KYLE writes:

The Ron Unz piece on Judaism brought to mind all of the public personalities who have publicly criticized or done something that wasn’t approved by the Jewish community and/or Israel and how in virtually every instance, no matter the context or intent, it led to intense backlash and the obligatory charges of anti-semitism and Nazism. One of the most notable instances was in 1985 when Ronald Reagan defied public pressure and honored his commitment to West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who asked him to visit a German military cemetery in Bitburg to mark the fortieth anniversary of the end of World War II.

The outrage: Reagan visited and laid a wreath on a memorial in a cemetery that held the remains of fallen Waffen-SS soliders. The fact that most German military cemeteries contain the remains of German men conscripted into the Wehrmacht didn’t matter to Reagan’s critics, the fiercest of whom were Jewish organizations and Elie Wiesel, who publicly chastised him and pleaded with Reagan to cancel his visit. To make the optics worse, a German politician extended an invitation to Reagan during his visit to include a stop at Dachau, the infamous Nazi concentration camp located near Munich, an invitation that Reagan rejected, stating that he was an official visitor of the federal government and not in the position to choose his itinerary.

In his autobiography, Reagan explains his thought process and why he was adamant in the face of the protests and charges of being a Nazi sympathizer. His sentiment on the matter apparently isn’t shared by the leadership of Germany in 2018:

“I didn’t think it was right to keep on punishing every German for the Holocaust, including generations not yet born in the time of Hitler. I don’t think all Germans deserve to bear the stigma for everything he did.”

 Ronald Reagan: An American Life, by Ronald Reagan, Simon and Schuster, 2002, p. 380

Elke Wetzig from Wikimedia Commons

Mainstream media piled on the Reagan visit by comparing this goodwill effort for reconciliation to the war crimes committed by the SS during the war. The Bitburg visit and the media blitz surrounding the event is highly reminiscent of the press conference President Donald Trump gave in the wake of the Charlottesville protests in August 2017 when Trump refused to point to the far-right as being worse than the well documented agitation tactics of Antifa and the far-left when he said that “both sides” were to blame for the events that transpired. What the Reagan and Trump episodes illustrate is that no matter the intention, if you’re in the public eye and merely attempt to be moderate in dispensing blame where its deserved, you run the risk of being labeled a Nazi.

— Comments —

Pan Dora writes:

” To make the optics worse, a German politician extended an invitation to Reagan during his visit to include a stop at Dachau, the infamous Nazi concentration camp located near Munich, an invitation that Reagan rejected, stating that he was an official visitor of the federal government and not in the position to choose his itinerary.”

That isn’t what President Reagan said at the time …. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl suggested he visit Dachau and he declined, saying he didn’t wish to reawaken the passions of the time or offend his German hosts. Kohl suggested the visit to the Bitburg cemetery during a White House visit in 1984 to symbolize the reconciliation of the 2 countries. When his public relations people went to look at the site they failed to note the 49 headstones of the Waffen-SS.

When the visit to the cemetery was announced, the media asked who was buried there. Press secretary Larry Speakes responded that he thought that both German and American soldiers were interred there. It was then that the press learned not only of the 49 Waffen-SS graves but that there were no Americans buried there at all. Thus the firestorm commenced. As I was stationed in West Germany as a member of the US Army I lived through the entire affair.

The Waffen-SS was declared a criminal organization at the Nuremberg trials. I really don’t think laying wreaths at gravestones of members of criminal organizations counts as attempting to be moderate.

Laura writes:

The Nuremberg trials?

What a travesty.

Pan Dora writes:

Why don’t you check up on the Malmedy massacre? Then you may see why many veterans and service members didn’t think President Reagans’ visit was all that inspiring. Not to mention his stupid statement of how the SS were “victims” of the Nazis.

July 20, 2018

Kyle writes:

Thank you for the reply, Pan Dora, and I’d like to address a few points you made in regards to Reagan’s visit to Bitburg. First off, the visit included a trip to a concentration camp weeks before the visit. I’m sitting here with my hardcover copy of The Reagan Diaries right in front of me and he clearly states this for his entry on Thursday, April 18, 1985:

“The press continues to chew away on the German trip & my supposed insensitivity in visiting a W.W. II Germany mil. cemetery in spite of the fact I’m going to visit a Concentration camp. They are really sucking blood & finding every person of Jewish faith they can who will denounce me.”

The camp he was referring to was, as you know, Bergen-Belsen, where he gave a well-received speech that used flowery language of reunification, “never again” and reconciliation between the German people. Reagan himself reached out to Gen. Matthew Ridgway to accompany him on this visit, which he did by interrupting his Hilton Head vacation to fly to Germany on a whim at the age of 90. You’ll remember that Ridgway and Luftwaffe veteran, Johannes Steinhoff, had a brief moment of friendliness when they shook hands with each other at the ceremony.

