Looks like Macron opted for what, at the time, my grandfather suggested as the solution to Reagan's Bitburg dilemma. Anyone remember that? How Reagan got himself into a pickle when he agreed to visit Bitburg on the 40th anniversary of the end of WWII? nytimes.com/2021/05/05/wor…
He, or his protocol officials, apparently didn't know that 49 members of the Waffen-SS were buried there--and this was back when people still remembered who they were and what had happened in WW2--so there was quite a bit of agonized controversy:
If he pulled out, it would be terribly offensive; if he went, it would also be terribly offensive.
My grandfather--a Jewish refugee from Germany who joined the Légion étrangère and fought the Nazis on the Belgian border, so he knew the Nazis all too well--
My grandfather--a Jewish refugee from Germany who joined the Légion étrangère and fought the Nazis on the Belgian border, so he knew the Nazis all too well--
(he escaped after France collapsed, fleeing from the Belgian front to Marseille--on foot, only at night, because the Nazis were hot on his heels, and they were hunting him, specifically)--came up with this idea for Reagan.
Reagan should go to Bitburg. And then, standing at the gravesite of the Waffen SS, he should whip it out and piss over it. "That way," he said, "everyone will be satisfied."
I suspect Macron's solution here has worked about as well as that would have.
I suspect Macron's solution here has worked about as well as that would have.
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