Sept. 16




AUSTRIA:


First memorial to black victims of Nazi genocide


In the vast, agonising mosaic of the Holocaust, Mahjub bin Adam Mohamed was
simply one more piece, one of millions of the Nazis' victims lost to
obscurity without a funeral or a grave.

Now bin Adam is to make history in Germany by becoming the first black
person to be given a memorial in his adopted country as an individual
victim of the genocide of the Third Reich. A Stolperstein - a bronze
'stumbling block' - will be erected on the ground outside the house in
Berlin where he lived.

The memorial will be placed so that pedestrians have to step around it,
and its aim is to stop future generations from thinking of the Holocaust
in terms of anonymous, faceless numbers. Until now the markers have been
almost exclusively established at Jewish homes, but bin Adam's
Stolperstein will serve as a reminder of other minorities, the black
people, the disabled, homosexuals, gypsies, communists, political
dissenters and Jehovah's Witnesses, who were also murdered under Hitler's
regime.

The Stolperstein is a project conceived by Cologne-based artist Gunter
Demnig. He plans to create a total of 12,000 markers outside houses,
giving the name of the person or persons who lived there and the date on
which they were taken to a concentration camp. Munich is the only city to
have so far refused to have the markers, saying that they would encourage
anti-Semitism.

Bin Adam, who was born in Tanzania, joined the then colonial German East
Africa services when he was 10 years old and served with the army. He
emigrated to Berlin in 1929, where he immediately got into trouble with the
authorities by walking into the Foreign Ministry and demanding his
outstanding service pay.

Although his request was refused, he decided to stay, working as a waiter in
hotels and taking small parts in films. He had roles in more than 20 movies
with stars such as Zarah Leander, Hans Albers and Willy Birgel, even after
the war broke out. He also taught Swahili at the Oriental Workshop.

He married a German woman, Maria Schwander, and they had three children -
Adam, Annemarie and Bodo - but his family struggled to make ends meet
because of his excesses, which included numerous affairs that resulted in
several illegitimate children. He was still in dispute with the authorities
over money for his time in the armed forces when he was arrested in 1941,
charged with the crime of 'miscegenation' - racial intermarriage - and taken
to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he died in November 1944.

The plaque, which will stand outside his former home on Brunnenstrasse in
Berlin's Mitte district, comes with the release of a book about him,
Truthful Till Death, by Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst. The book focuses attention
on the persecution of black people under the Third Reich, which included
forced sterilisation and, ultimately, extermination.

By the start of the 20th century, Germany had extensive colonies in Africa
and it is often claimed that German doctors carried out genetic experiments
on East Africans. After the First World War, France occupied the German
Rhineland, deploying colonial African soldiers as the occupying force. The
result was hundreds of children born to German women by African soldiers who
then became a target for Hitler. In Mein Kampf, he referred to them as
'Rhineland Bastards'.

By 1937, every identified mixed-race child in the Rhineland had been
forcibly sterilised, often without anaesthetic. By the outbreak of war most
black people had fled. The few who remained were exterminated.

(source: The Observer)





USA//TENNESSEE:

After fleeing wartimes slave labor, his crusade became Holocaust education

At 80 years old, Leonid Saharovici is gray and weathered, yet "old" does
not describe him.

Each day he returns from a three-mile walk around his East Memphis
neighborhood, dripping sweat.

Only when he pulls out an aged photo of emaciated corpses piled high like
discarded rag dolls do his hands tremble.

The photo was given to him by a liberator of the Dachau concentration camp
and is one of many items Saharovici has collected from the Holocaust.

Looking at it, he quotes his favorite author, Holocaust survivor Elie
Wiesel: "Remembering can instill caution, fortify restraint and protect
against evil and indifference."

"That's the message I carry to anyone who will listen," he said.

Saharovici has been a crusader for Holocaust education since coming to
Memphis 35 years ago.

In 1982, during one of the largest gatherings of Jewish survivors in
Washington, D.C., Saharovici engaged Al Gore and Don Sundquist, both
congressman at the time, in the idea of a Tennessee Holocaust Commission.

His ability to win people over resulted in the commission's creation two
years later.

"I wanted to have a large organization who could influence Holocaust
education," he said.

It was the third commission of its type in the country, and one of the
first in the state, to create a Holocaust curriculum for high school
students.

He and his wife, Fridericka, also a survivor, came to America with two
children, no money and speaking little English.

