Letters to the editor: Nazi comparisons disqualify people from civil Covid debates

The Auschwitz concentration camp. Photo / MaxPixel

Many thanks to Jo Raphael for another eminently sensible editorial, Stop comparing NZ to Nazi Germany, (Opinion, November 12).

Forty years ago, I spent six months in the company of a number of concentration camp survivors with tell-tale tattoos.

My Dad and two of my uncles served in the Second World War, following in the footsteps of their fathers in the First World War, so I always had an interest in these conflicts and their causes.

One woman I met back then had a different story to tell.

When Hanke and her family were being rounded up, a Ukrainian SS soldier (let's not forget about them) took a shine to a gold watch she'd recently been given for her 18th birthday.

She refused to give it up so he beat her with his rifle butt in front of her family, stole the watch and left her for dead, in the snow.

She was rescued by local Polish neighbours (gentiles) and spent the rest of the war in one of the ghettos ready to jump out of her third-storey window if the Gestapo came calling.
At least she survived. Her entire extended family perished in the camps.

Not sure if it's simply a particularly noxious stupidity, but people who spout nonsense comparing our government and Hitler's Germany should be instantly disqualified from any civil debate about Covid.

Graeme Simpson
Rotorua

Misinformation targets young

Thank you to Merepeka Raukawa-Tait for her comprehensive opinion column (Comment, November 12) warning of possible catastrophic outcomes for unvaccinated Māori.

Since New Zealand history has been neglected in schools, many young people will never have heard of the 1918 Spanish flu which was devastating for Māori, accounting for
the deaths of seven per cent of their population.

What this excellent column did not include, however, is what I believe to be the elephant in the room - misinformation which indoctrinates mainly younger people under 50.

Spread by social media, it affects not only Māori and Pasifika but many young pakeha people, and virtually brainwashes this vulnerable group.

If there is not some way to counteract this, the 10 per cent unvaccinated are, indeed, in a race against time.

Jackie Evans
Rotorua

More speed bumps needed

I'm writing this email on a Sunday morning just after 6am and my street is still cordoned off with emergency services. At around 5am a car hit a power pole on Koutu Rd. I hope that no one was hurt.

I note there are around eight speed bumps now on Kawaha Point Road.

I request the council makes the same consideration for the upper section of my street, please. This is purely for the safety of the community.

John Henry
Koutu

Ban fireworks

Making a noise, disturbing the peace and aggravating behaviour is surely a criminal offence.

There is no justification for fireworks being used at any time in New Zealand.

We have no connection with Guy Fawkes and it is ridiculous saying English-born people living here have an affiliation with the story and subsequent celebration.

This is New Zealand, and there is no incident in our history that requires the use of fireworks.

Ban them - simple and effective.

Jim Adams
Rotorua

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