Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 9, 1995 TAG: 9505090124
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Washington Post and the Dallas Morning News
DATELINE: BERLIN LENGTH: Medium
And when the festivities were finished, when the last statesman had given the last speech in central Berlin, it was a day, perhaps, when World War II in Europe was finally relegated to the history books.
The 50th anniversary commemoration of Victory-Europe Day, which had begun Sunday in London, rolled through Paris on Monday morning and then on to Berlin. The venues changed but the themes remained fixed, as world leaders stressed the sacrifices of a passing generation and the responsibility of future generations to remember the terrible bloodletting that cost some 55 million lives.
``We gather here to celebrate a triumph of good over evil, a victory not of any one nation nor of any one people, but a victory of the human spirit,'' Vice President Al Gore told dignitaries gathered in Berlin's ornate Schauspielhaus theater.
``V-E Day means not just victory in Europe, but victory for Europe,'' he said.
Added German President Roman Herzog, ``If it is true that Western Europe since 1945 has become an island of peace, freedom and prosperity, then it is our duty to help others to enjoy a similar development.''
Notwithstanding the spirit of peaceful reconciliation, several long shadows fell across the festivities, which will conclude today with ceremonies in Moscow attended by President Clinton. Russian hopes for an end to its five-month military operation in Chechnya have fallen short, with continued fighting against separatist forces. In Bosnia, Sarajevo reeled after the bloodiest shelling in more than a year left 10 people dead, nudging the Balkans closer to resumption of all-out war.
And in Warsaw, President Lech Walesa accused Poland's Western allies during World War II of abandoning his country in 1945, and he pleaded with the West not to do it again by excluding Poles from membership in NATO and the European Union.
``For Poland, the fight for independence did not end in May 1945. It lasted another half-century,'' said Walesa, who has openly expressed his anger at being excluded from Monday's ceremony in Berlin because of the German decision to limit the guest list to the major powers. ``We were going to build a new, better Europe, a Europe of free and sovereign countries. Have we come closer to this goal in the last five years? I have serious doubts.''
Across the Atlantic, hundreds of World War II veterans gathered Monday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the war's end in Europe and hear President Clinton offer a grateful nation's thanks.
``Because of all you did, we live in a moment of hope, in a nation at peace,'' the president told the aging warriors at the Army's Fort Myer, across the Potomac from Washington, D.C. He thanked them ``on behalf of the American people'' for liberating Europe from fascism and thanked the ``millions [who] were heroes on the home front'' as well.
Earlier in the day, Clinton solemnly laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in a silent ceremony.
On the eve of more V-E Day ceremonies in Moscow and a summit meeting with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Clinton recalled the Soviet Union's 27 million wartime deaths.
``One out of every eight Soviet citizens was killed in World War II,'' the president noted.
Clinton also paid tribute to the suffering of the other key Allies - France, which endured five years of German occupation, and Britain, whose civilians withstood months of German bombing with a tenacity Winston Churchill called ``their finest hour.''
The president lamented, though, that while the veterans and their allies were able to free Europe and shut down the Nazis' concentration camps, ``You could not banish the forces of darkness from the future.''
``We confront them now all around the world and, painfully, here at home,'' Clinton said, alluding to the Oklahoma City bombing. But he said the World War II generation had shown ``that we can prevail over the forces of darkness; that we must prevail.''
by CNB