Spielberg’s Oscar

I am a survivor of Hitler’s hell. I sat and watched the Oscars and tears ran down my face thinking of the millions who did not survive to see the winner for best picture. In my mind’s eye I see another picture. I see my parents, my relatives, my 12-year-old brother--all of them gasping for air in Hitler’s gas chambers. Nobody helped the Jews then. The skinheads are not a fad. Do not ignore it, world. I was in Europe when it started the same way. Hitler Jugend , they called themselves. The world ignored that insane German leader. World, don’t let history repeat.

Thank you, Steven Spielberg, for “Schindler’s List,” and for showing it to the world that does not believe.

ROSE FUTTER

Los Angeles

Occasionally, just every now and then, Hollywood genuinely stimulates its theatergoing public into contemplating real-life issues. Poignant testimonials such as “Philadelphia” and “Schindler’s List” compel us to re-examine those belief systems that perpetuate what poet Robert Burns called “man’s inhumanity to man.” In the process we confront our personal demons and learn something about ourselves.

Is such painful self-scrutiny really necessary? You bet. In the same Times issue that quotes Tom Hanks’ eloquent eulogy of AIDS victims runs a story of an uninformed emergency medical technician, who allegedly refused to place an ailing man on a stretcher because the patient confessed to taking AZT. “Oh my God, he has AIDS,” the EMT is quoted as saying. Surely the ignorant health-care professional works in Smallsville, USA, you say, where such behavior is not unusual. Guess again. Smallsville’s name--the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia.

I wonder if he has seen the movie?

RONALD D. LITTLE II

Laguna Beach