“The history of man is the history of crimes, and history can repeat. So information is a defense. Through this we can build, we must build, a defense against repetition.”
Simon Wiesenthal, Holocaust survivor, Baltimore Jewish Times, Feb. 4, 1989
Nearly every time Miriam Hoffman leaves her home she passes the Walgreens on Ventura and Vineland in Studio City, California. While the years of Covid have brought changes to her neighborhood, including the issue of homeless to her doorstep, what she saw on Dec. 20 was a different pressing social issue: there was a swastika on the outdoor parking lot wall.
“I was shocked,” she told me about seeing the Nazi symbol when we spoke. The casting director and I were catching up on Jan. 4, having known each other since high school. “I can’t believe it’s still up,” she said.
Hoffman sent a message to Walgreens after seeing it. This was two weeks later.
“What was more alarming was the fact that I would think that if someone wrote to alert the company to it, that it would get done right away,” Hoffman said. “Because I would think they wouldn’t want their company associated with that and they would want their customers to feel safe and good as they go into Walgreens.”
