https://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/kkk-tries-to-silence-84-year-old-woman-who-fled-the-nazis-after-she-criticizes-trump/BETHANIA PALMA MARKUS
18 MAR 2016 AT 10:23 ET
An 84-year-old woman who fled Austria as a child with her family to escape the Nazis was mailed a KKK symbol after openly criticizing GOP front-runner Donald Trump, according to the Boston Globe.
Louise Mayerson told the paper she received the anonymous envelope in the mail writing a letter that was published in the Globe earlier this month.
“I have found some alarming rhetoric coming from Donald Trump that is apparently finding approval from large numbers of my fellow Americans,” she wrote. “With Trump’s rather ambiguous response concerning his disavowal of the support of former Klansman David Duke, I have reached my breaking point”
Just days later, she received the envelope containing a square white cross and red background, the symbol of America’s oldest and most violent hate group.
“I believe somebody just read that letter, it touched a nerve, and that’s the way they reacted,” Mayerson told the Globe. She contacted the police, who are investigating.
“The more that hateful and denigrating speech becomes commonplace in the public realm from leaders, the greater the likelihood that people will start acting up, whether it’s harassment via the mail or violence,” Robert O. Trestan, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, told the Globe.
The real estate magnate did disavow Duke after being pressed on the matter, at first claiming to not know who he is, then saying, “I disavow.”
“Mr. Trump has disavowed David Duke, the KKK and all other groups that espouse similar views. He will continue to do so,” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told the Globe in an email.
Despite this, Trump has made it a habit to retweet white supremacist Twitter accounts to his 7 million followers, including one pro-Hitler account that posted a picture of Trump in Nazi garb gassing Jewish Democrat Bernie Sanders.“We all know the opinions and actions the Ku Klux Klan stands for,” Mayerson wrote in her letter. “Among the fellow Americans the KKK has sought out for its venom are American Jews. Trump’s failure to immediately repudiate Duke chilled my blood. I can see myself needing to flee once more and perhaps return to my native country in Europe, where hateful rhetoric is now strictly forbidden and punishable by law.”
