Letters to the Editor 10-2-09

Stalin

not such a bad guy?

To the Editor:

A recent article by Jay Gerber (“A myth destroyed”; September 4, 2009) alleges that Stalin was responsible for the Holocaust. Nothing is further from the truth. Gerber bases his allegations on some books he read. You can read books that will prove anything that you want to hear. I can tell you from personal experience, spending two years in concentration camps, that the Soviet army liberated us from the Germans. They were our saviors. They liberated Auschwitz and many other camps. They not only liberated us but also fed us and treated us with dignity and great care.

To say that Stalin was responsible for the Holocaust is totally ludicrous. To set the record straight, he was no saint and he liquidated many so-called enemies of the revolution, but we as Jews owe him a lot hakoras hatov. I estimated that he saved millions of Jews, those that were liberated from the camps and hundreds of thousands of Jews that received refuge escaping from the Germans by going from Poland to Russia.

All this could not have happened without the approval of Stalin. Also, he appointed the prime ministers of the eastern European countries, Poland, Hungary and Romania and they were all Jews.

We Jews are known to show hakoras hatov to those who save Jews. I object to Mr. Gerber’s article. He can’t make a judgement on reading misguided books.

Paul Gross

Cedarhurst

Bringing back nightmares

To the Editor:

Your article ("Fringe Baptist  group brings hate to Great Neck"; September 25, 2009) triggered nightmares for my mother. The words of these virulent Anti-Semites reopened the traumatic events of her childhood during the days of Father Charles Coughlin when Hitler was coming to power. Like other vulnerable Jewish children, her life was made hellish in Brooklyn. She was frequently taunted for being a Christ-killer in addition to being beaten up for daring to set foot on a Christian street. The single worst episode was, as a child of no more than age ten, my mother was tied up to a fence and had her hair burned until a righteous Christian woman intervened to rescue her.

Rabbi Benjamin Blatt

Wisconsin

To the Editor:

A recent article by Jay Gerber (“A myth destroyed”; September 4, 2009) alleges that Stalin was responsible for the Holocaust. Nothing is further from the truth. Gerber bases his allegations on some books he read. You can read books that will prove anything that you want to hear. I can tell you from personal experience, spending two years in concentration camps, that the Soviet army liberated us from the Germans. They were our saviors. They liberated Auschwitz and many other camps. They not only liberated us but also fed us and treated us with dignity and great care.

To say that Stalin was responsible for the Holocaust is totally ludicrous. To set the record straight, he was no saint and he liquidated many so-called enemies of the revolution, but we as Jews owe him a lot hakoras hatov. I estimated that he saved millions of Jews, those that were liberated from the camps and hundreds of thousands of Jews that received refuge escaping from the Germans by going from Poland to Russia.

All this could not have happened without the approval of Stalin. Also, he appointed the prime ministers of the eastern European countries, Poland, Hungary and Romania and they were all Jews.

We Jews are known to show hakoras hatov to those who save Jews. I object to Mr. Gerber’s article. He can’t make a judgement on reading misguided books.

To the Editor:

Your article ("Fringe Baptist  group brings hate to Great Neck"; September 25, 2009) triggered nightmares for my mother. The words of these virulent Anti-Semites reopened the traumatic events of her childhood during the days of Father Charles Coughlin when Hitler was coming to power. Like other vulnerable Jewish children, her life was made hellish in Brooklyn. She was frequently taunted for being a Christ-killer in addition to being beaten up for daring to set foot on a Christian street. The single worst episode was, as a child of no more than age ten, my mother was tied up to a fence and had her hair burned until a righteous Christian woman intervened to rescue her.