The point of this ceremony, an occasion endorsed by many Christian faith leaders, was to acknowledge errors made by both nations in one the deadliest conflicts in human history and the intent to learn from the mistakes in hopes of quelling German resentment towards the U.S. and Britain after we let our Russian “allies” invade eastern Germany and rape their women by the millions and separate their families for over four decades.

“You mention the tragedy of the Malmedy massacre: I must’ve missed the part in Reagan’s speech where he endorsed the actions of the SS officers that day. I suppose you’re positive that one of those 49 Waffen SS graves was one of the men who gunned down those American POWs? Good luck proving that. I’m sure you’re aware that in the last days of the war the SS was gunning down teen-aged German boys who ran away from their call to duty. So, what Reagan said about some teenagers being a victim of the SS wasn’t “stupid” as you say, but just a plain fact. By the way, I’m well aware of Malmedy, but, I have a war crime you might be interested in checking on yourself. The 1945 Dresden bombing that took the lives of thousands of German citizens. Peruse Google for images of the fallout of that Allied attack. If that’s too much, swing by a bookstore and grab a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, who was actually there.

July 21, 2018

Pan Dora writes:

“The point of this ceremony, an occasion endorsed by many Christian faith leaders, was to acknowledge errors made by both nations in one the deadliest conflicts in human history and the intent to learn from the mistakes in hopes of quelling German resentment towards the U.S. and Britain after we let our Russian “allies” invade eastern Germany and rape their women by the millions and separate their families for over four decades.”

Kyle, I really did not concern myself much with what “many Christian faith leaders” endorsed when I lived through this, and I still don’t. But perhaps a little review of WW2, the deadliest conflict in human history, is in order here. “Our allies?” You have perhaps forgotten that until June 22, 1941 Russia was Germany’s ally. This is frequently forgotten by Russians as well, but plenty of British recall it. Many feel that this permitted Germany to concentrate their full efforts upon attempting to blow London off the map. I seem to recall American forces being rather involved in liberating Western Europe from Nazi occupation, now we were also supposed to run over and babysit the allies Germany betrayed? Assuming this was even possible, the tens of thousands of American dead lying in our cemeteries of Western Europe aren’t enough for you? Of course not, we should have an entire collection of them in Eastern Europe so Germans won’t feel resentful. I can think of several things Germany could have done to avoid the situation Germans feel we should have saved them from ….

Pan Dora adds:

““You mention the tragedy of the Malmedy massacre: I must’ve missed the part in Reagan’s speech where he endorsed the actions of the SS officers that day. I suppose you’re positive that one of those 49 Waffen SS graves was one of the men who gunned down those American POWs? Good luck proving that. I’m sure you’re aware that in the last days of the war the SS was gunning down teen-aged German boys who ran away from their call to duty. So, what Reagan said about some teenagers being a victim of the SS wasn’t “stupid” as you say, but just a plain fact.”

Nope, it was a stupid statement. President Reagan was attempting to justify a deplorable action his own support staff had gotten him into by their own carelessness. Helmut Kohl wasn’t going to let the President off the hook, as he felt Reagan owed him one due to all the grief Kohl had taken for allowing the Pershing II missile systems into West Germany. I’d guess you are certain that those 49 Waffen SS are all teen-aged boys who only joined the SS to avoid being shot by them. President Reagan could have used this info. I’d say those teen-aged German boys were victims of their parents and their contemporaries …. the ones who permitted Adolf Hitler to be their leader and followed this psychopath and his insane quest for power and mass extermination. Weren’t these the people who actually made up the majority of the Waffen SS?

“”These [SS troops] were the villains, as we know, that conducted the persecutions and all. But there are 2,000 graves there, and most of those, the average age is about 18. I think that there’s nothing wrong with visiting that cemetery where those young men are victims of Nazism also, even though they were fighting in the German uniform, drafted into service to carry out the hateful wishes of the Nazis. They were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps.”

I stand by my original assessment …. this is a stupid statement.

Pan Dora writes:

“By the way, I’m well aware of Malmedy, but, I have a war crime you might be interested in checking on yourself. The 1945 Dresden bombing that took the lives of thousands of German citizens. Peruse Google for images of the fallout of that Allied attack. If that’s too much, swing by a bookstore and grab a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, who was actually there.”

Yes, I have heard of the Dresden bombing. The labeling of it as a war crime is often found in whiny, prissy Germans (along with a few other various folks) who objected to the very horrors they inflicted on others to actually be visited on them. Do I think they’re owed an apology? No, I don’t. Personally, I think they ought to be saying a prayer of thanks that Fat Man and Little Boy weren’t available to drop on these devoted followers of der Fuhrer.

Laura writes:

While there are things about National Socialism to reject and object to strongly, it is not fair to exaggerate the intentions of Hitler. I would ask Pan Dora to provide evidence that he intended mass extermination, as he pleaded for peace more than once and did not set out to exterminate European Jews, but I think this discussion would not be productive and so I will not pursue it. I strongly reject her statement about the Dresden bombing. Many patriotic Americans are also horrified that so many civilians were killed.

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