Letters to the Editor: Don’t punish Nazi-saluting kids. Make them watch films on death camps

To the editor: Do not punish the ignorant students of Pacifica High School in Garden Grove who were filmed allegedly giving the Nazi salute and singing a Nazi anthem at an off-campus event.

Do not reason with them. Do not lecture them with words.

Put these students in a room, lower the lights and make them watch films of the liberation of the Nazi death camps at the end of World War II. If that does not soften their hearts, God have mercy on us all.

Frank Knecht, Mar Vista

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To the editor: After landing on Omaha Beach in France, my father fought on through the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of the Rhineland with the 75th Infantry Division to help defeat the Nazis.

No one was ever deluded into believing that such fascism was eliminated forever. It is certain, though, that no one ever imagined a resurgence of this scourge within our own borders among some of our youth; and worse, a president who actively foments and even defends Nazis and white supremacists as “fine people” while declaring himself a “nationalist.”

That school officials at Pacifica High sought to hide this incident to avoid bad publicity should be roundly condemned, and all involved must be held to account. Anything less only dishonors the sacrifices of my father and millions more like him.

Kurt I. Muller, Rancho Palos Verdes

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To the editor: Whenever stories appear about a group waving swastikas, giving the Nazi salute or waving a Confederate flag, it brings to mind the fact that those people are losers because they are following losers.

Nazi Germany had a formidable army, navy and air force as well as functioning rocketry and jet propulsion. Still, it was beaten down to the last man.

The Confederate states had some of West Point’s best and a functioning army that struck the first blow, yet they were soundly defeated.

As for people who wave swastikas and Confederate flags, the only thing I can say to them is that they are following losers. Try following winners.

Clyde Doyle, Los Angeles