Reagan’s visit to the military cemetery at Bitburg Sunday, which was preceded by a visit to the concentration camp site at Bergen-Belsen.
Many Jews noted disconsolately that the Jewish boycott of the ceremonies at Bergen-Belsen did not affect the plans of Reagan and Kohl to go to Bitburg the same day to place a wreath at the cemetery where members of the notorious Waffen SS are buried along with other German war dead.
German Jews also expressed disappointment at Israel’s failure to join the boycott which, they say, largely reduced its impact on the government and the public. Israel’s Ambassador to Bonn, Yitzhak Ben Ari, attended the ceremony at Bergen-Belsen with Reagan and Kohl.
One German Jew, identified only as Maria D., told reporters today that the Bergen-Belsen visit was much worse than Bitburg because it was “nothing but tactics.” She observed, “They came to Bergen-Belsen only to appease critics … it was a degredation of the victims of the Nazis.”
MEDIA HAILS REAGAN’S VISIT
Meanwhile, the West German media is hailing Reagan’s visit to Bitburg as a great political success for Chancellor Helmut Kohl, while continuing to lambaste what it calls the “anti-German media campaign” in the U.S. and elsewhere.
A commentator of Bitburg wreath-laying by Reagan an should convince skeptics that there was nothing wrong with honoring German soldiers who died in World War II. He acknowledged, however, that the feelings of Jewish groups should be respected and warned that the criticism of the Bitburg visit must not serve as an excuse for a new wave of anti-Semitism.
The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine praised Reagan in a front-page editorial for his “steadfastness” in going to Bitburg. The paper blasted the American news media for alleged anti-German bias, saying many Germans felt humiliated by the wide use of such terms as “Nazi cemetery” to describe Bitburg.
Die Welt said in an editorial that the “unaffected, straightforward and sincere” ceremony at Bitburg will certainly help reduce the criticism of Reagan’s visit. Other newspapers, which opposed the visit, have since toned down their criticism and some are now supporting Kohl on the issue.
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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.
