Reagan’s Visit to Germany

Early in April, 1945, forward elements of the 122nd Medical Battalion, 42nd Infantry (Rainbow) Division were among the first American troops to enter Dachau, a few miles northwest of Munich. I was a member of that unit and I shall carry to my grave what I saw there. The rage followed by melancholia that I experienced then is now directed at the current Administration.

President Reagan will honor German war dead during his visit to that country, but he originally decided not to visit Dachau or any concentration camp or American military cemetery because he “doesn’t want to open old wounds.” I say that the festering cancers that were Dachau and Auschwitz, Treblinka and Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald and all the others should be exposed to the sight and memory of all mankind forever--open wounds be damned.

This President has said that very few Germans are alive today who can even remember World War II! I’m alive, I was there, and I remember. The President served during the war, he’s alive, and he’s older than I am. And there are death camp survivors who are alive. Do they remember? Who is our Teflon-coated leader going to blame for this misspeak? When, if ever, will he learn from Harry Truman that “the buck stops here”?

Perhaps public furor and outrage caused a change in the President’s plans. But he has already demonstrated his insensitivity to what is right in deference to what is politically expedient.

S. KARNOVITZ

Van Nuys