Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 12:23:42 +0100
To: revs@csf.colorado.edu
From: slein@e1m147.mpibpc.gwdg.de (Stephan Leineweber)
Subject: Remark on Ausschwitz anniversary


Numerous regional ceremonies around Germany on Saturday, the 27th of
January 1996 comemorated the liberation of the concentration camp Auschwitz
51 years ago. Several weeks earlier the President of the Federal Republic,
Roman Herzog, had first decreed this date as a nation-wide memorial to the
victims of nazi persecution. There was critisism about the fact that the
German Bundestag held its memorial session 9 days in advance of the actual
date. This was explained as being due to the fact, that many members of the
Bundestag would be out of Bonn on a weekend. The President himself was also
out of town. The critics warn, that the Ausschwitz anniversary should not be
degraded to an arbitrary date.


  S.L.