The images in the real photo album depicting the Nazi murderers at the world’s largest cemetery is sickening. The sequence of events that created the album was ordinary, but the subject is grotesque. The “Final Solution” was a government agenda carried out ruthlessly on an industrial scale. The idea that these monsters are relaxing in the bucolic countryside on their days off is revolting. It was just a break from another day at the office.
The play Mr. Marks reviewed, “Here There Are Blueberries,” highlights the critical role of the researchers at the museum. They are preserving the memories of the 6 million victims to rebut Holocaust deniers. The pain involved in viewing this grotesque group is similar to viewing Auschwitz itself. Genocide is horrifically wrong. The ordinary humans who became mass murderers need to have a place in the collection as a warning to the world. Hatred unchecked leads to Auschwitz once that train leaves the station.
Steven A. Ludsin, East Hampton, N.Y.
The writer was a member of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust and the first U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which created the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
