Latest news with #NaziPersecution
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- General
- Al Jazeera
A coalition of conscience must rise to stop Israel's genocidal war on Gaza
During the darkest days of World War II, Anne Frank and her family hid in a secret attic in Amsterdam to escape the horrors of Nazi persecution. Her posthumously published diary offered the world a haunting glimpse into the fear and trauma endured by Jewish families at the time. Today, a tragically familiar story is unfolding in Palestine. This time, it is children like Anne Frank – tens of thousands of them – facing death by starvation and relentless bombardment by the Israeli government. They don't even have an attic to hide in; the buildings around them have been reduced to rubble by indiscriminate Israeli attacks. Eight decades after the Holocaust, another genocide is unfolding – this time with Palestinian children as both victims and witnesses of ethnic cleansing. Each of these children carries a harrowing story the world needs to hear. One day, we may read their accounts in memoirs – if they survive long enough to write them. But the international community must not wait that long. It must confront the suffering of these children now. That is why we gave children in Gaza a platform to ask the world a searing question: 'Why are you silent?' – through a documentary that has become one of Turkiye's most widely shared efforts to expose the brutal reality of Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza. Many Western states have forfeited their moral authority and hegemonic discourse by acting as accomplices – or enablers – of genocide. Even more tragically, some have sought to justify their positions by invoking a genocide they themselves perpetrated eight decades ago. Those who once stood on the wrong side of history – committing crimes against humanity – are now turning a blind eye to the near-total destruction of another people. Guilt over past atrocities cannot be absolved through complicity in new ones. Conscience cannot be cleansed by choosing fresh shame to cover old disgrace. If the words 'never again' are to carry any weight, they must apply not only to the victims of yesterday – but also to the victims of today. Within days of Israel launching its military assault on Gaza in October 2023, Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly condemned the operation as one amounting to genocide. In the months that followed, Turkiye took concrete steps to oppose the brutal Israeli campaign and halt the unfolding catastrophe in Gaza. The Turkish government and people have consistently stood against genocide. President Erdogan refused to remain a passive observer of history; instead, he chose to stand at the forefront of humanity's moral conscience. This has been Turkiye's position for many decades. During the Holocaust, Turkish diplomats such as Necdet Kent and Selahattin Ulkumen risked their lives to rescue Jews from Nazi deportations. Decades later, during the genocide in Bosnia, Turkiye again urged the international community to act. Over the past 20 years, wherever human suffering emerged – from war zones to disaster areas – Turkiye has acted to shield the vulnerable and uphold the rights of the oppressed in the face of humanitarian crises. Turkiye responded to Israel's indiscriminate attacks with decisive humanitarian and diplomatic action – despite considerable political and economic costs. It severed trade relations with Israel and led efforts at the United Nations to push for an international arms and trade embargo. Diplomatic ties have been cut, and Israeli officials are now banned from Turkish airspace, disrupting attempts to normalise genocide. While many governments hesitated or issued statements, Turkiye acted – delivering aid to children forced to drink contaminated water, to mothers seeking shelter among ruins, and to families mourning loved ones with no graves to bury them in. By joining the case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Turkiye stood firmly for international law and justice – principles that many powerful nations invoke in theory but abandon when inconvenient. Western governments that once vowed 'never again' now tiptoe around genocide, paralysed by fear of offending Israel, even as children die beneath collapsing ceilings. This is not mere indifference. It is a betrayal of historic proportions. A key enabler of Western silence and complicity in the genocide in Gaza has been Israel's intense disinformation campaign. At the direction of President Erdogan, Turkiye's Directorate of Communications has worked to cut through this noise. The Directorate's Disinformation Combat Centre has, among other initiatives, launched the innovative The Lies of Israel platform, which counters false narratives in six languages. This was only the first step – clearing space for the truth to emerge and building pressure for meaningful