Keep Wiesenthal's mission alive

Your editorial "Death of a Nazi hunter" (Sept. 21) summarized Simon Wiesenthal's life and single-minded devotion to justice. We must oppose those who deny the Holocaust, those despots who provoke mass murder and energize all who remain complacent, while genocide occurs. We must continue Mr. Wiesenthal's work.

We must reach out to those who say: "Enough already. We have heard this before." Young people, our future citizens and leaders, have not heard it before, and they have not experienced it. Today's sound bites of yesteryears' events do not do justice to Mr. Wiesenthal's work. We must tell this story which happened 60 years ago. It could easily happen again.

The Jewish presence in the CSRA goes back more than 150 years, and Jews have been welcomed and have added to the community. We cannot allow stereotyping, isolationism and cultural ignorance to destroy the positive relationships fostered here; we must tell the story of the Holocaust and explain its roots.

Marc Gottlieb

Augusta

(Editor's note: The writer is chairman of the Augusta Holocaust Remembrance Committee of the Jewish Federation of Augusta.)