Readers React: No matter what they’re called -- migrants or refugees -- they deserve help

To the editor: Recent reports in the media characterize those fleeing their homeland because of war, violence or poverty as refugees, migrants, asylum seekers or newcomers. (“Germany temporarily restricts flow of asylum seekers,” Sept. 13)

This article describes the “desperate hardships” of migrants and refugees. Another article describes them as young refugees, unaccompanied minors, who are victims of war and persecution.

Why are so many terms used to describe refugees who are risking their lives to leave war zones and make the hazardous journey by land or by sea to safe haven? Refugees also face border controls as European leaders plan to restrict entry. They seek safety and security, leaving family and home, with hopes for life in a new land.

They are refugees who deserve help from the world community.

Lenore Navarro Dowling, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: I’ve seen reports that Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states have taken in no Syrian refugees. Don’t Arab and Muslim countries have a moral duty to help their brothers?

Barry Fisher, Indio

..

To the editor: All around Europe are incredibly moving memorials to the people murdered during the Holocaust. Who can forget the sculpted shoes strewn on the banks of the Danube in Budapest or the pictures drawn by doomed Jewish children at the Pinkas Synagogue in Prague?

However moving these memorials are, no building, picture or sculpture can begin to satisfy our thirst for justice for these lost innocents. What we need is a living memorial — a memorial composed of people saved in the name of those lost in the Holocaust.

How great it would be if the international community started a living memorial for Holocaust victims by saving millions of refugees, each one in the name of a person lost 70 years ago. A life saved for a life lost: That would truly be a fitting memorial to one of the greatest tragedies in human history.

Linda Mele Johnson, Long Beach

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook