Role of Swiss During WWII

Re “Distortion, Guilt by Association,” Commentary, June 17:

As a Jew by birth, I am horrified at the unending stream of accusations by Jewish agencies against everyone and anyone in connection with the Holocaust. Certainly the Swiss had some guilty parties in connection with the unspeakable horrors perpetrated by the Nazis. However, in the main, Switzerland was not a prejudicial country and helped many Jews escape Germany during the time of terror. Even today, a Jewish person encounters little, if any, prejudice or bigotry in Switzerland.

Why do we not hear more about atrocities perpetrated daily in Israel against the Palestinians? Are these injustices of less consequence than the actions of a few bigots taken more than 50 years ago? Let’s get on with the world as it is today and put the past squarely behind us. Constant accusations of individuals and countries only perpetuate the Holocaust--they do not remediate it in any way.

MAXINE ASHER

Beverly Hills

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As refugees from Hitler’s Germany, my husband and I spent part of 1938-39 in a Catholic old-age home in St. Fiden, Switzerland. I was 21 and my husband 31. We were waiting for our U.S. visas.

We felt helped and protected. The same applied to the many Jewish refugees in the area. One woman, for instance, was given papers to pick up her child, who had been left in Vienna, and reenter Switzerland.

As soon as we had our visas, a skier risked his life by smuggling the tickets packed between two blocks of chocolate across the border from Austria, although I did not know him or meet him and was therefore unable to compensate him for his heroism.

GERTA SLATES

Los Angeles