Source: Ventura County Star
[insidevc.com/vcs/ve/article/0,1375,VCS_251_2140684,00.html]
On July 28, 2003 the Ventura County Star reported that "in 1939, [Stan] Kohls' parents, Herbert and Judith, were among the last Jews to escape Nazi Germany's death camps... The narrow escape left Kohls with a deep sympathy and passion for helping those wronged by society, he said... He got involved early with the civil rights movement... Kohls received death threats from right-wing groups because of his political activism during that divisive, angry era... Yet that hate of 30 years ago was not as startling to him as the 'white-hot' hostility he's received over the past four months, he said... 'It really surprised me,' Kohls said of the reaction after he demanded in late March that the city of Ventura divest itself of the landmark cross... Kohls claims the 90-year-old cross violates the constitutional separation of church and state. He and two unnamed Ventura County residents are being represented by a San Francisco attorney who has threatened to sue the city if it holds on to the cross... Kohls said he has received many telephone calls at home from enraged cross supporters. People have left many profanity-filled messages on his answering machine, and some have accused him of wanting the cross removed simply because he's a Jew, he said."