In June 2017, former European leaders Simone Jacob Veil age 89 and Helmut Kohl age 87 died only a couple of weeks apart.
With their burials, the past headlines their actions generated will retreat still deeper into the annals of history. But first each is offering one last significant contribution to a cause they both considered dear.
A Few Comparisons
Starting out, these two could hardly be considered more unalike.
Simone Jacob was born in Nice, France. During WWII, her entire family was deported to Nazi death camps because they were Jewish. She was 17 at the time. Her parents and brother perished in the camps; but Veil and her two sisters survived. She returned to France after WWII.
On the other hand, Helmut Kohl was born in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and his family was Roman Catholic. He and his older brother were drafted as teenagers into the Nazi Army. WWII ended before he deployed; however, his older brother died before it was over.
Though Veil and Kohl approached adulthood under quite different wartime circumstances, they ultimately traveled on parallel paths.
Since their deaths, current European politicians have highly praised Veil, the first president of the EU Parliament, and Kohl, the former German chancellor, for their prior service and for being tireless pioneers in the pursuit of European unification.
Helmut Kohl
Kohl is perhaps best remembered for spearheading the reunification of West and East Germany, though the actual ‘fall’ of the Berlin wall in 1990 took even him by surprise. And he’s credited with being one of the architects of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty which established the EU and the euro.
On Saturday July 1st, DW TV televised the various events honoring Helmut Kohl, who died on the 16th of June.
Numerous leaders from around the globe offered eulogies as they faced the former chancellor’s EU flag draped coffin lying in state in the center of the EU Parliament. DW News wrote,
“World leaders past and present gathered at the European Parliament in Strasbourg to honor Germany’s longest-serving chancellor. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and former US President Bill Clinton were among the leaders to honor Kohl’s achievements and say their farewells.”
When Italy’s Antonio Tajani, the current president of the European Parliament, and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke, both also eulogized Simone Veil who had died just the day before.
Speyer’s cathedral
Next, Kohl’s coffin was flown to his hometown of Ludwigshafen for a public procession so the locals could pay their final respects. Then, his coffin was transported by boat on the Rhine river a short distance to the town of Speyer for the requiem mass, a ritual heavy in Roman Catholic symbolism.
Quite a few prominent world leaders also flew from Strasbourg to attend it. The DW News website live streamed the funeral mass too so viewers all over Europe and as far away as North America could watch it.
It was held in Speyer’s “symbolic” medieval cathedral, the place he regarded as his home church. DW TV’s Religious Affairs Correspondent, John Berwick, said that it’s also the resting place of “no fewer than eight” past emperors of the “Holy Roman Empire.”
A military ceremony honoring him took place in front of the cathedral after the mass.
Simone Jacob Veil
“Simone Veil, ‘the best of France,’ dies“ was the DW News 30th of June headline for a tribute posted about her. Friday, DW News told its readers,
“The presidential Elysee Palace said a funeral ceremony with military honors would be held on Wednesday at Les Invalides in Paris. On the day, French flags on public buildings will be dressed in black ribbons in her memory, while European flags will fly at half-mast.”
DW News reported the comments of other leaders, saying,
“Former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, under whom Veil served as health minister in the 1970s, described her as “an exceptional woman who experienced life’s greatest joys and its greatest sadnesses.”‘
Added Boost
DW TV’s Religious Affairs Correspondent remarked that while last year’s Brexit vote surprised everyone, it also pulled Europeans together and led many to focus on “the benefits” of the EU.
Recent European elections seem to confirm his assessment. And the events commemorating the life and death of these two are helping to further breathe new life into the European Union.
Photo credits: Cemetery by Steven Johnson, License: CC BY 2.0; Kohl by KASonline, License: CC BY 2.0; Veil courtesy of Fondapol-Fondation, License: CC BY-SA 2.0
