A good reminder of the past

Dear Editor:

Since I returned to the valley last week after spending most of the last month away, it has been heartening to read about the controversy that occurred around the request for GrassRoots TV to air a Holocaust-denial video.

I was pleased to see so many of our local residents step up to the plate in defense of truth, civility and plain old common sense and decency.

It is infuriating to me as a Jew and a child of Holocaust survivors, that we are continually and constantly being put in the painful and emotionally traumatic position of having to defend this darkest time in our history. To go through the pain of having the Holocaust happen to the Jewish people, and in most cases, to our immediate relatives was enough. How dare those who would like to erase this history in order to set the stage for a replay, drag us through the trauma of having to prove that it really happened?

For those of us born to survivors, not only are we living proof that there once (only 60 years ago) was a madman whose primary goal was to obliterate the Jewish people and who managed to murder 6 million Jews within a period that spanned just a few years — but through the horrors that our parents experienced and passed to us (whether intentionally or not) we, as their children are still living the Holocaust every single day of our lives. Who knows how many generations it will take to heal the very deep and painful wounds that were inflicted by the Nazis on the Jewish people?

To Mr. Campbell and his cohorts, I would like to say that NEVER AGAIN will members of the Jewish, nor any other faith or persuasion, be stuck on ships floating in the ocean, trying to escape the terrible evil perpetrated on them, only to be sent back to death chambers because there was not one country on the planet who would accept them.

This history will NEVER be erased by the likes of you or anyone else. Therefore, it’s valuable lessons will be learned and it will NEVER be repeated.

And finally, I know this might be bad news for you and yours, Mr. Campbell, but the Jewish people, the State of Israel and our mission of “Tikun Olam” (repairing the world) are here to stay.

Thank you, sir, for serving so well in strengthening our resolve.

Judy S. Kava

Snowmass Village