Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 8, 1995 TAG: 9505080132
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
Leaders of 54 nations that fought on both sides in World War II signed olive leaves Sunday in a ceremony of reconciliation marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe.
In Germany, commemoration of the Allied victory over the Nazis was underscored by the rumbles of right-wing extremism. A synagogue was set on fire, and neo-Nazi disturbances left one youth dead.
But V-E Day ceremonies across the continent brought a mingling of joy, sorrow and hope.
The ceremony in London began with the soaring bugle blasts of American Aaron Copland's ``Fanfare for the Common Man,'' written by the Jewish composer in 1942 as a rebuff to Nazi racist ideology.
Prince Charles, appearing with his estranged wife, Princess Diana, for the first time since Christmas, watched children lead the politicians to flagpoles in Hyde Park for the signing of the olive leaves.
The children then entered a model globe, which began to revolve, releasing hundreds of doves into the air.
The leaders included Vice President Al Gore; Helmut Kohl, chancellor of the now democratic Germany; and King Mswati III of tiny Swaziland - among the Commonwealth countries that rallied to Britain's aid.
Earlier, the leaders joined in thanksgiving and prayers for reconciliation at St. Paul's Cathedral, which still bears scars of the combat that ended half a century ago.
The royal family, led by Queen Elizabeth II, attended the service at the cathedral, the towering symbol of London's resistance to German bombing. Its bells pealed Sunday across the capital.
In brilliant, unusual sunshine, Britons and tourists perspiring in T-shirts and shorts pressed against barriers to watch processions of limousines.
``All the other countries [in Europe] were taken by the Germans,'' said Paul Hastings, a 12-year-old scout visiting London with his troop from Cornwall in southwest England. ``We were pretty lucky ours wasn't.''
Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, who led the service at St. Paul's, asked for prayers ``for the healing of memories, for those who suffer as a result of war, for communities where past wrongs and violence persist.''
Catholic, Greek and Russian Orthodox and Methodist ministers each contributed to a litany of reconciliation.
At the Vatican, Pope John Paul II implored mankind to erase the ``culture of war.''
``A humane and just society is not built on violence and the force of arms,'' the pope said.
In the eastern Dutch city of Apeldoorn, 200,000 people came out to thank their Canadian, British and American liberators.
The 6,000 Canadian veterans who marched in the parade were besieged by flowers, kisses and handshakes from the jubilant crowd.
In Amsterdam, Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok and Crown Prince Willem-Alexander attended a gathering of Dutch Jews in the city's 17th-century Portuguese synagogue.
The Swiss government officially admitted for the first time that Switzerland bore ``unforgivable'' guilt for turning back Jews to Nazi Germany.
``It is for me beyond doubt that we heaped guilt on ourselves through our policy toward persecuted Jews,'' President Kaspar Villiger said in a formal apology in the name of the governing Federal Council.
In Austria, tens of thousands of people gathered at the site of the Nazi concentration camp at Mauthausen to honor the dead.
The main V-E Day commemorations move to Paris and Berlin today and to Moscow on Tuesday.
Kohl returned Sunday night to Berlin for the dedication of a Jewish community center and permanent exhibit in Berlin's partially reconstructed, golden-domed New Synagogue.
Over the weekend, street fights between neo-Nazis and young leftists occurred in Munich and in the eastern town of Neuhaus, where police said a 21-year-old right-winger was killed Saturday.
Also Saturday, seven youths were arrested southwest of Berlin during a police raid on a neo-Nazi rock concert, where the crowd of 150 chanted ``Sieg Heil'' and sang Nazi songs.
A 79-year-old Army veteran died Sunday in Moscow when his parachute failed to open as he practiced a commemorative jump to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, his son said.
Rolland Duff of Fort Myers, Fla., a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, had returned last summer to France to re-enact the parachute jump on Normandy Beach as part of the Allied invasion in June 1944.
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by CNB