Wiesenthal Center Officials Assured on Bonn Memorial

Officials of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles met Wednesday with Chancellor Helmut Kohl and said later that he assured them that a proposed memorial to German war dead will not contain language offensive to victims of the Nazis.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the center, said: “We urged him that the text should not equate victims with perpetrators. We said that by being careful about the language beforehand, he could head off another Bitburg.”

Hier was referring to the controversy that erupted in 1985 over President Reagan’s visit to the cemetery at Bitburg, which contains the graves of many German war dead but also those of some veterans of the SS. The SS, or Schutzstaffel, was an elite organization established as a bodyguard for Adolf Hitler; it later provided combat units and guards for the concentration camps where millions of Jews were murdered.

Chancellor Kohl and other German officials have recommended that a suitable war memorial be established in Bonn where visiting statesmen could pay their respects.

Rabbi Hier said that Kohl agreed fully with the sentiments he expressed. Hier said his delegation also discussed with Kohl a list of 44 alleged Nazi war criminals believed to be living in West Germany.