When I stood before the grand Mädchenschule in Chortitza during a visit to Ukraine 20 years ago, I realized why my father went to Germany to study architecture in 1912 (“Russians Bomb Historic School,” September). He grew up in a house next door to this UNESCO World Heritage Site building. My grandfather had donated the land for the school. I walked up the iron staircase with the logo of the Lepp-Wallmann agricultural machinery factory on each of the serrated steps. Contrary to the AW report that the school stood empty for a century, we met with a Ukrainian teacher and students there in 2007. Many were blond, and a few had black hair, indicating their Roma heritage. The teacher proudly announced that the school had just won the Zaporizhzhia citywide choir competition. My mother was a student there almost 100 years earlier when it was a Mennonite school. Her schooling was cut short by the chaos of World War I. The sadness of the current Ukraine war hit home to me when the school was destroyed.

George Dyck, North Newton, Kan.