‘BIBLE VIDEOS’ LETTERS : Recalling Germany, 1934

Here we go again! I just finished reading Howard Rosenberg’s column in Calendar (Aug. 30), “Bible Videos: Anti-Semitic or Just Plain Insensitive?” In the “Animated Stories From the New Testament” children’s series, the characterization of Jews in pictures and words such as described and shown recalls ones in Frankfurt, Germany, 1934, when I, a Jewish girl of 14, lived there. There were doctored photos, captions with terrible lies and blood-curdling headlines, all from the Nazi Sturmer publication.

These were plastered all over, not to be missed. My feelings, long buried, of terror and terrible isolation for being singled out and shunned like a leper by my close Christian friends, have surfaced. I was no longer to be associated with, because I was a Jew. I will never forget the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, the cold sweat of fear while looking at those pictures and captions. I watched the people alongside of me, laughing and voicing their derision.

We fled Germany and came to the United States because this country was founded on religious freedom, to be able to worship the way you were brought up, regardless of what your neighbor thought or did.

To plant the seeds of hate with animated cartoons will again create what happened not that long ago, when millions of innocent men, women and children were killed just because they were Jews. If you think this is far-fetched, think again. I watched the plantings of these kinds of seeds in Germany when no one spoke up, and I saw some of the results.

EDITH ABRAHAMS

Orange County