April 22, 1985

Chancellor Helmut Kohl, at a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, said today that he accepted Germany's ''historical responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi tyranny.'' Standing beside a looming stone obelisk on the site of the Nazi camp where more than 50,000 people died, the Chancellor declared: ''This responsibility is reflected not least in never- ending shame. We shall not let anything to do with this be falsified or made light of.'' The Chancellor gave his speech - one of the most forthright and unflinching a West German leader has made about the Hitler era - surrounded by senior political figures, ambassadors, local people and survivors of the camp. The survivors had made emotionally painful pilgrimages here from Israel, the United States and other countries.

An Israeli gunboat sank an Arab ''terrorist vessel'' with 28 people aboard in an exchange of fire off the Israeli coast Saturday night, a military spokesman announced early today. Eight Arabs were captured, one body was recovered and 19 people were missing and presumed drowned, according to a communique.

For a business whose fortunes once seemed boundless, the long-distance telephone industry has reported its share of disturbing news recently. The GTE Sprint Communications Corporation has closed more than two dozen sales offices, Allnet Communication Services Inc. has furloughed about 15 percent of its work force and Satellite Business Systems has said it continues to lose money after 10 years of existence. The MCI Communications Corporation, although profitable, has gone through a number of wrenching changes, including an overhaul of its marketing program and a dispute leading to the resignation of its top marketing executive, Edward W. Carter. Now the long-distance companies have suffered yet another setback. On Wednesday the American Telephone and Telegraph Company said it would seek to cut prices on its long-distance telephone service by 5.6 percent.

AFTER dinner one evening during the 1963 Masters tournament, Gene Sarazen phoned the Augusta National Golf Club to learn his tee time for the next day's round. After he hung up, the golfer whose double-eagle 2 had put the Masters on the map in 1935 turned to his friend Fred Raphael and smiled. ''Tomorrow,'' he said, ''the old legend Gene Sarazen is playing with the new legend Arnold Palmer.'' Although the Legends of Golf tournament was not born until 1978, it was conceived that evening by Gene Sarazen's remark. And as the eighth Legends awaits Thursday's opening round at Onion Creek in Austin, Tex., it is credited with having inspired one of the sports phenomena of the '80s - the Senior PGA Tour. With 27 tournaments worth $6 million in prize money this year, the Senior PGA Tour has provided a mulligan in life for dozens of golf's touring pros of an earlier era.

New York State court officials intend to reorganize the way judges are assigned criminal and civil cases in an effort to speed dispositions, better measure judicial productivity and hold lawyers and prosecutors more accountable. Cases now are often disposed of piecemeal. They bounce to different sets of courtrooms, which are designated to handle particular legal procedures such as motions or trials - each presided over by different judges. To relieve caseloads elsewhere and to spread work and experience, the judges assigned to those courtrooms, or ''parts,'' are rotated, too. Switch Planned This Year Under the new approach cases would generally be handled by one judge from start to finish within each level of the court system.