change. More dangerously, Israel increasingly sees no need to disguise its actions behind misinformation. It exploits the insensitivity of large segments of the international community to the ongoing violence. By referring to Gazans as 'children of darkness', Israeli politicians attempt to legitimise the genocide against them. This effort to normalise inhumanity has been firmly rejected by both the directorate and the Turkish people. Turkiye is challenging not only the distortions of Israel's propaganda machine but also the deeper decay of global conscience. The directorate's work is an act of resistance – not just against lies, but against a world order where apathy has become the default response to atrocity. The sophisticated messaging strategy employed by the Directorate of Communications – blending traditional and digital media – has brought the reality of Israel's disproportionate use of force and the suffering of Palestinian civilians to the attention of the world. It reinforces President Erdogan's ongoing efforts to press Western governments and the broader public to live up to their own professed values. In coordination with Turkiye's diplomatic response, the directorate has ensured that social media and other online platforms – where most people now consume news – cannot be turned into accomplices to genocide. It has done so by producing a wide range of cultural materials, including books, films, exhibitions, and other public events. These gatherings are not merely intended to bear witness; they serve as a reminder of the moral responsibility that falls upon all of us. A prominent example of Turkiye placing truth in the service of justice was the compilation and dissemination of a book documenting evidence of Israel's crimes – an effort that has proven instrumental in supporting the case at the International Court of Justice. Turkiye holds the conviction that the era of outdated paradigms – those that prioritise the narrow interests of hegemonic powers – has come to an end. A new international order must be built on the foundation of upholding the rights and dignity of all people, especially the powerless. To this end, the Directorate of Communications has amplified the voices of Palestinian victims, particularly children, giving them a platform to speak truth in international forums and to express themselves through cultural initiatives such as the Bulletproof Dreams exhibition in Istanbul. Turkiye's consistent and early moral leadership on Gaza has kept the crisis on the global agenda and helped shape international awareness – creating the conditions in which Western leaders have begun to take hesitant steps away from their prolonged silence. After months of inaction, the United Kingdom, France and Canada have now called on Israel to 'stop its military operations in Gaza,' facilitate humanitarian aid into the strip, and pledged 'concrete actions', should Israel fail to comply. The UK has since suspended trade negotiations with Israel, imposed sanctions on violent settlers in the West Bank, and issued its strongest condemnation yet of Israel's 'morally unjustifiable' actions and 'monstrous' public threats to ethnically cleanse Gaza. This shift in tone from Western governments is welcome, albeit limited and long overdue. Rhetorical change must be followed by concrete action and a fundamental shift in policy – otherwise, it will remain hollow. The time for timid diplomacy has long passed. What is needed now is a coalition of conscience: nations bold enough to align their values with decisive action, and leaders prepared to trade comfort for courage. Justice will not arrive on its own; it must be delivered by those brave enough to lead. Should they fail, they must understand that millions of children – the very ones asking, 'Why are you silent?' – will continue to hold them accountable. Each day of delay in confronting Israel's genocidal government brings further crimes against Palestinians: more lives lost in Gaza, more homes torched in the West Bank. This failure not only deepens Palestinian suffering but also does a grave disservice to the Israeli people, many of whom yearn for a new and just leadership. The path forward has been clearly laid out by Turkiye. At this stage, merely withdrawing support for Israel is no longer enough. What is required is a coordinated, conscience-led initiative by allied nations to transform the growing momentum for Palestinian recognition into a genuine two-state reality based on the 1967 borders. This must include building a political framework that refuses to tolerate permanent injustice under the guise of neutrality. The starting point for this effort should be the rescue of the children. Let us act now – so that Palestinian children, like Anne Frank, do not have to die in silence to be remembered. Let them live – not to be sanctified, but to thrive. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.
