Don’t compare Syria to Nazis

To the editor:

I was disheartened and dismayed when I heard President Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, compare Hitler favorably to President Bashar al-Assad, asserting that at least Hitler did not use chemical weapons during World War II.

It is inconceivable that Mr. Spicer can carelessly ignore the use of gas chambers to systematically exterminate 6 million Jews and others. Such statements either reflect Mr. Spicer’s lack of knowledge of Nazi Germany’s concentration camps, or his lack of understanding of the depths of anti-Semitism. 

In either case, careless mistakes like this are an affront to all those of us — people whose religion is different from ours — who might not look like us or speak the same language are less valued than us.

On April 23, Yom Ha’Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), we will commemorate those who died in this unspeakable tragedy more than 75 years ago. Now more than ever, let us not forget the past, less history repeat itself.

EILEEN W. FISHER