I read Gary Rosenblatt’s column on the PBS documentary “Worse than War” based on Daniel Jonah Goldhagen’s book with great interest (“Preventing Genocide Is Easier Than Stopping It,” April 16).
The documentary has not yet aired here in Israel, but we all look forward to its viewing soon. We had no shortage of Shoah media showings throughout our own commemorations in Israel, as we have each year on Yom HaShoah.
This year I attended one of the thousands of ceremonies held in our middle schools here in Modiin.
A table was set up with one lone yellow rose. In the background was a giant black sheet with the words, “There were no flowers in the ghetto.” Besides the teachers, there were over 600 students sitting on the ground, silent and in rapt attention. No one moved during the approximately 30 minutes of the program, which began with the wailing of the sirens, heard throughout the country.
For these kids to remain motionless said a lot about them and the awesome subject they were experiencing. Various short dramatizations were presented by the kids.
I thought to myself how differently we relate to our youngsters than do the parents of Hamas and Palestinian Authority children who teach them to hate. The Israel Defense Forces has learned to shoot straight in order to prevent what that PBS documentary depicted.
Modiin, Israel
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