I am humbled and deeply moved by the kind letter of Joseph Woodhead of Old Orchard Beach (April 12) headlined “Please listen.”

Allow me to make a few remarks for clarification purposes.

My childhood and early teen years in Hitler’s Germany afforded me a valuable insight into the character and evil of Nazi totalitarianism.

I was acutely aware of the dehumanizing harassment of our Jewish fellow citizens and their later disappearance into concentration camps.

In April 1945, our small village near Magdeburg was liberated by Gen. William Simpson’s 9th U.S. Army. But our hope for a life in freedom and liberty was squashed three months later with the Red Army’s takeover of their assigned Soviet occupation territory.

Another 12-year experience with totalitarianism followed, this time the Soviet variety.

A close-knit, trusted circle of friends and access to free West Berlin gave us the gift of a happy and fulfilling time during our medical school years – we called it a state of “inner emigration.”

In his letter, Mr. Woodhead says, “He [Dr. Kuck] has personally experienced the worst hardships that any human has endured.”

I am sorry if any of my previous statements conveyed the possibility of a misunderstanding, but that sentence cannot be applied to my experience. It has to be reserved for the immense suffering visited upon the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

Klaus D. Kuck, Lewiston

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