Letter to The Washington Post

Dear Washington Post Staff, In "The boy who struck back at the Nazis" (8/11/13), The Washington Post B ook Review includes a picture of Nazis marching during a funeral procession with the caption describing the event: "The Nazi attache was killed by a Jewish teenager in the German Embassy in Paris, sparking Kristallnacht, a wave of murder, rape and arson targeting Jews in German territories." By saying that the action of a Jew caused Kristallnacht - the horrid attack by Germans against the Jews of central Europe - The Washington Post commits bigotry of the highest order. Make no mistake, it was the Germans who, using the killing of the attache as a convenient pretext, sparked Kristallnacht by killing hundreds of Jews, destroying 1300 synagogues and 7,500 Jewish businesses, and rounding up 30,000 Jewish men sending them to concentration camps. It was their idea, they planned it, and they executed it! Blaming a Jew for being the spark - the beginnings of the Holocaust - deserves an immediate correction and apology to those of the Jewish faith for the outrageous claim. Michael Berenhaus