VICTORY IN EUROPE : REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK : 50 Years After War, Britain’s Star Soccer Player Is a German With Jewish Fans
Unrelated events in the run-up to Monday’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of V-E Day underscore how much Europe has changed since 1945--and how it remains the same . . .
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April 30. London. English soccer writers make their annual “Player of the Year” pick. The winner: Juergen Klinsmann, a flashy, goal-scoring forward from London’s Tottenham Hotspur. “A genuinely fine athlete, a spectacular goal scorer and a gentleman,” summed up one of those who voted. Klinsmann also happens to be German. He plays for a team whose owner is Jewish. His team’s fans are drawn in part from London’s old Jewish neighborhoods. His closest teammate? Ronny Rosenthal, an Israeli.
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May 1. Paris. Youths break away from a march by the extreme rightist National Front. They attack Brahim Bouarram, 29, a Moroccan immigrant, and throw him into the Seine River, where he drowns. National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen blames police for inadequate security. French President Francois Mitterrand later visits the scene of the attack, tosses a wreath into the river, mingles with immigrant community leaders and denounces racism.
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May 3. Hamburg, Germany. In brilliant sunshine, Britain’s Prince Charles addresses 30,000 people in front of the town hall in a ceremony marking the entry of British forces into the city five decades before. Welcomed by a host of local dignitaries from a city largely destroyed by British bombing, the crown prince is cheered, then delivers the main speech. His message of reconciliation is predictable; the way it comes is not. The prince speaks in near-fluent German.
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May 4. Brussels. The leading French-language daily in Belgium, a country occupied by the Nazis for nearly five years, reports with admiration on Germany’s efforts to come to grips with its troubled past. A headline dominating the front page declares, “Germans Face Their Past With Courage.” The article, which presents the debate among Germans about the meaning of V-E Day, concludes: “Fifty years later, the courage shown by the immense majority of Germans as they face this black page in their history commands respect. The country is equipped with an arsenal of judicial procedures to prevent the return of Nazism.”
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May 5. Copenhagen. As part of Danish celebrations marking the end of German occupation in 1945, thousands turn out to see a light show with a highly controversial attempt to flash a single laser beam up and down the 200-mile length of Denmark’s West Jutland coast. But survivors of Nazi concentration camps say the laser beam is a painful reminder of the search lights that once scoured the camps of misery and death. The show goes on; the laser beam plan fails. A government spokesman says equipment may have been sabotaged by opponents.
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May 7. Luebeck, Germany. A synagogue here is firebombed for the second time in little more than a year. No one is injured in the pre-dawn attack, but part of the building is damaged. Police suspect right-wing extremists. Within hours of learning of the desecration, the pastor and congregation of a nearby church move their Sunday service. They conduct it from the steps of the damaged synagogue.
