Gorecki’s Symphony

* Henryk Gorecki’s Third Symphony (editorial, “Musical Healing,” Sept. 17) was inspired by the prayers to the mother of God by a Polish girl dying in a Gestapo prison. Its symbolism could and does include all of the victims of Nazi terror, Poles and Jews.

But to write that it is a memorial to “Nazi Germany’s attempt to exterminate the Jews” omits those for whom the symphony was written--all exterminated victims.

And to further write that “anti-Semitic Poles were among the collaborators” is a gratuitous slap at Poles, unrelated to the performance, and denigrates the composition and the composer.

TEODOR POLAK, Chair

Polish American Congress

Anti-Defamation Committee of California

Los Angeles