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The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 8
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The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 8

Publication:
The Pantagraphi
Location:
Bloomington, Illinois
Issue Date:
Page:
8
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

WORLD Germans quietly remember significance of D-Day FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -The German government showed its respect for the D-Day anniversary Monday with silence. The country's leaders were not invited to Normandy, and Germans watched the commemorations from -a distance, fascinated, yet uneasy. There were no formal ceremonies in Germany marking D-Day, no big speeches by politicians. Germans settled for hours of coverage on national television broadcast live from Normandy. The occasion gave many pause to reflect on the meaning of this milestone for them and their country.

Rudiger Eraich was just a baby when Germans fought Americans at Omaha Beach. That doesn't stop the 52-year-old travel agent from thinking about the battle. D-Day, Emich said, "is uncomfortable for Germans because they started the war and they lost it But D-Day should also be seen as the beginning of the end of Nazism." Germany, Emich says, has learned from its defeat "The entire political thinking of our politicians and also the German people is that 'My God, none of us want anymore and we don't want such elements to arise again," Emich said. Ignatz Bubis, head of the Central too many Germans especially elderly ones are still bitter about their country's defeat He said May 8, 1945, the last day of the war, "is a day of victory and not as many Germans still think a day of capitulation." "Only thoughts of joy should be in people's heads" when it comes to reflecting about the Nazis' defeat, Bubis said. German news media, provided big doses of D-Day anniversary coverage.

On Monday night, one talk show broadcast 1944 Allied footage of preparation for D-Day, American soldiers under fire as they hit the beach, and the liberators pushing' the German army across France. Nazi propaganda footage from that time was also broadcast showing a German paratrooper unit using bazookas to destroy American tanks. Historians on the show were asked whether there was any alternative to D-Day. Their answer: No. There was some criticism of the way the anniversary was handled, but mixed in with a lot of understanding.

"The recreation of the 'longest day' smacked not a little of Hollywood," said an editorial in Tuesday's Die Welt newspaper. "But who can criticize our former war enemies for using the tools of our media age to reflect on the sacri-fice of their sons?" While most of Europe's political leaders were in Normandy, Chan- cellor Helmut Kohl was in the eastern German city of Dresden breaking ground for a new Siemens AG computer-chip factory. Kohl, who was not invited to the ceremonies, had said he didn't wish to be included because it wasn't Germany's place to stand 1 with the victors. Instead, he cele- brated a new factory providing new jobs in the struggling former communist part of Germany. Later he met with Prime Minis--, ter Felipe Gonzalez of Spain in the Baltic port of Schwerin to discuss European unification issues.

Council for Jews in Germany, disputed that assessment In a radio interview, Bubis said A8 THE PANTAGRAPH, Tuesday, June 7, 1994 Elite unit can't forget climb up the razor's edge i 7T. 1 I I msl I rimi AmeriVinyl Windows Wholesale 1107 W. Locust St. I 828-1602 or 1-800-822-9383 President Clinton looked over the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, France, Monday with Ken Bargmann, pointing, who scaled them on D-Day, and Bargmann's son and grandson. Ken Bargmann's son, Michael, left, is a disabled Vietnam veteran.

LET'S MAKE A I'LL SELL THEM CHEAP, YOU PLANT THEM AND GIVE THEM A GOOD HOME! mission was useless and the devastating casualties were in vain because the guns they were to silence were not in their expected positions. "Somebody told a big lie because the guns were there, and if they had not been destroyed, they would have been used," said Shave. ers, some walking with canes, withstood a wind whipping across the Pointe that changed their lives. Clinton was taking sides in an old grudge that leaves some Rangers fuming. Cornelius Ryan, author of the 1959 book "The Longest Day," started it by implying the Rangers' I FREE OPENER Sfefc I Month of June ONLY! 5 I iH-i-iStmm-: -mm- 7.9 ALL FLATS OF FLOWERS Mix or Match 03 All Perennials 4" Pots 3 ea.

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Army's 2nd Ranger Battalion sent in, along with the 5th Battalion, to scale the cfiffs and destroy six 155mm howitzers that could fire from concrete bunkers down on Americans landing on Utah and Omaha beaches. The 120-foot cliffs on a promontory four miles west of Omaha were sheer spikes of limestone, and moving up them in the face of German gunfire was like climbing a razor's edge. But these were Rangers, an elite unit trained for "the cutting edge of battle by land, sea or air," according to the Ranger Creed. "One hundred percent and then some," it reads. "Surrender is not a Ranger word." Of the 235 men who assaulted the cliffs at the start of D-Day under the command of Lt Col.

James E. Rudder, only 90 remained fit for battle two days later. The rest were dead or wounded. Even today, the lonely and windswept Pointe retains a sense tof dread. It is a brutal landscape that, more than other sites, has stood still.

German bunkers and gun emplacements lie abandoned and smashed, separated by huge craters from Allied bombing raids meant to soften the approach for the Rangers. They went up with ropes and rope ladders attached to grappling irons and shot up the cliff with hand-held rockets and rocket itiounts on their landing craft Germans lobbed grenades at the Divorce Affordable fees Attorney Frank Hoffman Ph. 827-7667 Trent Davis Home Improvement Call 828-2384 today! Bloomington, IL Call by 2:00 p.m. today and get your PANTAGRAPH home delivered tomorrow morning! To subscribe, call 1-800-747-7323 or locally 827-7323 ask for circulation 'Offer good Monday through Frictojr. Gradation Department open im (309) with 2 X-RAYS and CONSULTATION OFFER VAUD FOR NEW PATIENTS ONLY.

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si climbing men, or cut their ropes. President Clinton, like President Reagan 10 years ago, chose Pointe Du Hoc to open D-Day commemorations in France, honoring "the first Americans of D-Day to complete their mission." At the ceremony several dozen Ranger vets, all in thin blue blaz- fllllll (IOperMIETD FREE SCREENING FOR CHILDREN WITH LEARNING PROBLEMS BLOOMINGTON Attention problems, slow reading, poor comprehension, letter reversals are but a few of the symptoms displayed by children with learning disabilities. Others often include losing place while reading, working slowly, poor eye-hand coordination, and poor memory. HELP IS AVAILABLE Now a team of professionals in the field of vision, psychology, and education have developed a remarkable therapy program called VIP. This intense, one-on-one program attacks the cause of these problems and dramatically improves a child's ability to learn.

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About The Pantagraph Archive

Pages Available:
1,648,586
Years Available:
1857-2024