Reagan’s Bitburg Visit Hit as Jews Mark End of War

A solemn memorial service in Costa Mesa on Sunday marked the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II and registered a quiet protest of President Reagan’s visit to Bitburg Cemetery, which a speaker called “an act of misguided foolishness, at best.”

Soon after the President laid a wreath at the war memorial in Bitburg, West Germany, where 49 Waffen SS troops are buried, members of two Jewish groups placed a red, white and blue wreath in the shape of the Star of David in the chapel at Harbor Lawn Cemetery.

About 75 people, most of them Jewish war veterans and their wives, heard speakers call for a spirit of reconciliation, tempered by the memory of the Holocaust.

Rabbi Bernard King of Shir Ha Ma Alot-Harbor Reform Temple in Newport Beach, noted that “President Reagan is a decent man.” But, he said, placing the wreath at Bitburg is “misguided foolishness” and “sadly, Mr. Reagan feels no shame.”

Scott Harte, an aide to U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), read a letter to the gathering that Wilson had mailed to Reagan last month calling for “a more appropriate observance.”

“Bitburg quite understandably is a symbol of a past we cannot commend nor forget, and therefore a visit there would be wholly inappropriate to your purpose,” Wilson wrote.

Cheri Kessner, president of Second Generation, an organization of children of Holocaust victims, said, “SS stands for evil. There cannot be any reconciliation with evil.”

All of the mourners wore red arm bands, symbolizing the blood spilled in the European war, which ended May 8, 1945. The service was jointly sponsored by the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, the country’s oldest veterans’ group, and the Jewish Federation of Orange County.

Gerald C. Lasensky, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Orange County, said the gathering was called to “pay homage to the brave men and women, both military and civilian, who fought Nazi oppression in Europe. . . . We owe our gratitude to those who stood up against the forces of evil to persevere in our defense of truth, justice and freedom.”

Reagan’s Sunday visits to Bitburg and the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen created a “day of conflicting emotions, and we must never alter from our firm resolve to never forget, never again,” he said.

As members of the Jewish War Veterans marched down the aisle in the cemetery chapel with their six-pointed wreath, uniformed veterans saluted, and some showed tears.

In benediction, the Rev. Msgr. Joseph Wadowicz of the Diocese of Orange said sincere people everywhere must “reel at the thought that 100 death camps systematically exterminated two-thirds of European Jewry.”

Then, as veterans carried the American flag from the chapel, the mournful notes of “Taps” filled the building. When the clear sounds of the trumpet ended their song, the congregation quietly filed out.

“Our motto should always be to remember the past, live the present and trust the future,” Lasensky told them.

In Los Angeles, President Reagan’s visit to Bitburg Cemetery sparked several protests Sunday, including a ceremony at the Veterans Cemetery in Westwood and a mock funeral procession to the steps of a Bel-Air church.

About 400 veterans, Holocaust survivors and relatives led by U.S. Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) and Assemblyman Gray Davis (D-Los Angeles) gathered at the Sawtelle Veterans Cemetery for services timed to coincide with the one in Germany.

Levine said it was “almost incomprehensible” that the President should lay a wreath of honor at a cemetery that is the burying place for 49 members of the SS,the Nazi elite guard pledged personally to Adolf Hitler.

“It was (the SS) who carried out the worst atrocities against American armed forces in the European theater,” Levine said.

Smaller--but more dramatic--was the 50-man Jewish Defense League procession led by a hearse and empty casket that marched to the steps of the Bel Air Presbyterian Church, where President Reagan’s pastor, the Rev. Donn Moomaw, left his congregation inside to come out and talk with them.

JDL National Chairman Irv Rubin said Moomaw was cordial in his greeting, prayed with them, and said he thought the President had made a mistake in honoring the Nazis.

Rubin said the President’s act was “as if we could find the tombs of the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus, and laid a wreath on their graves.”