BBC News
10-05-2025
- BBC News
Diary sparks mystery of Wolverhampton man helping WW2 Jews
The diary of a Jewish teenager from Austria has been uncovered, leading to a mystery about a man from Wolverhampton thought to be helping Jews escape diary was discovered by Eli Getreu's widow Barbro Gentele and featured entries written in 1939 as he was visiting his parents who were refugees in the city after escaping Nazi Daniel Lee, a reader in European History at Queen Mary University of London, said it offered a significant insight into life in Wolverhampton on the eve of also suggested a man called Isaac Brown living in the city had been helping Jews settle in the UK and Dr Lee is appealing for information about him. Mr Getreu moved to Denmark but visited his parents in Wolverhampton in May 1939, capturing in his pages the happiness and freedom he saw there before the outbreak of diary is handwritten in German and currently being translated by Mr Getreu's grandson Öyvind Vå includes letters to a girl called Vera, who Mr Getreu had been in love with. One entry on 27 May 1939 describes a fair in Wolverhampton "packed to the brim" with boys on dodgems and girls in make-up and silk stockings, and the laughter after two boys deliberately crashed their bumper Mr Getreu wrote: "I would have liked to have been as carefree that evening, but I was unable to. I was indeed sorry for something; I saw young girls everywhere in the arms of their boys, laughing, happy, and contented. I was jealous; I wanted to be so contented, too."Months earlier, he had described events in Austria during a wave of anti-semitic violence carried out by the is now referred to as the November Pogrom, formerly known as had begun in Germany and continued in Vienna on 10 November day, Mr Getreu documented soldiers searching homes, deserted areas where Jews would have previously gathered, religious scrolls thrown in the street, arrests, boarded-up shops, looting, an explosion and burned-down synagogues - and how he got home to be greeted by his mother "running out, crying joyfully, kissing me and being happy that I was there". Dr Lee, who was contacted by the family after they heard a BBC radio programme on the Holocaust, said: "It's amazing to think these boys and girls are having a lovely night, drinking and wearing make-up, but six months' later, they were in a very different place," he said."Some of those boys wouldn't even be alive. Women were going into factories."But here they are all having the time of their lives, with no idea of what was going to happen."He said Mr Getreu had been "a typical 18-year-old adolescent who did not have a crystal ball to inform him of what was around the corner" - who had paid as much attention to his personal thoughts as the horrific anti-semitism and violence seen on the streets of Vienna. Ms Gentele, who lives in Stockholm, described her husband's diary as that of a "young man who was madly in love" and a shy and sensitive teenager who was worried about his met him in 1973 in Sweden when he had become a psychotherapist working with families and Holocaust died in 2005 at the age of Gentele said she had no idea what he was going through in Wolverhampton, but believed he was writing about "a glimpse of what could have been".The family are now hoping to find out more about what life was like in Wolverhampton for Mr Getreu's parents, and whether they were part of a wider community of Jews who had fled said they wanted the journal to be published, not just as an account of war, but also as a way for young people to understand history, identity and empathy, and to "walk in another person's shoes". The diary has also led Dr Lee to discover more about who might have helped the family in said a man called Isaac Brown, living at 65 Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton, was supporting academic has found several documents backing up his theory, including a refugee card and information from a 1939 both the family and Dr Lee are hoping to trace anyone who knows more about Isaac Brown and the help he gave to those fleeing conflict and Lee said tens of thousands of Jews would have been seeking asylum in the UK at the time, and it was remarkable that Mr Getreu's parents found their way to the city at a time when borders were closing. He is seeking information on Mr Brown's role in facilitating this. The academic said the diary was significant because it revealed the routes some Jewish refugees took, adding: "They didn't always go to London, Paris or America, but rather followed family networks."He said Holocaust history was more commonly linked to places such as the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp, and he added: "You don't think about Wolverhampton and the Jewish refugees who fled there."It was an important discovery, he added, because so much World War Two research had highlighted the voices of the Nazis and the perpetrators of the said: "There is still so much more to uncover about the Jews themselves." Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Washington Post
09-05-2025
- Washington Post
German Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer dies at age 103
BERLIN — Margot Friedländer, a German Jew who survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp and became a high-profile witness to Nazi persecution in her final years, has died. She was 103. Her death was announced by the Margot Friedländer Foundation in Berlin, German news agency dpa reported Friday evening. Details about when and where she died, as well as the cause of death, were not immediately available. The foundation did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment.
