Tuesday, May 7, 1985

BERGEN-BELSEN, Germany — In an emotional gesture of reconciliation, President Reagan and Chancellor Helmut Kohl recalled the most monstrous acts of World War II Sunday and told citizens of the United States and West German "the horror cannot outlast the hope."

""We are struck by the horror of it all — the monstrous, incomprehensible horror," Reagan said in remarks prepared for delivery at the site of the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Both leaders' remarks were made to television audiences in both countries.

Kohl, in his prepared remarks at Bergen-Belsen, said: "We bow in sorrow before the victims of murder and genocide.

"The supreme goal of our political efforts is to render impossible any repetition of that systematic destruction of human life and dignity."

Reagan said his visit was "a painful walk into the past" and "no one of the rest of us can fully understand the enormity of the feelings carried by the victims of these camps."

While hundreds of Jews and others protested outside, Reagan briefly toured the former Nazi concentration camp, where thousands of bodies are buried under a huge mound of heather-blanketed earth.

He then laid a wreath at the foot of an obelisk memorial to the dead and paused for a minute of silent tribute.

"We are here because humanity refuses to accept that freedom or the spirit of man can ever be extinguished," Reagan said. "We are here to commemorate that life triumphed over the tragedy and the death of the Holocaust, overcame the suffering, the sickness, the testing, and, yes, the gassings."

Stars & Stripes .................................................................


"When it ultimately came time for the May 5 visit, Reagan's angry defensiveness returned to the cool conviction that otherwise colors most of his writing. After declaring that "we must never forget & we must pledge, 'never again'" during a morning visit to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Reagan arrived at the Kolmeshöhe Cemetery to a large crowd of German onlookers, most of whom he believed to be approving. During a brief ceremony, an American and German general from World War II each laid a wreath at the cemetery monument. When the two unexpectedly shook hands at the close of the ceremony, Reagan called it a "truly dramatic moment."

Polls later showed that 59% of Americans supported Reagan's visit — up from 49% before his trip. "I always felt it was the morally right thing to do," he wrote."

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