Tami Ahronovitch, Jerusalem

To the Editor:

I am puzzled by the perception that the refugee crisis is an exclusively European or German problem. To be sure, the refugees are primarily stranded in Europe because of its geographic proximity, and they seek to come to Germany because of its economic prosperity. But that tells us nothing about political responsibilities and the proper institution to handle the problem. It is a shame that neither the United States nor the United Nations plays an active role in the resolution of the crisis.

Horst Eidenmüller, New York

To the Editor:

Sometime in 1642, a single woman and her 6-year-old daughter — my ninth and eighth great-grandmothers, respectively — began walking from Brandenburg in northern Germany. Ahead of them lay a trek of over 300 miles and the knowledge that where they were going to might not accept them. But behind them lay a smoking battleground where the child’s father had died in another of the pointless wars of religion that would devastate Europe for 30 years. So the woman took her daughter and they made their way through a landscape of ruin, savagery, dangers by night and day that we cannot begin to imagine.

Weeks, perhaps months, later they appeared on the doorstep of the family to which the child’s late father had belonged, a family of country gentry in a village where strangers were typically cause for suspicion and particularly so in time of war. The ailing mother and her daughter were taken in by this family, and though the mother died, the little girl was brought up in their care. It’s easy to give the nod to the family who took in these refugees, but it is also true that had the woman not been aided along the way, those 300 miles of walking with her child beside her, neither would have survived to reach that doorstep.

Because people helped my refugee ancestors, I, grandson of immigrants to America, am alive to tell the story. We are a species of survivors, and the best of being human is to help others survive, too. Let us help as best we are able, with words of encouragement if not in acts of assistance. In saving them, we save ourselves.

Grant Hayter-Menzies, Sidney, British Columbia

To the Editor:

I’d like to point out the great efforts by organizations and individuals across Europe to ensure migrants feel welcome — and to drown out the voices of right-wing minority groups trying to incite fear and hatred. The welcoming of migrants in Austria is just one example; similar pictures are emerging from elsewhere in Europe. Beyond this, people in various European countries involved have been donating great amounts of food, clothing and other necessities, opening their homes to migrant families, and sending many other signals that anyone alleging that their countries are unwelcoming to migrants is mistaken or misinformed.