The Independent
09-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
German Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer dies at age 103
Margot Friedländer, a German Jew who survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp and became a high-profile witness to Nazi persecution in her final years, has died. She was 103. Her death was announced by the Margot Friedländer Foundation in Berlin, German news agency dpa reported Friday evening. Details about when and where she died, as well as the cause of death, were not immediately available. The foundation did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment. She died the week of the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender in World War II. After spending much of her life in the United States, Friedländer returned to live in the German capital in her 80s. She was honored with Germany's highest decoration and with a statue at Berlin's City Hall. 'What I do gives me my strength and probably also my energy, because I speak for those who can no longer speak,' Friedländer said at an event at Berlin's Jewish Museum in 2018. 'I would like to say that I don't just speak for the 6 million Jews who were killed, but for all the people who were killed — innocent people,' she said. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his condolences in a statement, saying she gave Germany reconciliation despite the horrors she went through here in her life. Steinmeier said the country cannot be grateful enough for her gift. A report released last month said more than 200,000 Jewish survivors are still alive but 70% of them will be gone within the next 10 years. 'We're Germans' Friedländer was born Margot Bendheim on Nov. 5, 1921. Her father, Artur Bendheim, owned a shop in Berlin. He had fought for Germany and had been decorated in World War I. Friedländer recalled that, after the Nazis took power, her father initially said that 'they don't mean us; We're Germans.' She added that 'we didn't see it until it was too late." Friedländer wanted to design clothes and started an apprenticeship as a tailor. After her parents divorced in 1937, Friedländer, her mother and younger brother went to live with her grandparents. In 1941, they had to move to a so-called 'Jewish apartment,' and Friedländer was forced to work nights at a metal factory. In January 1943, just as the family was planning to flee Berlin, Friedländer returned home to discover that her brother, Ralph, had been taken away by the Gestapo. A neighbor told her that her mother had decided to go to the police and 'go with Ralph, wherever that may be.' She passed on her mother's final message — 'Try to make your life,' which would later become the title of Friedländer's autobiography — along with her handbag. Friedländer went into hiding, taking off the yellow star that Jews were obliged to wear. She recalled getting her hair dyed red, reasoning that 'people think Jews don't have red hair.' She said that 16 people helped keep her under the radar over the next 15 months. That ended in April 1944 when she was taken in by police after being stopped for an identity check after leaving a bunker following an air raid. She said she quickly decided to tell the truth and say that she was Jewish. 'The running and hiding was over,' she said. 'I felt separated from the fate of my people. I had felt guilty every day; had I gone with my mother and my brother, I would at least have known what had happened to them.' Theresienstadt concentration camp and ghetto Friedländer arrived in June 1944 at the packed Theresienstadt camp. In the spring of 1945, she recalled later, she saw the arrival of skeletal prisoners who had been forced onto death marches from Auschwitz ahead of that camp's liberation. 'At that moment, we heard of the death camps, and at that moment I understood that I would not see my mother and my brother again,' she said. Both were killed at the Auschwitz death camp. Her father had fled in 1939 to Belgium. He later went to France, where he was interned, before being deported in 1942 to Auschwitz, where he was also killed. Shortly after the camp's liberation, she married Adolf Friedländer, an acquaintance from Berlin whom she met again at Theresienstadt. He had a sister in America, and — after months in a camp for displaced persons — they arrived in New York in 1946. A return to Germany Friedländer stayed away from Germany for 57 years. She and her husband became U.S. citizens; she worked as a tailor and later ran a travel agency. Adolf Friedländer died in 1997, aged 87. Margot returned to Germany for the first time in 2003, when she was received at Berlin's City Hall along with others who had been pushed out by the Nazis. In 2010, she moved back to the German capital, where she told her story to students and was decorated with, among other things, the country's highest honor, the Order of Merit. She was made a citizen of honor of Berlin in 2018. Noting that there were few Holocaust survivors still alive, she told an audience that year: 'I would like you to be the witnesses we can't be for much longer.'
