Contract for Memorial Dishonors Veterans

Is it not unfortunate enough that we are finally (dis)honoring our World War II veterans with a memorial that visually would fit comfortably in any civic square in Germany or the old Austro-Hungarian Empire? Apparently not; for now, in a most disturbing irony, we have hired a construction company to build it that is wholly owned by a German corporation that used concentration camp slave labor to do Hitler’s murderous bidding (“Memorial Builder’s Nazi Ties Stir Furor,” June 15).

Tompkins Builders is owned by J.A. Jones Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., which is in turn owned by Philipp Holzmann AG, a German construction giant. This firm, throughout the war, used forced labor in Nazi camps and is among the companies that has finally agreed to contribute to a $4.5-billion compensatory fund. I am outraged! Certainly there are other construction companies that can and should be used.

Eleanor Jackson

Palm Springs