opinionJanuary 24, 2025

A heartfelt letter to the editor praises Ms. Debra Tune's article on the Jewish Holocaust, recounting a personal childhood visit to Dachau and emphasizing the importance of remembering history's lessons.

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Letter to the Editor:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Debra Tune of The Prospect-News for her most excellent article recently published on the Jewish Holocaust. I truly believe it was one of the finest pieces of history I have ever read in our local paper.

As a nine-year-old child in 1963, I accompanied my father as he was stationed in southern Germany. We lived in the Bavarian city of Augsburg that still revealed the wounds of World War II. I vividly remember the bomb scarred buildings.

My father truly enjoyed Saturday drives through the Alpine countryside.

On one such trip, he was very serious in his mood as we drove to the Munich suburb of Dachau.

There we visited the former site of the Nazi concentration/death camp. Present were displaced persons, people that could not be repatriated to their native countries due to the Iron Curtain) living in the ruins of the camp.

An elderly man that spoke very good English served as our tour guide as we witnessed the ovens used to dispose of human remains and other ghastly sites.

At the end of the walk through, my father gave a generous gratuity to the gentleman who appeared to desperately need it. The man excitedly thanked my father and raised his coat sleeve to reveal a tattooed number. He had been an inmate prisoner of Dachau.

Dad explained to my sister and me on the short drive home the importance of us seeing that dreadful sight and explaining the terrible things bad people can do if good people do nothing.

Again, I congratulate Ms. Tune of her superior article and the truth it contained.

Respectfully,

CW5 David W. Shifflett USA (Ret)

Doniphan

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