I read with dismay that someone would choose to destroy a Jewish symbol to a child who died in a German concentration camp (“Memorial to child killed in Holocaust defaced in Milton,’’ Metro, Sept. 20).

In the introduction to his book “Auschwitz: The Nazis and ‘The Final Solution,’ ’’ Laurence Rees writes that the “the voices I heard loudest were those of the people whom we could not interview [and] in particular the more than 200,000 children who perished there and were denied the right to grow up and experience life. One image stuck in my mind from the moment I heard it described. It was of a ‘procession’ of empty baby carriages — property looted from the dead Jews — pushed out of Auschwitz in rows of five toward the railroad station. The prisoner who witnessed the sight said they took an hour to pass by.

“The children who arrived at Auschwitz in those baby carriages, together with their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts — all those who died there — are the ones we should always remember.’’

It is my sincerest hope that whoever desecrated this symbol, dedicated to a helpless child, at Milton Cemetery will understand the cruelty of their act, and find the courage within themselves to return the symbolic and holy Stars of David to the place where they rightfully belong.

Sal Lombardi

Tyngsborough