European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 06, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse New York City urges visitors to hurry Home Dave Barry Knight Ridder newspapers you residents of rustic tractor intensive regions such As Ohio will be pleased to hear that new York Cit has decided to become polite. Really. There s a new outfit called new York Pride which is attempting to get new yorkers to at least pretend that they Don t hate everybody. This program resulted from a Survey in which researchers asked tourists How come they did t want to return to new York and the tourists said it was because there was so much mean spirited Ness. So the researchers spat on them. No seriously i think new York is very sincere about this. I was in the City recently and right off the Bat i noted that the teen age mutant ninja taxi Driver who took me to the hotel was very thoughtfully allowing pedestrians As much As .3 nanoseconds to get out of his Way which Many of them graciously did even though a taxi docs not technically have the right of Way on the sidewalk. The Driver was also careful to observe the strict new York City vehicle Horn code under which it is illegal to honk your Horn except to communicate one of the following emergency messages the Light is Green. The Light is red. I have you. Reisinger Zagreb Yugoslavia i m terribly sorry but these gentlemen were Here last laugh this vehicle is equipped with a Horn. Even very late at night when there were probably Only a few dozen vehicles still operating in the entire City they d All gather under my hotel window every few minutes to Exchange these vital communications. Another example of politeness i noticed was that nobody ridiculed my clothes. Everybody in new York including police horses dresses fashionably and whenever i m there even in my sharpest funeral Quality suit with no visible Ketchup stains i feel As though i m wearing a hefty trash bag. And it s last year s hefty trash bag. On this trip i also became paranoid about my haircut. After 20 years of having the same haircut i recently got a More modernistic style that s a Little longer in the Back. I was feeling like one Hep dude until i got to new York where the fashionable Guys All had haircuts in which the hair is real Long on top but abruptly stops Halfway Down the head forming a dra Matic ledge of hair that depressed lice could commit suicide by jumping from. Nobody has had my haircut in new York since 1910. Pigeons were coming from As far away As Staten Island to void themselves on it. But the new yorkers themselves politely said nothing. Aside from this Courtesy epidemic the other big Story in new York is that get ready for a the joke is on you know any Good jokes we re looking for the Best for publication in the sunday Magazine. They must be in Good taste not too Long and hopefully funny enough to make other readers laugh. If you have some that you think will pass the chuckle test we want to hear Send them to joke s on you sunday Magazine the stars and stripes Apo 092ii. Be surety include a Telephone number where you can breached during the Day. We re ready to laugh. Flash bulletin the United nations still Exi is yes like you i thought that the United nations had been converted to luxury condominiums years ago bit in fact it s still there per song the Vita by action that it was listed to perform in this troubled tur sued world namely hold receptions. In fact using the advanced journalism tech Nique of having a Friend give me his invitation i was Able to get into a reception hosted by the . Ambassador who is in my candid assess ment a tall Man named Tom with a lot of armed guards. Afier shaking hands with Tom i proceeded into the reception area which was filled with representatives of rations Large and Small Rich and poor from Asl Over the world and although i sometimes tend to be cynical i could not help but be deeply moved As a journalist and a human being by the fact that some of these people had haircuts even worse than mine. This was particularly True of the Eastern bloc men who looked As if they received their haircuts from the motherland via fax machine. But the important thing was everyone had a Good time. People would arrive filled with International tension but after several drinks and a couple of pounds of shrimp they d Mellow right out ready to continue the vital . Work of going to the next reception. I decided that since i was there i might As Well use proven journalism techniques to find out if any world events were going on. So i conducted the feb Iowa a interview with a per son standing next to me me so who Are you person i m a something about economics from some country that sounded like Insom Nia. Me a How Are things there person better. Me a pause what continent is that in again unfortunately at that Point the person had to Edge away but nevertheless i had what we journalists Call the main thrust of the Story namely things Are better in insomnia. It was definitely a Load off my mind and As i walked out into the brisk new York evening i experienced a sense of renewed Hope which was diminished Only slightly by the knowledge that taxis had been sighted in the area and i would never make it Back to the hotel alive. Husband London England it s amazing How advanced this particular species of ant Page 12 sunday May 6,1990 friq45 Allied 194t advances a ranging from stimulants to morphine to thine and a number of Miracle drugs he brewed itself to keep the swaying Fuhrer from falling off drink. By the end of March no German Soldier fought West he Rhine and a nazi army of More Shadow than stance fought East of it. The Goose stepping Days be gone. As Allied forces from East and West in like a giant compressor squeezing the on out of the third Reich it became apparent the ire would need another kind of Miracle. N april 1, the . 