WEST GERMANY REMEMBRANCE TWO SPECTERS ROSE TO REMIND GERMANS OF EVENTS THAT 
TOOK PLACE A QUARTER CENTURY AND MORE AGO, BUT HAD STILL 
THE POWER TO EVOKE DEEP EMOTIONS . REICHSTAG REVIVED . IN 
WEST BERLIN, THE REICHSTAG ONCE AGAIN BECAME HABITABLE . A HUGE, 
FLORID STRUCTURE OF SILESIAN SANDSTONE SINCE 1894 THE HOME OF WHATEVER 
DEMOCRACY GERMANY KNEW FROM THE DAYS OF BISMARCK THROUGH THE WEIMAR 
REPUBLIC THE BUILDING HAD BULKED VACANT AND LIFELESS EVER SINCE IT 
WAS GUTTED BY FIRE ON FEB . 27, 1933 . THE 
NAZIS CLAIMED THE FIRE WAS KINDLED BY COMMUNISTS AS THE SIGNAL 
FOR A RED UPRISING, AND A CONFUSED DUTCH BOY NAMED MARINUS 
VAN DER LUBBE WAS BEHEADED FOR HIS ALLEGED PART IN THE 
CRIME . SINCE THE REICHSTAG FIRE GAVE HITLER A PRETEXT TO 
GAIN COMPLETE CONTROL OF GERMANY, MOST HISTORIANS HAVE CONCLUDED THAT THE 
FIRE WAS SET BY THE NAZIS THEMSELVES, POSSIBLY EVEN BY HERMANN 
GORING IN PERSON . THE REICHSTAG WAS FURTHER DAMAGED BY ALLIED 
BOMBERS AND BY SHELLFIRE IN THE CLOSING DAYS OF WORLD WAR 
II . THOUGH MANY GERMANS THOUGHT THAT IT SHOULD REMAIN IN 
RUINS AS A REMINDER OF THE PAST SLOW RECONSTRUCTION WORK WAS 
BEGUN IN 1958 . BY LAST WEEK THE SOUTH WING, CONTAINING 
45 OFFICES, SEVEN CONFERENCE ROOMS AND A PRESIDENTIAL SUITE, WAS FORMALLY 
REOPENED . IT WILL TAKE ABOUT FOUR MORE YEARS AND AN 
ADDITIONAL $12.5 MILLION TO COMPLETELY RESTORE THE REICHSTAG . UNANSWERED, SO 
FAR, IS THE QUESTION OF WHO WILL OCCUPY IT AND WHY 
. THE BUNDESTAG IS UNLIKELY TO LEAVE BONN FOR BERLIN FOR 
FEAR OF BRINGING CRIES OF " PROVOCATION " FROM RUSSIA . 
MOST LIKELY, THE RECONSTRUCTED REICHSTAG WILL STAND EMPTY THROUGH THE YEARS, 
SERVING WEST GERMANY AND WEST BERLIN AS A MUTE SYMBOL OF 
THE HOPE OF EVENTUAL REUNIFICATION OF THE NATION . KRISTALLNACHT MOURNED 
. ALL OVER WEST GERMANY, CEREMONIES MARKED THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF 
KRISTALLNACHT (NIGHT OF CRYSTAL), WHEN HITLER'S STORM TROOPERS WENT ON A 
NATIONWIDE RAMPAGE AGAINST THE PROPERTY, DIGNITY AND LIFE OF THE 400,000 
JEWS WHO HAD NOT YET FLED THEIR GERMAN HOMELAND . SYNAGOGUES 
WERE PUT TO THE TORCH . THOUSANDS OF JEWISH STORES WERE 
PLUNDERED AND HAD THEIR WINDOWS SMASHED (HENCE THE NIGHT'S BITTER NICKNAME) 
. THIRTY-SIX JEWS WERE MURDERED AND 25,000 ARRESTED . THE POGROM 
HAD BEEN INSPIRED BY THE ASSASSINATION OF GERMAN DIPLOMAT ERNST VOM 
RATH IN PARIS BY A 17-YEAR-OLD STATELESS JEW NAMED HERSHEL GRYNSZPAN. 
IT WAS, JOSEPH GOEBBELS TOLD HITLER, A PROPAGANDA OPPORTUNITY EQUAL TO 
THAT OF THE REICHSTAG FIRE . HITLER AGREED, AND THE STORM 
TROOPERS WERE RELEASED FOR THEIR " SPONTANEOUS " ACTION, WHILE REGULAR 
POLICE TURNED THEIR BACKS . BOTH GERMAN TELEVISION NETWORKS LAST WEEK 
FILLED THEIR PEAK VIEWING HOURS WITH PROGRAMS MERCILESSLY REMINDING GERMANS OF 
WHAT THEY HAD ALLOWED TO HAPPEN . LEADING NEWSPAPERS DEVOTED ENTIRE 
PAGES TO RECOLLECTING IN DETAIL THE HORRORS OF KRISTALLNACHT . SAID 
CHANCELLOR LUDWIG ERHARD : " WE MOURN WITH THE SURVIVORS AND 
WITH JEWRY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD . NO MAN CAN MAKE 
UP FOR THE INJUSTICE THAT WAS DONE . " ON TOUR 
IN AFRICA, WEST BERLIN'S MAYOR WILLY BRANDT SENT GREETINGS TO A 
MEMORIAL SERVICE HELD AT THE REBUILT JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER ON BERLIN'S 
FASANENSTRASSE . THERE, HEINZ GALINSKI, THE LEADER OF THE CITY'S 6,000 
REMAINING JEWS (DOWN FROM 160,500 IN 1933), HANDED OUT AWARDS TO 
" UNSUNG HEROES OF THE NAZI ERA, " 44 GERMANS WHO 
HAD RISKED DEATH TO GIVE SHELTER AND PROTECTION TO JEWS . 
IRONICALLY, IT WAS DISCOVERED AFTER HIS DEATH THAT DIPLOMAT VOM RATH 
HAD BEEN AN ACTIVE ANTI-NAZI . YOUNG GRYNSZPAN WAS FOUND GUILTY 
OF MANSLAUGHTER BY A FRENCH COURT AND SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS 
IN PRISON . HE WAS SERVING HIS TERM AT SANTE PRISON 
WHEN THE NAZIS OCCUPIED ALL OF FRANCE, AND HIS ULTIMATE FATE 
IS STILL UNKNOWN . 