To the editor:

I’ve visited three concentration camp memorials in Germany, toured the Holocaust Museum and read extensively on the nightmare created by Hitler’s Third Reich, but nothing brought home the raw humanity of that dark era more than the radio interview I did of Louis Frydman for Kansas Public Radio in 1996. He graciously opened his home to me one evening for an interview and answered all my questions with unflinching honesty and a frankness I wasn’t expecting but grew to appreciate as the night wore on.

What he and his brother and thousands of others experienced remains a story that is beyond the pale. Lawrence lost a local treasure with his recent passing. Thank you, Lou Frydman, for reminding us that among the wretchedness of human nature there is also decency, perseverance and a desire to leave a positive record of one’s time on earth, which you did in spades.