Should the German PM be invited to the D-day celebrations?

[fantassin]

What are the opinions of the different nations on this site on the fact that Prime Minister Schroeder was invited by President Chirac to attend the 60th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy next June?

[Minjin]

I think it is great that these two countries can set aside their old rivalries and come together for such a memorial.

[Vance]

We better be attending this....and the Canadians, and the Brits.

[Tengu]

I hope other allied countries will be there 2

[mustamato]

We better be attending this....and the Canadians, and the Brits.

Hopefully the veterans yeah, your politicians can stay where ever they are now.

[Uncle Sam]

What are the opinions of the different nations on this site on the fact that Prime Minister Schroeder was invited by President Chirac to attend the 60th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy next June?

Remembering the past is great...Looking towards the future, even better.

woot

[California Joe]

It was a courtesy invite. He should politely decline. Nazi Germany does nort reflect the current administration. However there are German dead there too. They were soldiers and died fighting for their country. It would be a bizarro kind of political correctness excersie to have him there though. The whole purpose of D Day was to kill Germans. Chirac really is kind of a ****head isn't he. Probably more interested in shoring up current alliances than true historical reverence.

[perdurabo]

maybe they want to do litle reenacting? shoot out few germans **** few french and drink lots of wine?

[California Joe]

Sounds like fun. Maybe Tom Hanks will show up. That'd be sweet.

[Operation Ivy]

Yea Tom Hanks would kill them all :P

[Ichhabe]

Why not?
If not the Germans hadn't been there 60 years ago, then there would no anniversary. Duuuuh! ;)

[Dalleer]

I think that it is very much correct to "invite" the German PM to take part in the memorial for the sake of good relations.

Germany and France should really forget their past rivalries which I'm sure they must have done to a large portion already.

And, do not forget the real people who fought there. Never forget them.

[juhae]

What are the opinions of the different nations on this site on the fact that Prime Minister Schroeder was invited by President Chirac to attend the 60th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy next June?
Inviting Germany to the 60th anniversary of the D-day landings is another good example of how the European politics are leaving/have left behind the shadow of the fascist ghost. Very good.

[Midav]

Why not?

The war was terrible and cost the lives of 10's of millions. However, the generation of today had nothing to do with the war.

I will support it 110% if the German chancellor lays a wreath to honor the Allied dead.

[Jack Mehoff]

I don't see why not

[DeltaWhisky58]

Guys........

D-day was 60 years ago. We have been members of NATO for over 50 years and the Germans have proved to be sound and reliable allies.

After such a long time, it is only correct and proper that we show this level of reconcilliation with our former enemies and shake the hand of friendship on a massive scale.

Caveat What happened in Germany in the 1930/40s, could easily have happened elsewhere given the wrong leadership. It has happened in many countries since under communism, The Russian/Chinese regimes and others accounted for many more deaths than the nazis.

[California Joe]

You're right of course. It still somehow seems odd.

[fantassin]

Taken from the BBC website, views on the same questions (no choice or editing, just the first few messages):


I agree that we should have a day of combined remembrance for all the men who fell and gave the greatest sacrifice for the country in World War II. I don't believe however that D-Day is the right day for this. D-Day was a major turning point in the War for the Allies a day in which hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers gave their lives to liberate Europe from the grip of Nazi terror. Let veterans remember and grieve by themselves.
Peter, UK


" It's acts like these that heal the wounds of war "
Luke, Indiana, USA



Several people have mentioned that the Allied veterans should have been consulted. I can't imagine many of them objecting. It's acts like these that heal the wounds of war and help prevent the kind of atmosphere that led to the great suffering and tremendous loss of life that was WWII. May it never happen again. I also think that German military and civilian deaths should be given eulogy, for they were also great, and politics aside, they were human beings too.
Luke, Indiana, USA

Yes of course. I've stood on the Normady Beaches and have been overawed at the respect and attention that the French have accored the Allied War Dead and the Veterans. Indeed our veterans are accorded more respect in Normandy than at home. German soldiers died there too and they have also been commemorated with simple crosses. One such cross on "Omada" beach simply said "To our fallen comrades". It is right that the German leader should pay his respcts to his fallen countrymen also.
Alan, Dartford, UK

Although I agree that Germans should be allowed to come to the D-day celebrations and memorial service, I don't think it is an appropriate time or place to 'forgive' and 'forget'. Many veterans will be at this event to remember what they and their fellow men did for the world. This day is for the memory of the liberation of France and Germany not for the deaths of German soldiers. It was not the right of France alone to make such an important decision.
Jenna Phillips, Surbiton, Surrey England

Hello out there - this is 2004! Instead of celebrating D-days we should all have a collective day of mourning for the millions of lives that have been unnecessarily sacrificed during the various wars of the past. Come to terms with the future and learn to see each other as what we are. Humans who must still learn to share the one habitable planet in our solar system.
Daniela, Berlin, Germany

Freedom won and totalitarianism lost all of Europe should be invited to celebrate such a triumph of the human spirit.
Tony, UK

Yes, Germany should attend. The reason? Germany was never the enemy, Nazism was. And now the far right appears to be slowly rising again in some European cities and countries. How better to defeat the proper enemy than by all the countries of Europe standing together to condemn it? It was the lack of a strong opposition that allowed Hitler to come to power, after all.
Mike, London, UK

It is not for us to decide, ask the D-Day veterans.
Reid Sommerville, Newbury, Berks

I don't think I would have a problem with this if I believed that Chirac's motives for the invitation were sincere. When France should be remembering the British, Americans, Canadians and others for liberating their country, Chirac invites Shroeder to show how "close" they are. It is purely political and has nothing to do with honouring those who sacrificed their lives. That's how I see it.
Mary Ann, US

[Loco]

Excuse me all frenchs, americans, germans and british of the forum, because this isn´t really my bussiness, but as and anecdote, if I remember well Helmuth Kohl was present in the 50 anniversary of DDay, may be not in Omaha beach, but sure he was in some of the ceremonies held together in that anniversary, I´ve present he´s image standing together with other "allied" leaders that day, may be I`m wrong. Anyway, things aren´t worst in 2004 than in 1994, or are they?