9th and 1st armies completed Circle of steel around the Ruhr pocket the Istria Center of Germany. In the mopping up the s took some 325,000 prisoners the largest pan mass surrender of the War. Later instead of listing the last 45 Miles to Berlin the steam rolling iks turned Back West to take up new positions in the Elbe. Berlin said supreme commander Light Eisenhower in a fateful some would say a lighted decision is no longer a military respite the smashing Success in the Ruhr British minister Winston Churchill focusing on the Jit ical significance of Berlin was deeply appointed. He wanted the allies to concentrate lir forces on a narrow front sweep Forward and take City fait a comply in the russians face. There ire debates arguments. Both British and american legals wanted the glory of capturing Berlin. Despite the controversy analysts say Eisenhower that with the taking of the Ruhr the Industrial it of Germany would Stop beating and the death the political body would soon follow. As a military in his primary objective was to crush the enemy 5 Susan Harris military machine. Moreover he believed the Road to Victory through the thur would be paved with far fewer american bodies than the one to Berlin. And he also worried about a so called Alpine fortress called the National redoubt in the bavarian and austrian peaks surrounding Berchtesgaden. In this craggy Citadel wrote Ryan according to intelligence the nazis with Hitler at their head intended to make a last ditch wagnerian it was bad intelligence but the threat of the mythical Mountain redoubt dimmed the importance of Berlin. Of Berlin Macdonald said there seemed Little Point in driving deeper into territory already allocated for russian occupation decided in february at the Yalta conference merely for. Prestige even though an american spearhead might have reached the City first. Of the whole american British thrust he termed it a Brilliant exercise in controlling masses of men and units. A demonstration of Power never before seen even in the Early German campaigns of world War ii or in the offensives of the red april 10 yank troops reach the extermination Camp at Buchenwald. Death rendered by armed warriors was one thing but americans had never seen such systematic processed factory like Slaughter before. Stacks of hairless ravaged bodies Bone heaps piles of human hair shoes spectacles Gold from Teeth to be melted Down human skin utilized in such creative endeavours As paintings and lampshades ovens with half burned bodies still stuffed in them. Shattered buildings top photo lined the streets of Berlin when the red army captured the City on May 2, 1945, after a bitter 11-Day Battle. Elie Wiesel author activist and holocaust survivor who received the 1986 Nobel peace prize is seen Here Center bunk far right with other prisoners at the Buchenwald death Camp after it was liberated by the . 3rd army on april 13, 1945. Jews and others had been fed to Gas Chambers in numbers romans feeding christians to the Lions could t have comprehended. No one from outside could. Inside even Ordinary germans seemed like people standing next to a storm raining blood without continued on Page 16 to terran embodied this sentiment in 1984 when they red hands at Verdun the world War i Battle site in cheating a plaque consecrating the reconciliation of Ance and Germany. There appear to be few plans for marking the 50th Niv Ersary of the German entry into Paris june 14, or French surrender june 22. The French Don t like to celebrate defeat said Minique Moisi associate director of the French bit Ute of foreign relations. He suggested the French Puld focus on de Gaulle who on june 18,1940, made i first radio Appeal from England to his countrymen to Sist the occupation. Moisi said in an interview that fear of a powerful listed Germany is based More on the French Lack of incidence in their ability to compete than mistrust of political analyst Pierre Lellouche wrote in be Point pc gazing in Paris where they officially pretend to Joice at German Unity they worry in private about consequences some French officials anticipate the development of a German superpower that would reduce France to a secondary role he said. Wolfgang Burgsdorf a Kohl adviser cited a poll recently indicating 68 percent of French people favored German unification. Unhappily the politician s in France in contrast to the general population Are reticent now that German Unity has become More than Justy a sacred wish Burgsdorf said. The belgian and dutch economies Are even More intertwined with West Germany than the French Economy. The dutch Guilder Exchange rate closely follows the deutschmark and Holland s interest rates Are virtually based on the West German Central Bank s prime rate. Queen Beatrix and her Mother Juliana Are married to germans. Both husbands gained acceptance by learning dutch and trying to understand the country but the dutch tend to View germans As arrogant and authoritarian. Resentment of the wartime occupation is largely responsible and German tourists who assume everyone Speaks their language and accepts their currency reinforce the attitude. Shopkeepers in the Border City of enschede asked West germans to stay away May 5, the anniversary of liberation from the nazis. We Don t think it s appropriate to be confronted with germans then especially for older people who have been through the War a spokesman . Sassen told the Amsterdam newspaper de Tele Graaf. Holland s european cup soccer Victory Over West Germany in 1988 inspired much anti German emotion. Teen agers born decades after the War took to the streets chanting now the krauts Are silent and revenge at last a reporter asked a dutch official at a european Community meeting in december Why his delegation seemed reluctant to mention world War ii. We have certainly not forgotten the War he said but you must understand that with Germany being a major partner we cannot say these things publicly. So we let the russians say 1990 the stars and stripes Page 15
