Shaken to the Korps

Press, 12 June 1984, Page 12

Shaken to the Korps

Reporting from Bonn, WALTER SCHWARZ, of the “Guardian”, tells why Rommel was not at the D-Day celebrations.

West Germans are embarrassed and resentful, but too polite to say so in public, about President Mitterrand’s D-Day spectacular on Normandy beaches last week. President Reagan, the Queen, and Mr Trudeau were invited, but not Chancellor Kohl. The report that Dr Kohl discreetly asked Mr Mitterrand if he could come, and was refused, has been dismissed as “nonsense” by officials here. But it is widely believed and felt as a slight, although national guilt and selfdoubt prevented it from coming out.

War veterans, who have tried to build bridges to their former enemies, are especially upset. Others feel that Mitterrand did Kohl a good turn by keeping him away from embarrassment. The reactions show the basic ambguities in German nationalism. Founded to negate what Hitler stood for, the state has a clear reason for celebrating D-day. and yet history weighs too heavily. “It is a bad show that Kohl was not invited: there is certainly resentment,” said Mr Karl Weisholpel, who is head of a league of ex-servicemen and a group for international understanding between old soldiers. “The celebration could have been an act of reconciliation, but they decided to make it a victoryfeast. We have written to French veterans to say we could not participate in these circumstances.” Mr Weisholpel’s letter was academic because no German veterans have been invited to Normandy. “We have had invitations in the past but we have always refused to take part in victory feasts. After all, we don’t invite the French to celebrate 1871.” People closer to government naturally make the best of the non-invitation. “It would have been quite unfitting: this is a celebration among victors, and we lost," said Mr Willi Weislikch, the Christian Democratic who is defence

spokesman for his group in the Bundestag. But in the same breath Mr Weiskirch shows resentment. “DDay turned out to be our deliverance as well: it rid us of Hitler, sc we. too, ought to celebrate.” More regret came from Mr Werner Erdsack, manager of the trade union of German servicemen. “I would go if I was invited We have many friends over there and I feel I owe my personal freedom to D-Day. Mr Manfred Rommel, son of Hitler’s most famous general who is mayor of Stuttgart, denied a rumour that he. alone among West Germans, had been invited to Normandy. “I quite understand. They want to be by themselves on this occasion. Anyway it was all a verylong time ago." Rommel is a Christian Democrat who has won admiration for liberal attitudes. “Under Hitler it was obviously better to lose the war and this makes the anniversary less painful,” he said. Anniversaries are clearly embarrassing for West Germans Their remembrance day is June 17 — the day the East Germans revolted against the Russians in 1953. This celebration is also ambiguous It is a provocation to the Russians, although getting on with Moscow is essential to Bonn’s foreign pot£y.