War In Bosnia -- `Schindler's List' Viewers Willing To Sit Through Epic On The Holocaust While Ignoring Another Genocide

Editor, The Times:

It is very heartening to witness the public and critical response to Steven Spielberg's film, "Schindler's List." It is, I think, a magnificent and artistically profound portrayal of the greatest abomination of our time. The fact that so many people are seeing this film would seem to indicate a concern for at least the concept of a common "humanity," but then again, the attraction might simply be Spielberg himself.

I do however, have to wonder if there isn't a certain self-congratulatory feeling on the part of people who, having now "done their bit" for the Holocaust by watching a very disturbing film, go back to their homes with no knowledge of (or concern for) a very similar holocaust (differing solely in scope and population figures). I'm referring to the rape of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Serbian and Croatian aggressors.

Bosnia doesn't have 6 million Muslims, so apparently we're only dealing with a mini-holocaust this time. The systematic extermination of an entire population and its culture has been occurring for nearly two years now, with no reaction - apart from meaningless threats and endless moral pontifications - on the part of the so-called "civilized" world. The systematic and officially encouraged rape, pillage, mass murder, forced relocation of the populations of entire towns, the literal strangulation and gradual destruction of a cosmopolitan city, Sarajevo (yes, where the Winter Olympics were recently held), that has been an enviable model of ethnic cohabitation - these things are occurring now.

Those who admire Spielberg's film might wish to ponder the implications of what he's accomplished. Yes, he made an extremely fine film about a historical event - an event about which far too many people know (and care) too little. It's beneath us all, though, to think that we've done our duty by merely sitting through a movie and displaying appropriate emotion. Do you really believe Spielberg was merely referring to a point in history? The Nazis are gone. The Nazi mentality lives on, encouraged by the raging fires of ignorance, fear, "ethnic purity" and "national heritage."

The U.S. government, the European Community and the United Nations continue to sit on their hands and do nothing, presumably due to their new-found respect for the "sovereignty" of the Balkan states - sounds good, but that has little to do with the daily loss of people's lives. And we, the populace of this great and ethical nation who, theoretically at least, determine the course of this country's foreign policy and who deem ourselves so knowledgeable of what is going on in the world, do the same. A few of us, I suppose, wonder whether in 50 years or so another filmmaker might emerge who will give our children a cathartic experience in the form of a film dealing with the annihilation of the greater part of the population of a central European nation. Then they, too, having fulfilled their moral obligation, can pat themselves on their backs and go home. Samuel Ferriss Seattle