Nazi Opponents’ Relatives Resist Taking Bitburg Role

The son of a German officer who tried to kill Hitler said today that he will reluctantly take part, as ordered, in a ceremony with President Reagan at Bitburg’s military cemetery Sunday but finds it “repugnant.”

Berthold von Stauffenberg, a West German army colonel whose father, Claus, planted a bomb intended to kill Hitler in July, 1944, said he was attending the ceremony only because his government required him to do so.

“I am a soldier,” Stauffenberg said in a telephone interview. “When the government wants something of a soldier then he can only say no on grounds of conscience. Personal considerations don’t matter.”

Von Stauffenberg, who was 10 when his father was executed, said he is often asked to speak on the German resistence to Hitler, but normally declines.

The West German government, in an apparent bid to stem outrage from Jewish groups, war veterans and Congress over Reagan’s Bitburg trip, on Thursday added Von Stauffenberg and other relatives of German resisters to the ceremony. (Story on Page 10.)

But many of the relatives condemned the invitation today, saying that the ceremony would honor the 49 Waffen SS dead buried in the cemetery along with German conscripts and that the government was using them to hide its embarrassment over the visit.

“I have no intention of honoring the SS. The military resistance has no business to be in Bitburg,” said Marianne von Schwanenfeld, widow of one of the more than 100 officers executed with Stauffenberg after the abortive coup.

Stauffenberg’s second son, Franz Ludwig, a member of Parliament, gave his staff instructions not to accept an invitation for him to go to Bitburg, his office said.

Government officials said only four relatives of the German resistance had been invited to Sunday’s ceremony.

Meanwhile today, it was learned that Reagan has cut to 10 minutes his controversial Bitburg visit.

The disclosure came in Reagan’s Sunday itinerary which was belatedly issued by the White House. The itinerary also includes a 40-minute wreath-laying ceremony and speech at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp site.

Although the White House never made public the amount of time Reagan would spend at the cemetery, aides had indicated Reagan would tour the grave sites for a longer period. Only a few days ago, aides said it would be reduced to a 20-minute ceremony.

Reagan still plans to lay a wreath at the military cemetery.