May 5, 1985: President Ronald Reagan, in Europe to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of V-E Day, the Allied victory in World War II (May 8, 1945), attends a ceremony, along with the Chancellor of West Germany, Helmut Kohl, at Kolmeshöhe Military Cemetery in Bitburg, in the Rhineland, near Germany's borders with France and Luxembourg.
The announcement that the visit, part of Reagan's larger mission to Germany, which also included an "economic summit" of the "Group of Seven" or "G7" countries (also including Canada, Britain, France, Italy and Japan) in Bonn, then the capital of West Germany, was made on April 11.
The visit was seen by Reagan and his supporters as a gesture of reconciliation. But after the arrangements had already been made, it was discovered that, of the 2,000 graves at that cemetery, in addition to ordinary German soldiers -- one was never identified, so his tombstone read simply, "Ein Deutschen Soldat" -- there were the graves of 49 members of the Waffen-SS. (Waffen meaning "Armed," so this was the military arm of the SS, which stood for Schutzstaffel, meaning "Protection Squadron").
These were not men who had done no more politically than fight for their country, even if it was against America. The postwar Nuremberg Trials had declared the entire SS to be a terrorist organization. These were officers, volunteers, men devoted to the Nazi cause, perfectly willing to torture and kill those they saw as less than the German ideal.
And Reagan had agreed to visit their graves.
I was 15 years old at the time, and an American of Polish descent on one side of my family, and Jewish descent on the other. To me, the biggest outrage was that there wasn't more outrage over this. There were still a lot of World War II veterans -- and a lot of Holocaust survivors -- alive in America, to whom this was an implicit insult.
Or, to put it another way: Suppose, at the 50th Anniversary celebrations in 1995, President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, had visited the graves of KGB agents in Russia. (Spoiler Alert: He didn't do that.) The Republicans would have had an unholy fit. That should have been the reaction of decent people in America, Republicans as well as Democrats, over Reagan's plan to go to Bitburg.
Some did react with anger. Some, merely with sadness. Speaking of Clinton, at the time, he was in his 3rd term as Governor of Arkansas. His daughter Chelsea was just 5 years old, and she wrote a letter to Reagan, asking him to call off the visit to the cemetery.
A long-scheduled ceremony in the White House on April 19, awarding the Congressional Medal of Achievement, provided author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel -- who would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the following year -- with an unprecedented opportunity to publicly confront the White House on national television.
Despite fierce pressure to mute the confrontation with Reagan, whose strong support of Israel was valued, Wiesel implored him not to go to Bitburg. He said, "That place is not your place. Your place is with the victims of the SS."
Other Jewish leaders similarly called on Reagan to reconsider, as did 53 U.S. Senators on April 15, and 101 members of the U.S. House of Representatives on April 19 in bipartisan letters to the President.
Upon meeting with Kohl, a change of plans was made. "The leader of the free world" and the leader of democratic, tolerant postwar Germany would first visit the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, to pay tribute to the Nazis' victims, before going to Bitburg, leaving just 8 minutes for the visit.
Of course, "The Teflon President" got away with it, just like he got away with everything else.
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May 5, 1985 was a Sunday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:
* The New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-2 at Yankee Stadium. Phil Niekro knuckleballed his way to victory. He was backed by home runs by Billy Sample, Rickey Henderson, Don Mattingly and Ken Griffey Sr. Niekro gave up a home run to former Yankee prospect Steve Balboni, but held the great George Brett to 0-for-4.
* The New York Mets beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Dwight Gooden struck out 9. The Reds' manager, 44-year-old Pete Rose, went 3-for-5.
* The Houston Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Jose Cruz Sr. hit a home run. Mike Schmidt only appeared as a pinch-hitter, unsuccessfully.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Montreal Expos, 6-1 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
* The Texas Rangers beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres, 6-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Well, not quite: This game was suspended due to rain in the top of the 7th, and was completed on July 8. Keith Moreland and Leon Durham hit home runs for the Cubs, while Ryne Sandberg had an RBI triple. Tony Gwynn went 2-for-5 for the Padres.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 10-5 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Eddie Murray went 0-for-5, but Cal Ripken went 5-for-6 with 4 RBIs, and Jim Dwyer hit a home run.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Dave LaPoint, a former Cardinal, pitched a 5-hit shutout.
* The California Angels beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium). For the Brewers, Paul Molitor went 0-for-3, and Robin Yount did not play. For the Angels, Reggie Jackson and Doug DeCinces hit home runs, while Rod Carew did not play.
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-3 at the Oakland Coliseum.
* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle.
There were 4 games played in the United States Football League:
* The New Jersey Generals lost to the Jacksonville Bulls, 30-20 at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville.
* The Baltimore Stars beat the Arizona Wranglers, 24-19 at Byrd Stadium (now Maryland Stadium) outside Washington in College Park, Maryland. (For legal reasons, they couldn't play at Memorial Stadium, and Baltimore didn't have another stadium big enough.)
* The Oakland Invaders beat the Orlando Renegades, 21-7 at the Citrus Bowl (now Camping World Stadium) in Orlando.
* And the Denver Gold beat the San Antonio Gunslingers, 35-9 at Alamo Stadium in San Antonio.
The NBA Playoffs were in the Conference Semifinals. The Detroit Pistons beat the Boston Celtics, 102-99 -- not at the Silverdome in suburban Pontiac, but at the Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit. Hard to believe, but, at this point, the NBA still had to give way to a scheduling conflict. The Celtics would win the series anyway.
The Philadelphia 76ers completed a 4-game sweep of the Milwaukee Bucks, winning 121-112 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 115-107 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum, but that would be the only game they won in that series. And the Denver Nuggets beat their arch-rivals, the Utah Jazz, 125-118 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.
One game was played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Quebec Nordiques beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1 at the Colisée de Québec. Peter Šťastný scored the winning goal, 6:20 into overtime. But the Flyers would win the series, before losing the Stanley Cup Finals to the Edmonton Oilers.
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