Elie Wiesel implored the president not to go to Bitburg: “That place is not your place. Your place is with the victims of the SS”
The rapid transition from Allied victory in World War II to Cold War geopolitical calculus saw a realignment of strategic priorities. With the Soviet Union drawing an Iron Curtain across Eastern Europe, right through the middle of defeated Germany, the newly established West German state would become a key member of the NATO defense alliance. Given this state of affairs, lingering over Germany’s Nazi past was generally viewed in the West as impolitic and inadvisable.
In 1985, to demonstrate the reconciliation of America and Germany and their enduring alliance, West German chancellor Helmut Kohl invited President Ronald Reagan to visit a German military cemetery. The visit was to take place during the G7 Summit in Bonn, which coincided with the 40th anniversary of VE Day. Reagan was keen to accommodate his ally, and the German military cemetery near Bitburg was chosen for the ceremony. Prior to Reagan’s trip it was discovered that among the 2,000 graves of German World War II soldiers were 49 graves of members of the Waffen SS. The entire SS had been designated a criminal organization at the Nuremberg Trials, and many Americans protested the president’s honoring the memory of SS members.
At a ceremony awarding him the Congressional Medal of Achievement, prominent Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel implored the president not to go to Bitburg: “That place is not your place. Your place is with the victims of the SS.”
Other Jewish leaders similarly called on Reagan to reconsider, as did 53 US senators on April 15, and 101 members of the US House of Representatives on April 19, in bipartisan letters to the president. Exacerbating the situation, Reagan declined Chancellor Kohl’s suggestion that they also visit the notorious Dachau concentration camp. The president explained that he didn’t wish to “revive old feelings of guilt” among the German people at that time.
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