Letters to the editor

I WRITE having read the letter from your reader Iván Gulyás (Vandalism vs protest, issue 33, August 14) regarding the character of Winston Churchill.


Churchill was a good leader


I WRITE having read the letter from your reader Iván Gulyás (Vandalism vs protest, issue 33, August 14) regarding the character of Winston Churchill.


No one is perfect and Churchill may not have been the ideal peace time Prime Minister for Great Britain but he is, nevertheless, highly respected because he was the leader whose efforts (and those of his team) enabled us to withstand the Nazi onslaught and win the war, with of course the help of the USA and the great help and sacrifices made by Russia and its people.


Mr Gulyás talks of "once beautiful" German towns and the death of many - some innocent victims of the war - caused by the bombing of Dresden.


But besides, surely being aware that this bombing was not only out of revenge but for many other reasons, your correspondent does not mention that Germany and its allies started this aggressive war on its innocent neighbors.


And it being insufficient to start this war with its resulting destruction and death it was decided that the armies of Germany and those of its allies would be organized murderers killing millions those considered racially inferior, Gypsies (and homosexuals and the infirm) and also the Slav Untermenschen to provide more comfortable Lebensraum for Germany and its allies.


Millions of Russian civilians and Prisoner of War were actively murdered or allowed to die of disease or starvation. And your correspondent wishes to besmirch Churchill's name for the bombing of Dresden !


As regards "the terror of Communism" I would prefer to live under that than under the "terror of Nazism".


Surely after that horrendous war any mistreatment exacted by the Russians on those who had actively murdered their people can be understood?


And surely Russia's desire for its ring of satellite countries can be understood as it was hoped that that way another similar war would be not happen.


The Eastern European countries have always been in the sphere of Russian interest and it was therefore not surprising that they were again to be so.


There are many primary sources which one may quote to support one's opinion, but I would suggest Heinrich Himmler's speech to Gauleiter in Posen, Poland on the November 6 1943 and I quote just odd words regarding the killing of Jews, viz "They are only Jews. What about women and children?


"I resolved to find an utterly clear solution for this as well. I would not allow the avengers of their deaths to grow up in the form of children and grandchildren."


Why are Hungarians still looking back into selective parts of their history rather than forwards to the future which, from May 1 next year, should be better for the vast majority of its citizens?





Edgar Mehl


London and Budapest





Told you so


THANK you for printing Iván Gulyás's letter in your paper on August 14.


I have been trying to explain to my very English husband, during the 20 years of our marriage, why Churchill would not be revered in Hungary as he still is in England.


Maybe now he will read Gulyás's letter and begin to understand that Hungarians have suffered during the last 60 years, two generations, because of Churchill's decision to allow Russia to remain on Hungarian land and occupy it as if it was her own.


Churchill himself said that the next greatest threat to peace in Europe will be the Soviet Union, yet he willingly agreed to sacrifice several Eastern European countries to a rule similar, if not more severe, than the one he was fighting during the Second World War.


He has just now been voted the second "greatest Briton", ahead of Shakespeare (fourth) and Diana, Princess of Wales (third), but behind Sir Isaac Newton.


Admittedly he was great for his own country, but not so great for us.


Maybe it is a mistake to have a statue erected for him in Budapest, which is not to say that it should be allowed to be "vandalized".


My husband's answer to all of this is that, "you should not have been on the losing side".


Did we have a choice? Churchill did and he made one that allowed tens of millions to suffer.





Ida Maria Haigh


Bartók Béla út


Budapest





Editor's note: Churchill was indeed rated second on the vote run by BBC World, but in the UK - only vote he came in top place.





Liberal idea


I'D like to thank you for printing out my letter, Vandalism vs protest; I understand it was quite lengthy, but you didn't cut it short; this is to your credit; I do appreciate the fact that you are open to thoughts different from the mainstream, which fits liberalism; unluckily, our native Hungarian tolerant liberals still have a lot to learn in that respect - but they won't.


Keep up the good work


Iván Gulyás


Teacher of English


Érd


Hungary





Not helping


YOUR article on US Congressman Tom Lantos's recent reception of the Cross of the Republic of Hungary (US congressman honored by Hungary, issue 34, August 21) completely failed to mention that Lantos was not simply a Hungarian, but a Hungarian Jew.


That, in fact, is why the sixteen year old Lantos was saved by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg, moreover, saved tens of thousands (not hundreds, as you write) of Hungarian Jews from both Nazi and Hungarian Arrow Cross persecution (though he could did little for the 439,000 Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz with local assistance, nor the approximately 100,000 more killed before liberation).


The world is still waiting for Hungarians to engage in a national dialogue about the extent of their collaboration with Nazi Germany in the Holocaust.


The Budapest Sun, however, seems little interested in helping to further this crucial reckoning.


Paul B Miller


Assistant Professor of History


McDaniel College-Budapest





River advice


MY husband and I will be taking a river trip from Amsterdam down the Rhine and on to Budapest on the Danube in late September.


Can you tell me if river traffic is passing normally at this time, or what the prospects for normal travel are like for late September.


We are reading news stories which indicate the river is too low due to the heat and drought.


Thank you so much for the information.





Beverly Kene.ck,


Ashland, Oregon





Editor's note: see our lead story,


Danube water crisis, from issue


34, August 21.





Lovely, Lucy


WHAT a lovely review of my book (The Rough Guide to the Universe) in your August 21 edition.


Please pass along my compliments to Ms Mallows, and thanks for taking the time to review the book!


John Scalzi


Via email




28.08.2003