Editorial of The New York Times
Playing Politics With D-Day
Published: January 19, 2004
Why the most authoritative liberal newspaper in the US thinks that inviting a German Chancellor to the D-Day celebration is not a good idea.
This June, for the first time, a German chancellor will attend ceremonies in Normandy marking the anniversary of D-Day. Gerhard Schröder has declared himself "very pleased" at the invitation he received from President Jacques Chirac of France to join other leaders for the 60th anniversary of the Allied landings. On the face of it, this appears to be a welcome signal that Europe has put its last great war behind it, and that the Germans are now viewed as an integral part of the European family. Ten years ago, Helmut Kohl, then chancellor of Germany, was frustrated in his efforts to secure just such an invitation.
Still, there's something not quite right with this picture. It's not that the Germans need to be ceaselessly reminded of their Nazi past. Few nations in history have so sincerely and deeply looked into the evils of their past and worked as hard to come to terms with them. Germany is, and deserves to be, a full and equal partner in everything Europe does, without being made to feel that it bears a permanent taint. The trouble is that Mr. Chirac's invitation smacks more of politics than reconciliation. France and Germany have found common cause on a number of issues of late, ranging from the invasion of Iraq to the future of the European Union, and Mr. Chirac was apparently anxious to parade this alliance.
The ceremonies in Normandy are meant to honor the Americans, British and Canadians who stormed the beaches on June 6, 1944, dying by the thousands to liberate France and the rest of Europe from a German yoke. No one who has visited the Allied cemeteries in Normandy, row after row of graves, can fail to be moved by this sacrifice. This is therefore not the place for France and Germany to play a political duet, any more than the anniversary of the terror attacks of Sept. 11 is an event for the Republican Party to co-opt for its political convention.
Apart from the obvious fact that playing politics with such anniversaries is an insult to their heroes and victims, doing so is counterproductive. There are plenty of venues where Mr. Chirac could demonstrate, and has demonstrated, his rapport with Mr. Schröder. At the D-Day commemorations, the German chancellor will only prompt the sort of commentaries and reactions so memorably spoofed in the "Fawlty Towers" television show: "Just don't mention the war!" However admirable Germany's soul searching, World War II still hangs heavily over all European activities. It was painfully obvious in the outcry when Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, referred to a German heckler as a concentration-camp guard, and when Poland reacted angrily to Germany's objections to the size of Poland's vote in the E.U.
Such tensions are rare these days. But it does no good to force the issue through unnecessary political charades. Disinviting Mr. Schröder is unthinkable, and the dwindling organizations of World War II veterans have been wise not to make an issue of his coming. It is time to move on. What is important now is to make sure that the commemorations keep their focus on the nobility and tragedy of what happened 60 years ago, and not on the maneuverings of tone-deaf politicians.
It's interesting this argument is being made now. A decade ago UK historian Timothy Garton Ash made the argument that the Germans SHOULD be invited to D-Day; and there were rumors that year that Chancellor Kohl WAS attending the fiftieth anniversary celebration of D-Day. A German spokesperson said: "Do you seriously think that the chancellor would wish to take part in a ceremony in which German soldiers suffered a defeat?" But Kohl himself only said he wouldn't celebrate the German victories of 1870 either.
But Garton Ash says that the veterans are the ones with the absolute right to invite Germans to the veterans' commemoration. On this point the article above says none of the remaining WWII vets care.
More importantly Garton Ash speaks of German attendance as a way to how the defeat of the German soldiers helped to liberate German society from its oppressive regime also i.e. by breaking the Soviet's Union's iron clutch we fabricated democratic, post-communist civil societies. A defeat can be a victory. And Germany has been excluded on this point too long, Garton Ash says.
"You cannot walk forever in sackcloth and ashes."
Posted by: Keli Dailey at February 2, 2004 11:55 PMThe NYT always was and will be anti german ,it`s just like th british SUN on a higher intellectual level but in the same rascist way
Posted by: Michael Ackermann at June 5, 2004 03:28 AM