The Bitburg Blunder

When presidential aide Michael Deaver visited the German military cemetery at Bitburg in February, the White House now says, snow covered the ground and obscured the grave markings of the World War II veterans buried there. That unfortunately prevented Deaver, who was in West Germany doing advance planning for President Reagan’s visit next month, from noting that among the dead at Bitburg are some members of the Schutzstaffel, the infamous SS that ran Hitler’s concentration camps and provided the most criminally ruthless soldiers of his army. An example of such ruthlessness occurred just a short distance from Bitburg, across the Belgian border, where in 1944 more than 200 American prisoners of war were murdered by the SS.

Deaver’s German hosts, again according to the White House, said nothing about the SS graves. Indeed, Deaver apparently came away mistakenly believing that both American and German soldiers share the cemetery. What better place, then, for a presidential appearance that would emphasize reconciliation 40 years after the end of World War II? What better place for the President to lay a wreath and make some suitable remarks about past enemies who are now friends?

The Bitburg blunder has produced a major political embarrassment for Reagan and, far worse, left him with a morally insupportable burden. Certainly the insult inherent in paying homage to SS men was not intended, and Reagan’s deep sympathy for all who suffered so incalculably during the Hitler era is not being questioned. But even the most eloquent expression of remembrance for those victims won’t erase the implications of a presidential appearance at an SS burial site. The White House is now hastily arranging a visit by Reagan to a former concentration camp. But Reagan stubbornly, even obtusely, clings to his plan to visit Bitburg rather than give in to “unfavorable attention.” He has yet to grasp that what is at issue here is not unfavorable attention, but propriety and respect for the millions of victims of Nazism.

Bitburg was chosen because it is in West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s home territory, and it would help Kohl’s political fortunes for Reagan to be there. It was chosen because it is close to a U.S. air base, which makes travel and security arrangements easier. These considerations shrink to utter insignificance, however, when placed alongside the potential spectacle of an American President even inadvertently honoring the members of an organization that committed the most unspeakable of crimes. Let the President celebrate reconciliation with Germany in some other, more suitable, place. To go to the Bitburg cemetery would be an act of appalling moral insensitivity.