Letter: Museum hosting Nazi has good intent
Aviation photographer Erik Hildebrandt signs copies of his book �Fly Navy: Celebrating the First Century of Naval Aviation,� May 28, 2011 at at the American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale. For Topper for Mary Beth Foley. Photo provided by Hildebrandt Credit: None/
The recent IMHO regarding the presence of a former Luftwaffe pilot at the American Airpower Museum ["Hosting Nazi a bad idea," In My Humble Opinion, July 11] raises valid questions and is an issue we have thought about long and hard.
He is not a volunteer but has spoken of his perspective during prior visits to Airpower. It is the engaged visitor who blows past the combat stories to ask serious questions about what he knew and when, his nation's democratic vote that willingly installed Hitler into power and its collective complicity in war crimes.
At some point, this elderly man will be gone, and there will be even fewer left to try to gamely explain why they didn't know, or couldn't stop it, or were just trying to stay alive. And when he is gone, I believe our job of telling the story of World War II to a generation captured by iPods, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be that much harder.
As the son of a Holocaust refugee, I can report that this is our motivation behind the appearance of a wizened old man who is willing to admit that he wore a Luftwaffe uniform.
Gary Lewi, Farmingdale
Editor's note: The writer handles public affairs for the museum.
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