When they fled communist Romania to live with Fridericka's cousin in
Memphis, they were restricted to one suitcase and had to leave all
valuables behind.

Saharovici was trained as a lawyer, but lacking the funds to get certified
in America, the highly educated immigrant sold encyclopedias door to door.

Eventually, he landed a job with National Mortgage, which he retired from
several years ago.

In Memphis, Saharovici has told his story many times.

"As soon as I had confidence people could understand my message, I went to
schools and colleges," he said.

But he is more interested in encouraging other survivors to speak of their
experiences.

"We have films about our lives, but you have to keep the fire burning.
People forget the stories," he said.

Born in Bucharest, even before the start of WWII, Saharovici recalls it
being staunchly anti-semitic.

Because he was Jewish, at 13 years old he was kicked out of school and his
family was forced out of their home. Taken in by an aunt, they lived five
to a room.

By the time he was 15, they were under German occupation, and he was
ordered to report daily to a forced labor camp where, after a bombardment
on the city, he would dismantle still-ticking bombs.

For the ones that had exploded on impact, he would use a pick ax and a
wheel barrow to clean up the rubble, including bits of body parts.


Leonid Saharovici's identity card was issued at age 15 for the forced
labor camp in Bucharest, Romania, where he worked during the war.
"I used to come home terrified," he recalled.

Used as slave labor to take the place of workers fighting the war, he was
ordered to do various jobs for two years.

In August 1944, he was working in a field when a Russian soldier on
horseback rode up, recalled Saharovici.

"He said 'Jews, you are free.'"

When the Russians took over, however, life under communism became less
like freedom each year.

In fear of being sent to jail, he would listen to the world news quietly
under the sheets.

"We had to leave," said Saharovici, who packed up his wife and children
for Memphis.

Since arriving, he has not only founded the Tennessee Holocaust
Commission, but the Jewish Historical Society of Memphis and the
Mid-South. He is chairman of the Belz Museum of Asian & Judaic Art,
director of the Center For Southern Folklore and Chairman of the
Belz/Parker Artists Ascending Concert Series.

But after years of keeping a spotlight on the atrocities of the Holocaust,
he sees history repeating itself around the world.

In Africa, Hutus and Tutsis are killing each other "brother against
brother," he said. "I ask, did we learn the lessons of the Holocaust?
Obviously not."

As each year leaves fewer witnesses to one of history's darkest memories,
Saharovici says it is more important than ever to tell these stories.

"Our testimonies, our movies, the books we write, the friends we make,
these are going to carry on our message."

(source: Commercial Appeal)





ISRAEL/SPAIN:

Holocaust Museum in Israel wins humanitarian award in Spain


Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum and memorial, won a prestigious
Spanish humanitarian award Wednesday for its work in promoting tolerance
through the remembrance of the Nazi genocide.

The jury of the Prince of Asturias award praised Yad Vashem "for its
tenacious work to promote, among current and future generations, and
through memory, the overcoming of hatred, racism and intolerance."

The museum is Israel's tribute to the 6 million Jews who perished under
the Nazis in World War II. It has become the word's leading archive for
information about the Holocaust, featuring films, more than 200,000
photographs and 62 million documents, books and articles. It receives 2
million visitors a year.

Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vashem, thanked the jury for recognizing the
work of the museum.

"This prestigious international award recognizes that the memory of the
Holocaust the systematic murder of the Jews that took place in the heart
of Europe has profound significance for the coexistence of the family of
nations, today, and through the ages," Shalev said in a statement.

"The receipt of the Prince of Asturias Award inspires us to continue in
our efforts to build a better future through our confrontation with the
past, and emphasizes the awesome responsibility that Yad Vashem bears," he
said.

"As the generation of the witnesses to these horrors dwindles, Yad Vashem
will continue to transform their memory into building blocks for a better
world one characterized by tolerance and mutual respect amongst all
peoples."

The museum beat out 46 other candidates for the Prince of Asturias
"concord" award, the last of eight prizes handed out each year by a
foundation named for Crown Prince Felipe, heir to the Spanish throne. The
jury said Yad Vashem had been nominated by German Chancellor Angela
Merkel.

The concord prize is awarded to people or institutions for their
contributions toward promoting world peace, human rights and fighting
injustice, poverty and disease.

The Prince of Asturias awards are given annually in such categories such
as arts, science and humanities to Spaniards and foreigners alike.

They will be handed out later this year in the northern Spanish city of
Oviedo, capital of the Asturias region.

(source: Associated Press)