Editorial: Headstones didn t inform; they insulted
Express-News Editorial Board
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Headstones bearing Nazi swastikas are not worth keeping.
Their recent removal from Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery should be celebrated. The event should have been broadcast far and wide to raise awareness about the horrors of the Holocaust, the genocide of 6 million Jewish people and the murder of millions of others under the Nazi regime. This was a teachable moment. Never again.
Instead, the removal and replacement of two headstones for German prisoners of war Alfred P. Kafka and Georg Forst was a stunningly quiet moment, even if it was a welcome about-face from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The removal was chronicled by Express-News reporter Sig Christenson thanks to a tipster, not a formal announcement or press briefing.
By: CBS News
Two German WWII graves bearing Nazi swastikas have been removed from Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery and replaced with new headstones. The pair of headstones had become a long controversy over whether they were historical artifacts worth preserving or emblems of hate that should be destroyed, CBS affiliate KENS-TV reported.
The cemetery director, Aubrey David, led several workers to the graves of German prisoners of war Alfred P. Kafka and Georg Forst at around 8:15 a.m. Wednesday. Clearly, it took a long time for this to happen, and it s obviously the right thing to have been done, said Michael L. Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which advocates against unwanted religious proselytizing in the armed services.
2 gravestones with swastikas removed from veterans cemetery in Texas
A flag waves in a sea of headstones at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Thursday, May 21, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no public services will be held and the tradition of placing flags at each headstone has been canceled. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
by: Harmeet Kaur and Amanda Jackson, CNN
Posted:
Dec 26, 2020 / 08:22 PM EST
(CNN) Two headstones inscribed with Nazi swastikas that mark the graves of German prisoners of war have been removed from a veteran’s cemetery in Texas.
The headstones at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio feature an iron cross with a swastika at its center, along with an inscription in German that reads: “He died far from his home for the Leader (Führer), people and fatherland.” The headstones mark the graves of Pvt. Georg Forst and Pvt. Alfred P. Kafka, two POWs who died in Texas in 1943.
By: CBS News
Two German WWII graves bearing Nazi swastikas have been removed from Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery and replaced with new headstones. The pair of headstones had become a long controversy over whether they were historical artifacts worth preserving or emblems of hate that should be destroyed, CBS affiliate KENS-TV reported.
The cemetery director, Aubrey David, led several workers to the graves of German prisoners of war Alfred P. Kafka and Georg Forst at around 8:15 a.m. Wednesday. Clearly, it took a long time for this to happen, and it s obviously the right thing to have been done, said Michael L. Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which advocates against unwanted religious proselytizing in the armed services.
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