www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1431117/posts
Davi ds Medienkritik recently learned that the Berlin city government, made u p of a coalition between the SPD (Gerhard Schroeder's Social-Democrats) and the PDS (former SED party that ran Communist East Germany), has deci ded to allow the razing of the Checkpoint Charlie monument by court orde r And get this: The monument, which consists of over 1,000 crosses adorned with the names of those murdered attempting to escape Communist East Ger many for freedom, will be bulldozed on the 4th of July! The Checkpoint Charlie monument scheduled for destruction July 4th in Ber lin: Each cross has the name, and in some cases, photo of a victim of Co mmunism murdered attempting to escape East Germany during the Cold War. Berlin's Socialist-Communist City Government: Massive Conflict of Interes t What makes this story all the more disturbing is the obvious conflict of interest involved. As we indicated above, the Communist PDS is currently a member of the coalition that governs the city of Berlin. But prior to 1990, the PDS was known as the SED, the party that ruled East Germany w ith an absolutist iron fist. It was the SED dictatorship that was direct ly responsible for the hundreds of murders that the crosses at Checkpoin t Charlie memorialize. To justify their decision, both members of the SPD and PDS have described the Checkpoint Charlie monument as an eye-sore or as something that tri vializes the Cold War by turning the city into a Disneyland-style theme park. The authority stresses that the East German dictatorship cannot be equated with the atrocities of the T hird Reich." In other words, the Communists in Berlin's city government don't want to be constantly reminded of the murders that the SED dictatorship committe d during the Cold War. So they wo uld rather bulldoze the entire thing on July 4th and associate the monum ent with Disneyland, a place that many Germans see as a symbol of trivia l American commercialization. President Bush Ought to Ask Schroeder About the Monument's Destruction Certainly, we feel that the outrageous timing of the monument's destructi on is incredibly insensitive not only to the families of those killed at the wall, but also to all those Americans and their families who served in Berlin and around Germany during the Cold War. To bulldoze this monu ment on a date that symbolizes liberty to millions of Americans around t he world is an incredibly insulting gesture. We hope that President Bush brings the matter up with Chancellor Schroeder tomorrow during their Wh ite House meeting. Hopefully the media present at the meeting will also quiz Mr Schroeder on the matter. This much we can say: Davids Medienkritik will absolutely, positively bri ng the matter up tomorrow during our demonstration at Lafayette park in Washington, DC. We will also be supporting plans already underway to dem onstrate in Berlin on July 4th should the plans to raze the monument go ahead unchanged. How can Schroeder's SPD Support the Monument's Destructi on on July 4th of all Days?
last I have visited Checkpoint Charlie museum many times back when Berlin was still divide. I guess, it is very social to just forget the atrocities comitted, it will make everyone feel so much better?
The museum has an impressive disp lay of stories of individual courage to escape Communist control. They e ven have a few cars on display that show how people were hidden inside t he gas tank and so on.
View Replies To: americanbychoice2 Well they want to get rid of it so people forget and it can happen again. Lets make pretend Saddam is not another Hitl er so this way he can detroy Israel and have another holocaust. That say ing that says "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it" should be changed. It should now say "Those who are liberal weiners want to fo rget the past so it has a chance to repeat."
where a ll those white crosses disturb France's delicate psyche? Seriously, if Germany does this they prove yet again that they can accept the consequences of their own history - let alone learn from it.
View Replies To: americanbychoice2 There can be no place for memorializing feats of bravery and Freedom in t he socialist "New World Order"! Something like this could give people id eas, we would much prefer the Holocaust memorial as it doesn't glorify a cts of subversion against the state. Enough talk of this comrades, off t o work with you, the state is depending on the collective efforts of you all.
View Replies To: americanbychoice2 To justify their decision, both members of the SPD and PDS have described the Checkpoint Charlie monument as an eye-sore or as something that tri vializes the Cold War by turning the city into a Disneyland-style theme park.
View Replies To: americanbychoice2 They're bulldozing Checkpoint Charlie in Germany; Americans build memorials to crimes we didn't even commit, while some wan t to brush their past under the rug.
View Replies To: Christopher78 I don't know if it makes a difference, but they are not going to bulldoze the museum. The museum is open and in business as recently as two weeks ago when I dr ove by it, and nothing is happening to it. The headline is lying for eff ect, which is too bad, because it is so unnecessary. What they are bulldozing is a monument that was build on land a block awa y from the museum which is decorated with crosses to memorialize the peo ple who died trying to escape East Germany and Communism.
View Replies To: americanbychoice2 I guess when the museum is no more it will mean that those of us who were assigned to Germany during the Cold War were never there. I had four to urs in Germany: one in the sixties, one in the seventies, and two in the eighties, and did my share of getting cold, wet, and muddy at "garden s pots" like Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels. Next time you need somebody to save your rear ends, call on somebody else!
Hilarious Berlin has innumerable official monuments and reminders to communicate th e horror of the holocaust, including a very haunting memorial just opene d one block from the Brandenburg Gate. The Germans are absolutely commit ted never to forget what can happen when a civilized society surrenders itself to racial hatred, and they are absolutely not sweeping their hist ory under a rug.
View Replies To: babble-on they are absolutely not sweeping their history under a rug. Of course they're not, they're just bulldozing Checkpoint Charlie because they'll remember their post-war sins better that way.
View Replies To: americanbychoice2 Well, the story is not as bad as it seems upon further research. The (private) monument of crosses has been there since october of 2004 (f or 8 months) on leased property. The lease has expired and the bank from which the property was leased wants its land cleared. A court has ruled , the the organizers of the monument must clear the land.
View Replies To: americanbychoice2 The article is vastly misleading. The "checkpoint charlie museum" is an initiative by a private person and was installed on leased property, the leasing contract expired 2004-12-31 and the bank, who owns the property, didnt want crosses and graves any more (or, they speculated that they could actually sell the property for a hefty profit) The parties went to court, and the judge decided in favor of the property owner. Four out of five experts rated the whole thing more a tourist attraction laden with historical inaccuracies than a piece of art or a memorial. The date (4th july) set for razing the whole shebang is totally coincidental. The whole episode, of course, went ballistic with the private initiator, the bank, the ruling political parties and the opposition parties all slinging large amounts of mud at each other.
View Replies To: americanbychoice2 We have many things to be disappointed with the current German politician s about, but this "closing" seems to be blown up out of proportion. I think that the excellent museum is staying open, this is some other mon ument. I went for the third time earlier this year-- it is always impressive to see the creativity o f the people trying to flee totalitarian rule. And, the Germans and Austrians have kept a number of the Concen...
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