Word: bitburg
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...moving 90-minute meeting with TIME Bonn Bureau Chief William McWhirter, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl replied to criticisms of the Bitburg visit with an emotional assessment of his country and its relations with the U.S. The Chancellor, in his only formal interview on the subject with the U.S. press, was firm and assertive as he explained why the ceremony must take place. Excerpts...
...Chancellor, why Bitburg? Why is it important to you and to the German people...
...these days and hours I have suffered as I have rarely suffered before in my life. Ronald Reagan is a friend. He is a man for whom I would like to do only good. When the President is in Bitburg, he will encounter a wave of sympathy such as he has rarely experienced in his life. This may be more < important than the occasional editorial he has to read these days...
...Bitburg, if we don't do what we jointly planned, we will deeply offend the feelings of our people. There are letters on my desk that are heartrending outcries. A woman wrote how her 17-year-old brother was picked up and taken away with his classmates by military authorities and put into an SS uniform in which he was later killed. The Germans consist of more than minds. They also have hearts and souls...
...sons are now soldiers. We have a conscript army. What are our young servicemen to think if our remembrance of the dead 40 years later is distorted in a way that does not do justice to the dead at all? Around 2,000 former servicemen are buried at Bitburg. Included among them are 49 members of the Waffen SS. Of these 49, more than half were under the age of 20. If these young people had survived, they would have been amnestied under Allied regulations...