September 12, 2001

Dear Friends:

Yesterday morning, our first sign that something was wrong was when Becky had problems getting

telephone connection to New York City. Our friend told her that there had been a terrorist attack in

NYC, and a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Becky called me to tell me what had

happened and to watch the news on TV. When I switched it on to see if there was any information

available, the first footage I saw was the second plane crashing into the South Tower. I knew

immediately it was only a question of time, due to the heat of the tremendous quantity of burning jet

fuel, that the metal structure of the building would melt, resulting in a complete meltdown and total

collapse of the Tower. A few minutes later, they showed the collapse of the first Tower.

Once I saw the people on the streets in fear, hurt and covered with rubble, I broke down in tears,

and memories came back. On May 30, 1942, I was just 11 years old, and it was a beautiful, clear

spring day. That night, a few minutes before midnight, the first 1000 bomber attack on a German

city -- Cologne, my hometown -- had started. Besides heavy bombs and air mines, they dropped

huge gasoline tanks mixed with phosphorus which ignited on impact. The whole city was in flames!

Under these horrific conditions, all the people united and helped where help was needed.

W.W.II continued to escalate way beyond human imagination. Finally, we had more than twenty

heavy air raids in Cologne, each of them much worse than the first. In the end, due to the bombing

of civilians in Germany and England, entire cities were destroyed and many innocent people died.

Terror could break walls but not the people's morale; on the contrary, it brought us closer together!



After the war ended, I thought that such cruelties couldn’t happen again, but I was wrong. For more

than twenty years, we are dealing with international terrorism, escalating with each passing year. If

we don’t stop it, it will continue with no end. The only way to counterattack these hate groups is if

all free nations and free people unite. I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks if the most

dramatic actions against evil are taken. We must consider that any person, group or nation that

assists or condones terrorism is our enemy.

What happened on that beautiful, clear day of September 11, 2001 was a well-designed,

diabolic attack on our freedom -- an act of hate and hate is evil.

We have only two possibilities: terror without an end or an end with terror. Throughout history, it’s

proven that terror never broke the morale of a people, and it definitely won’t break the morale of the

American people! We must unite against the guilty and take the necessary actions for their

destruction. Hate shall not be our motive. We MUST protect the innocent, regardless of their race,

religion or nationality.

This is one of the darkest hours of mankind.

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