1985 ⟶ Reagan's Bitburg Cemetery Visit and Controversy

Ronald Reagan visited a German military cemetery in Bitburg ...
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Year
1985

🪦 Reagan's Bitburg Cemetery Visit and Controversy

Ronald Reagan visited a German military cemetery in Bitburg to lay a wreath with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. It was determined that the cemetery held the graves of forty-nine members of the Waffen-SS. Reagan issued a statement that called the Nazi soldiers buried in that cemetery as themselves "victims," a designation which ignited a stir over whether Reagan had equated the SS men to victims of The Holocaust; Pat Buchanan, Reagan's Director of Communications, argued that the president did not equate the SS members with the actual Holocaust. Now strongly urged to cancel the visit, the president responded that it would be wrong to back down on a promise he had made to Chancellor Kohl. He ultimately attended the ceremony where two military generals laid a wreath.⟶
Reagan's Bitburg Cemetery Visit and Controversy (1985)
Holocaust MemoryBitburgRonald ReaganWaffen-SSNazi GermanyHistorical MemoryPolitical ControversyWorld War II
GermanyGermany