WTNH News Channel 8 / News / Crisis in Kosovo

	Holocaust Survivors Say Kosovo Crisis far Different from WWII (New London-WTNH) _ A week after NATO launched its strike campaign the "Crisis in Kosovo" is more intense than ever. The White House says no ground troops are necessary, but while the air war continues. On the ground refugees are pouring out of the region by the thousands trying to escape atrocities; random killings, house burnings, and ambushes. Some even compare the situation to the holocaust. But survivors of the holocaust feel this crisis is very different. News Channel 8's Peter Standring reports from our Southeastern Newsroom at The Day. Sigmund Strochlitz is a holocaust survivor. The 84-year-old made it out of Auschwitz but his family did not. He says you can't begin to compare what happened then with what's happening now in Kosovo. Sigmund Strochlitz: "11 million people were killed in concentration camps, of which 6 million were Jews. Here we're talking about 2, 3, maybe 4,000." Just the same Strochlitz calls the Kosovo situation a 'human tragedy' and he says watching events unfold there does bring back painful memories because there are some similarities. For example, Kosovar men are being rounded up and separated from women and children. The same thing happened to people during WWII at the hands of the Nazis. Some of Libby Smith's relatives suffered and died in Nazi concentration camps. She says it's very disturbing to hear of such places existing today, but like many she believes atrocities committed in Kosovo pale in comparison with the holocaust. Libby Smith, Teacher: "I don't know that the intensity is there, it's not as far sweeping, as the Holocaust was, thank goodness and hopefully it won't be." As for comparing the Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic with Hitler both Smith and Strochlitz agree that's an exaggeration. Strochlitz: "It is true, Milosevic is a barbarian and is killing people." Smith: "Probably in some respects he is similar to Hitler but Hitler stands alone." Today's News Page. WTNH Home Page. ©1999 WTNH-TV A LIN station.

Holocaust Survivors Say Kosovo Crisis far Different from WWII
(New London-WTNH) _ A week after NATO launched its strike campaign the "Crisis in Kosovo" is more intense than ever. The White House says no ground troops are necessary, but while the air war continues. On the ground refugees are pouring out of the region by the thousands trying to escape atrocities; random killings, house burnings, and ambushes. Some even compare the situation to the holocaust. But survivors of the holocaust feel this crisis is very different.
News Channel 8's Peter Standring reports from our Southeastern Newsroom at The Day.

Sigmund Strochlitz is a holocaust survivor. The 84-year-old made it out of Auschwitz but his family did not. He says you can't begin to compare what happened then with what's happening now in Kosovo.

Sigmund Strochlitz: "11 million people were killed in concentration camps, of which 6 million were Jews. Here we're talking about 2, 3, maybe 4,000."

Just the same Strochlitz calls the Kosovo situation a 'human tragedy' and he says watching events unfold there does bring back painful memories because there are some similarities. For example, Kosovar men are being rounded up and separated from women and children. The same thing happened to people during WWII at the hands of the Nazis.

Some of Libby Smith's relatives suffered and died in Nazi concentration camps. She says it's very disturbing to hear of such places existing today, but like many she believes atrocities committed in Kosovo pale in comparison with the holocaust.

Libby Smith, Teacher: "I don't know that the intensity is there, it's not as far sweeping, as the Holocaust was, thank goodness and hopefully it won't be."

As for comparing the Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic with Hitler both Smith and Strochlitz agree that's an exaggeration.

Strochlitz: "It is true, Milosevic is a barbarian and is killing people."
Smith: "Probably in some respects he is similar to Hitler but Hitler stands alone."

Today's News Page.

WTNH Home Page.