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From: mom@sftri.UUCP (Mark Modig)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Visiting Bitburg cemetery
Message-ID: <421@sftri.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Apr-85 00:08:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: sftri.421
Posted: Tue Apr 30 00:08:34 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Apr-85 07:22:30 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Summit N.J.
Lines: 51


I still don't understand, after all the furor, why Reagan's visit to
Bitburg is causing such a stir.  Yes, it was a mistake, I feel, not
to also visit a concentration camp-- a visit to one should not have
had to been added as an afterthought.  And, yes, the cemetery
contains the corpses of men who committed atrocities against
defenseless people.  But it also contains the remains of men who
were pressed into service, who did not espouse the cause of the
Nazis.  In short, it contains the graves of men who held many
different beliefs about Naziism, from those who embraced it
wholeheartedly and used it as justification for some of the most
horrible deeds done by man to his fellow men, through those who did not
identify with the Nazis, but fought for other reasons, including
some who were simply impressed into the armed forces.

But the men buried at Bitburg and their differing reasons for being there
are just as much a part of the legacy of the last world war as are the
bitter fighting on the Russian Front, the concentration camps and genocide
against the Jews, and the use of the atomic bomb.  To forget why
those men are buried there and to ignore the message they have to
tell us is to sweep an important part of history under the rug.

But the fact that the President is going to visit there and lay a
wreath there honors those without honor, you say.  Oh, really?  Who
has leaked the speech Reagan plans to give at the ceremony?  Does
anybody really know exactly what he is going to say?  
Recognition can be accomplished without honoring those recognised;
in this case the recognition can be of exactly what these men stood for,
and a recognition that 1) such events are part of the past now, and have
to be dealt with, and 2) such events must never be allowed to happen
again while it is in our power to stop it.  Perhaps we should wait
until the moment arrives and the speech is made before we judge who
or what is being honored and recognised.

Some obviously have not dealt with the situation fully, saying that
the German people should never be forgiven for what happened.  But
forgiveness must happen if healing is to take place.  Bear in mind
when I say forgiveness I don't mean that those responsible still
living should not be brought to justice for their part, or that the
horrible roles played by some of the men in the graves at Bitburg
should be forgotten.  But it is time to put aside hatred, difficult
though it may be.  For if the hatred is not put aside and the horror
and shame and tragedy and guilt dealt with now, when will it be
dealt with?  And if we do not do it, who will?

Mark Modig
ihnp4!sftri!mom

[P.S.  The style of the last few lines are borrowed from a speech I saw a
while back;  I think it was a U.S. President-- Kennedy?  Anyway,
if it sounds familiar, that's probably why.]