Associated Press
09-05-2025
- General
- Associated Press
German Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer dies at age 103
BERLIN (AP) — Margot Friedländer, a German Jew who survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp and became a high-profile witness to Nazi persecution in her final years, has died. She was 103. Her death was announced by the Margot Friedländer Foundation in Berlin, German news agency dpa reported Friday evening. Details about when and where she died, as well as the cause of death, were not immediately available. The foundation did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment. She died the week of the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender in World War II. After spending much of her life in the United States, Friedländer returned to live in the German capital in her 80s. She was honored with Germany's highest decoration and with a statue at Berlin's City Hall. 'What I do gives me my strength and probably also my energy, because I speak for those who can no longer speak,' Friedländer said at an event at Berlin's Jewish Museum in 2018. 'I would like to say that I don't just speak for the 6 million Jews who were killed, but for all the people who were killed — innocent people,' she said. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his condolences in a statement, saying she gave Germany reconciliation despite the horrors she went through here in her life. Steinmeier said the country cannot be grateful enough for her gift. A report released last month said more than 200,000 Jewish survivors are still alive but 70% of them will be gone within the next 10 years. 'We're Germans' Friedländer was born Margot Bendheim on Nov. 5, 1921. Her father, Artur Bendheim, owned a shop in Berlin. He had fought for Germany and had been decorated in World War I. Friedländer recalled that, after the Nazis took power, her father initially said that 'they don't mean us; We're Germans.' She added that 'we didn't see it until it was too late.' Friedländer wanted to design clothes and started an apprenticeship as a tailor. After her parents divorced in 1937, Friedländer, her mother and younger brother went to live with her grandparents. In 1941, they had to move to a so-called 'Jewish apartment,' and Friedländer was forced to work nights at a metal factory. In January 1943, just as the family was planning to flee Berlin, Friedländer returned home to discover that her brother, Ralph, had been taken away by the Gestapo. A neighbor told her that her mother had decided to go to the police and 'go with Ralph, wherever that may be.' She passed on her mother's final message — 'Try to make your life,' which would later become the title of Friedländer's autobiography — along with her handbag. Friedländer went into hiding, taking off the yellow star that Jews were obliged to wear. She recalled getting her hair dyed red, reasoning that 'people think Jews don't have red hair.' She said that 16 people helped keep her under the radar over the next 15 months. That ended in April 1944 when she was taken in by police after being stopped for an identity check after leaving a bunker following an air raid. She said she quickly decided to tell the truth and say that she was Jewish. 'The running and hiding was over,' she said. 'I felt separated from the fate of my people. I had felt guilty every day; had I gone with my mother and my brother, I would at least have known what had happened to them.' Theresienstadt concentration camp and ghetto Friedländer arrived in June 1944 at the packed Theresienstadt camp. In the spring of 1945, she recalled later, she saw the arrival of skeletal prisoners who had been forced onto death marches from Auschwitz ahead of that camp's liberation. 'At that moment, we heard of the death camps, and at that moment I understood that I would not see my mother and my brother again,' she said. Both were killed at the Auschwitz death camp. Her father had fled in 1939 to Belgium. He later went to France, where he was interned, before being deported in 1942 to Auschwitz, where he was also killed. Shortly after the camp's liberation, she married Adolf Friedländer, an acquaintance from Berlin whom she met again at Theresienstadt. He had a sister in America, and — after months in a camp for displaced persons — they arrived in New York in 1946. A return to Germany Friedländer stayed away from Germany for 57 years. She and her husband became U.S. citizens; she worked as a tailor and later ran a travel agency. Adolf Friedländer died in 1997, aged 87. Margot returned to Germany for the first time in 2003, when she was received at Berlin's City Hall along with others who had been pushed out by the Nazis. In 2010, she moved back to the German capital, where she told her story to students and was decorated with, among other things, the country's highest honor, the Order of Merit. She was made a citizen of honor of Berlin in 2018. Noting that there were few Holocaust survivors still alive, she told an audience that year: 'I would like you to be the witnesses we can't be for much longer.'
