Sir, – On Tuesday I visited the Auschwitz camps. The unspeakable acts committed there were not the surprise.
The shock came from the site’s scale and organisation.
Sadly, many visitors there also seemed to be showing an unknowing disrespect for the dead.
A few black-clothed groups were appropriately sombre, but for the many skittish bus tours the horror and the victims seemed long gone. This was just another stop.
It is unthinkable that Auschwitz could not produce a reaction. There had to be a recompense for the survivors and unequivocal support for their protection.
Are the Israeli government’s actions against Palestinian victims and the support its electorate gives them an ongoing part of this reaction?
If they are, then any shared human wisdom would be that such a cycle must be broken, for everyone’s long-term good. This must be done before this generation’s victims are forgotten. It can be done by the methods of Gandhi, Mandela and Hume.
Boycotting illegal goods and this year’s Eurovision are compatible with such a strategy. These are not the shunning of a people as Mark Paul fears (Opinion, May 15th), they are an attempt to break the vicious cycles to which all humanity seems prone. – Yours, etc,
DAVID CLINCH,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.