Obama To Send Condolences To Germany On Hitler Death Anniversary

“We express our heartfelt sympathy to the people of Hitler’s country over the loss of such a visionary leader.”

Despite widespread knowledge of his death at the time, the US refrained from offering condolences in 1945.

Washington, March 25 – US President Barack Obama plans to correct a historical omission this year when, for the first time, an American administration will offer sympathy to the people of Germany on the day marking seventy years since the passing of the country’s Chancellor in 1945.

Adolph Hitler died in Berlin on 30 April 1945, after more than 11 years of leading the country to an influential position in Europe and forever altering the way the Continent views warfare, government, social issues, and ideology. However, the US administration at the time, under Harry Truman, did not extend condolences to Germany. Nor did Truman’s successor Dwight Eisenhower, despite his being present in Europe when Hitler died, and despite his own German ancestry.

The list of American presidents who either ignored the anniversaries of Hitler’s death or deemed it unimportant grew with each successive chief executive. Eisenhower gave way to Kennedy, whose assassination in 1963 brought Lyndon Johnson into office, but neither of them saw fit to show American solidarity with Germany in such a fashion. After Johnson came Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush, none of whom paid respects to the deceased Fuhrer – though Reagan did visit a cemetery at Bitburg dedicated to some of Hitler’s most loyal officers.

Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush maintained US presidential reticence on the anniversary of Hitler’s death, but that is to change this April 30 when, according to White House officials, President Obama will, on behalf of the American people, “express our heartfelt sympathy to the people of Hitler’s country over the loss of such a visionary leader,” according to a press briefing distributed Wednesday.

Obama’s sudden sensitivity to the deaths of overseas personalities or their close relatives represents an aspect of his personality and foreign policy unseen in his administration until the recent expression of sympathy for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the loss of his mother. The president noticed how few of those statements his office issues, and saw historical injustice in that unstated policy of silence. Obama then ordered aides to prepare a list of the most prominent global figures at whose passing the White House had not extended condolences, vowing to rectify all possible slights.

The new direction dovetails with Obama’s overall reassessment of American foreign policy assumptions through the last several decades and his departure from containment of hostile entities, especially in the Middle East. “The president believes that it is not up to the US to decide which countries should or should not have hegemony,” explained National Security Adviser Susan Rice. “That’s why he wants to leave the various powers and countries to sort out their own affairs without asserting particular American interests in the region. This new policy is simply a logical extension of that thinking, under which it is not America’s place to determine which foreign leaders are worthy of American condolences when they die.”

Please support our work through Patreon.