When in 1985 President Reagan laid a wreath on the wall of the German cemetery in Bitburg, as a token to commemorate the end of WWII in Europe in 1945, he was spitefully slandered. Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations intoned, “a callous offense for the Jewish people.”

Among the 2,000 German soldiers buried there, there were also 49 members of the Waffen-SS, the military arm of Nazi Germany's SS (Schutzstaffel). President Reagan correctly pointed out the youth of the average dead soldier buried there. They were conscripts fighting for the uniform and their lives, not for Hitler’s cause. They too, were victims of Nazism.

The Southern Confederate conscripts were also in the prime of their lives. They were not dying for the preservation of slavery as close to 50% of all cotton farms had no slaves. They fought the invading Yankees.

The Confederate statues that those, with an ulterior agenda, want to obliterate, also honor the memory of those who died for a cause they did not choose or believe in. They deserve a statue as much as the dead German soldiers deserved a wreath.

Joao R. Caxide

Manchester