REAGAN JOINS KOHL IN BRIEF MEMORIAL AT BITBURG GRAVES (original) (raw)
World|REAGAN JOINS KOHL IN BRIEF MEMORIAL AT BITBURG GRAVES
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/06/world/reagan-joins-kohl-in-brief-memorial-at-bitburg-graves.html
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- May 6, 1985
Credit...The New York Times Archives
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May 6, 1985
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Section A, Page
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President Reagan presided over a wreath-laying today at the base of a brick cemetery tower looming over the graves of nearly 2,000 German soldiers, including 49 SS troops.
Alluding to the controversy aroused by his visit to the cemetery, Mr. Reagan voiced regret in remarks at an American air base afterward that ''old wounds have been reopened.''
Accompanied by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Mr. Reagan walked slowly through the narrow, hilltop cemetery, ablaze with tulips and marigolds. Mr. Reagan did not glance at the graves during his eight-minute visit. Mr. Kohl brushed tears from his eyes. Neither made a speech at the cemetery.
Hours earlier, Mr. Reagan stood before an obelisk at the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where 50,000 victims of the Nazis are buried in mass graves under mounds of heather.
''Here they lie,'' Mr. Reagan said in a trembling voice. ''Never to hope. Never to pray. Never to love. Never to heal. Never to laugh. Never to cry.''
Merging Past and Present
Mr. Reagan's visit to Bergen-Belsen, in addition to the Kolmeshohe Cemetery at Bitburg, was designed to merge past and present - to pay homage to the millions of victims of Nazi Germany and to honor West Germany's emergence as a powerful democracy and ally of the United States.
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