Survivors’ warnings to us
Since groups of white supremacists and neo-Nazis began marching in Charlottesville, Va., last Friday, sparking deadly violence and further protests there and demonstrations throughout the nation, more than 400 readers have sent us letters passionately condemning the racism on display in Virginia and President Trump’s responses to it.
What stands out from the letters we’ve received is the handful of submissions by readers who say they are the family members of Holocaust survivors or World War II veterans and are troubled by what they see now given their relatives’ experiences. Some take comfort knowing their deceased family members were spared witnessing the week’s events. Here are their letters. — Paul Thornton, letters editor
Marc Greenberg of Long Beach speaks for his late father:
Very recently my father passed away. It has been a difficult loss to accept. However, this week was the first time I felt some sense of peace in that he did not have witness what’s going on.
My mother is a Holocaust survivor, which means I am a Holocaust survivor
along with my own children. In my family we do not forget history.
On Tuesday our president made a heartfelt statement effectively supporting neo-Nazis. The fact that a young woman lost her life in Charlottesville last Saturday standing against these people apparently mattered little to our president. My father would have been heartbroken to listen to our president speak about neoNazis as if there were no historical context.
During the last 10 years of my father’s life, he traveled with my mother as she talked to school children about what happened decades ago and how she lost her parents to the Nazis. Children with tears in their eyes would hug her; they understood what our president does not.
As much as I miss my father, I take some comfort knowing he did not have see what we have apparently become.
Sherman Oaks resident Joselle Celine Gilvezan says her relatives fought to rid the world of the ideology Trump halfheartedly condemned:
My father fought in World War II, the Korean War and in a covert mission in Vietnam. My mother and her siblings were part of the French resistance during World War II.
My mother’s family went from being rather affluent to being forced to surrender their house to the Nazis, taking with them only that which they could carry on their backs. Two of my uncles were captured and taken to the Dachau concentration camp, where one perished and the other came out forever changed.
As a child, my mother took us to Dachau so we might see the horrors and know that they must not happen again. I remember her searching for her brothers in the photographs displayed at the museum on site.
Of course I wish my parents were still alive, but I take some comfort in knowing they did not have to witness our president implicitly condoning that which they fought so hard to rid the world of.