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Posted on 01/02/2004 5:37:18 PM PST by Valin
GERHARD Schröder will become the first German leader to attend a commemoration of the 1944 D-Day landings in June, after receiving an invitation from the French government.
Paris did not ask a predecessor, Helmut Kohl, to the high-profile 50th anniversary ten years ago. But president Jacques Chirac’s invitation now, and Mr Schröder’s acceptance, mark a gesture of reconciliation contrasting with that apparent snub.
"Mr Chirac invited the chancellor before Christmas," a Berlin government spokesman said yesterday, adding that Mr Schröder - the first chancellor too young to remember the Second World War - had immediately accepted. "He’s very pleased to have been invited."
France confirmed the invitation to a 60th anniversary ceremony that, as a result, looks set to symbolise lasting peace between two close European Union partners who hope they have now buried the animosity that took them to war twice in the last century.
On 6 June, 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.
American, British and Canadian-led troops stormed ashore at dawn from a flotilla of ships, backed by airborne landings. Thousands died on the beaches, but the invasion hastened the end for Hitler’s armies, already reeling before the Soviet onslaught.
This year’s anniversary comes shortly after Mr Schröder’s own 60th birthday. Born on 7 April, 1944, he was just two months old when the landings took place. He never knew his father, who was killed in action in Romania just after his birth.
D-Day is marked each year by veterans and politicians at the site of the landings.
A spokeswoman for Mr Chirac confirmed Mr Schröder’s invitation and said all other guests had been informed. These include representatives from about 15 nations who attended in 1994, their countries having contributed troops to the landings.
...By re-liberating France
That's not true. Eisenhower invited Hitler . . . but he was taking a nap.
Obergefreiter Fritz Schröder
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1292909.stm
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