To the editor: As a Jew whose father lived through World War II and the Normandy invasion, I have a red-alert siren inside me that starts to sound when smears targeting marginalized ethnic groups are hurled. (“The Nazi Roots of Trump and Vance’s Smear of Haitian Immigrants,” column, Sept. 17)
Until recently, I wondered: Why isn’t anyone comparing the slanderous rhetoric of Haiti by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, to that of Nazi Germany? Columnist Michael Hiltzik finally said what needed to be said and provided a history lesson and a warning that the entire country should heed.
We must never minimize racist behavior. If that is not cause for alarm, then Americans have their heads buried in the sand, their hearts hardened, and their souls lost or dead. Forces that threaten the freedom and sanctity of life of any group will always threaten us all.
Elaine Mintzer, Keene, New Hampshire
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To the editor: Vance, who claims to be a Christian, appears to have forgotten or simply be ignoring one of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Perhaps you should visit one of the schools where the commandments are posted in the classrooms and spend some time reflecting on their meaning.
Kathleen Walker, Los Osos, California.
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To the editor: As a Jewish educator and lecturer on the Holocaust, I have long resisted comparisons between contemporary political behavior and Nazism, because they have always seemed exaggerated to me.
But the groundwork that the Trump campaign is laying is very similar to that of the Nazi Party of the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Richard Shafarman, Santa Clarita