[fantassin]

Sorry to contradict but no, Kohl had not been invited in 1994. Maybe you are mixing up with Verdun.

Schroeder to Be First German Leader at D-Day Ceremony By Philip Blenkinsop and Joelle Diderich
*******
Friday, January 2, 2004; Page A22


BERLIN, Jan. 1 -- Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will in June become the first German leader to attend a commemoration of the 1944 D-Day landings after being invited by France.



Ten years ago the French government did not ask Chancellor Helmut Kohl to the high-profile 50th anniversary. But President Jacques Chirac's invitation now and Schroeder's acceptance mark a gesture of reconciliation.

"Mr. Chirac invited the chancellor before Christmas," a Berlin government spokesman said Thursday, adding that Schroeder, the first chancellor too young to remember World War II, had immediately accepted. Chirac and Schroeder were united last year in leading vocal opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Schroeder was "very pleased to have been invited," the spokesman said.

France confirmed the invitation to the 60th anniversary ceremony, which appears to symbolize a lasting peace between two European Union partners. Officials in the two countries hope they have now buried the animosity that took them to war twice in the last century.

On June 6, 1944, the Allies opened a daring campaign against Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy in northwestern France, finally relieving pressure on Soviet forces battling in the east.

This year's anniversary comes shortly after Schroeder's 60th birthday. Born on April 7, 1944, he was just 2 months old when the landings took place. He never knew his father, who was killed in action in Romania not long after he was born.

D-Day is marked each year by veterans and politicians at the site of the landings.

A spokeswoman for Chirac said all other guests had been informed of Schroeder's invitation. Guests include representatives from about 15 nations invited in 1994 and whose countries contributed troops to the landings.

In what became a political row, Schroeder's predecessor, Kohl, was not invited to the 1994 commemorations. To ease the tension with Germany, whose eastern and western parts had been reunified four years earlier, after the Cold War ended, French President Francois Mitterrand invited German troops to join France's national Bastille Day parade along the Champs Elysees in Paris the following month.

Ten years earlier, Kohl and Mitterrand made a poignant gesture of reconciliation when they held hands at a memorial to the dead of World War I at Verdun, a battlefield in northern France.

Russians, who took no part in D-Day, were not invited in 1994, and there was no word of an invitation to them this year

[Loco]

Ok, I was mistaken, still so I think he attended some ceremony about IIWW in France in that time, and in fact there were some polemic about the fact he visited a german war cementery because people said in that place were buried some SS soldiers who were in Oradur, perhaps I mixed dates and places. I remembered that picture of Mitterrand and Kohl holding their hands together and I thought it was in Verdun.
And again, are things worst today than in 1994?

[OldRecon]

A hell why not.
It's more than 60 years since now.
High time to shake hands.

[RealUltimatePower]

How bout France invades Germany :-*$

[Vance]

How bout France invades Germany :-*$
lol

[He219]

Why not?
If not the Germans hadn't been there 60 years ago, then there would no anniversary. Duuuuh! ;)
:lol:

Nothing wrong with the visit. In fact, President Reagan visited the graves of SS soldiers back in the 80's. If you want to place blame on the Germans for being sore at the Frenchies before the occupation, just look to WWI.

My .02
:P

[NcDeuce]

Sounds like fun. Maybe Tom Hanks will show up. That'd be sweet.


Yea Tom Hanks would kill them all :P

http://image.pathfinder.com/time/europe/magazine/2001/0108/castaway.jpg

Oops...errr...






http://www.homevideos.com/photosdramas/savingpryan5.jpeg

Maybe, he'll bring some of his friends...





http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/bandofbrothers/bblogo.jpg

;)

[fantassin]

What was the title of the film?

Wasn't it "Shaving Ryan's privates?"....or "Shaging Meg Ryan" or....damn, I am all confused now...

[Uncle Sam]

What was the title of the film?

Wasn't it "Shaving Ryan's privates?"....or "Shaging Meg Ryan" or....damn, I am all confused now...

I believe it was "Saving Meg Ryans Shaved Privates", yeah, that's it.

[Roger Rabbit]

Now theres a cause worth fighting for.

[Durandal]

I have no problem if PM comes so long as the event is not used for some anti-US Bush is Hitler comments.

I mean, D-Day helped preserve the freedom Germany currently enjoys today.

Cheers!

[ßå$tĮТHÏ¿ð]

Yea I see no problems with it, its time to burry the hatchet.
(this is very unrelated but ill say it anyways)
On history television one time I was watching a show about Canadians fighting against Germany in Norway (my memory is bad please correct me if im wrong). When the Canadians finally took the ground after heavy casualities. After it was all over there was some sorta ceremony for giving thanks to the soldiers. Ironically the Canadian soldiers were not invited and it was only open to British officers and American Officers, all of which were not involved in the fighting at all. If someone could please refresh my memory on were this happened at it would be much appreciated.

[RealUltimatePower]

How bout Chirac calls up Chancellor Gorkon or whatever his name is and be like
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/forumfun/stfu1.jpg