Jacques Chirac

* Re “Chirac Admits France’s Complicity With Nazis,” July 17:

March, 1943: Seven people are denounced to the Gestapo in the south of France--mother, father, both 37; brother, age 9; uncle, aunt and their daughter, age 5; and I, age 16. May, 1945: I alone return after Auschwitz. A week or so later, a French woman who was renting us a cellar confesses to the crime; four people involved were tried, convicted and sentenced to five years in jail. Ingrained anti-Semitism and the greedy opportunity to get their hands on an old robe and an old pair of slippers had directly caused the death of six people.

Thank you, President Jacques Chirac, for your courageous admission of these facts in a period aptly named “the black years” in the history of France.

MAURICE KORNBERG

Los Angeles

* As a member of Detachment D1C1, Civil Affairs, U.S. Army, I arrived in the Place de la Republique on Aug. 24, 1944. We had been detached from our infantry division to be part of a task force to enter Paris to participate in the liberation of that city. Place de la Republique was the heart of the Jewish community of Paris and also the site of the SS headquarters. We were met by two elderly gentlemen, wearing yellow stars, who spoke to us in English. After welcomes were enthusiastically offered, we were asked, “What is the will of the Americans? Are we to still wear our yellow stars?”

That question staggered us. Without a second’s hesitation, we all tore the stars off the clothing of the group surrounding us and placed them on our uniforms. We were unable to speak. Of course, the word spread quickly, “We are free!”

President Chirac’s apology, as late as it comes, reflects the nobility of the man.

SEYMOUR ROBINSON

Los Angeles