Sympathy and contempt for a former Nazi
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Re “A Nazi’s Day of Judgment,” Column One, July 12:
I think it is a travesty that more cannot be done for Josias Kumpf. An old man is being held guilty for events that happened more than a generation ago.
Even if he didn’t participate in the mass murder of a single group of people, as he says, he must still live with the memory of so many being killed before his eyes, something that no legal proceeding or punishment can emulate.
And if we can be forgiving of a former Nazi conscript named Joseph Ratzinger [now Pope Benedict XVI], we can be forgiving of this particular Nazi conscript.
Kumpf should be given clemency and be allowed to live out his remaining years with his family here in America.
His nightmares are punishment enough.
Chris Granholm Jr.
Camarillo
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The photo of Kumpf sitting next to an American flag seems most fitting. Someone once said that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. I say, ship him to Argentina.
Phil Garofalo
Glendale
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