Can there be new facts about the holocaust? This is one of those rare holocaust narratives of resistance to the holocaust by Australian Aborigines - a world away from the fray. They were not even citizens in their own land but, after Kristallnacht, made a brave stand. William Cooper led the Australian Aborigines League in a protest against Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, which resulted in shattered lives and was recognised as the start of the Holocaust.They protested the "cruel persecution of the Jews" by ...
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Can there be new facts about the holocaust? This is one of those rare holocaust narratives of resistance to the holocaust by Australian Aborigines - a world away from the fray. They were not even citizens in their own land but, after Kristallnacht, made a brave stand. William Cooper led the Australian Aborigines League in a protest against Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, which resulted in shattered lives and was recognised as the start of the Holocaust.They protested the "cruel persecution of the Jews" by marching to the German Consulate in Melbourne on 6 December 1938 three weeks after the 9-10 November pogrom in Germany, Austria and Sudetenland that saw 91 Jews killed, Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues destroyed with shattered glass or fire. About 30,00 Jews were sent to concentration camps.This book follows how the story was lost to history and then found with William Cooper being honoured in many ways by Jews in Australia and at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center in Israel. His family has carried on his legacy and the story covers his family's trip to Israel and Berlin in 2017 to continue his work.Of holocaust books, it has a twist. Aboriginal William Cooper was a noted civil rights leader for his people but the only protest march he led was for the Jews. Read this inspiriting story. This book has facts about the holocaust that will be new and startling to you but it adds to the history on Jews and the history of Australian Aborigines.This book covers his story and his grandson's work to fulfil his unfinished dreams and how he has been honoured in Australia and Israel, even having a federal Australian electorate named after him and an Academic Chair of Resistance to the Holocaust named after him at Yad Vashem.Australian Aboriginal William Cooper has been described as Australia's Martin Luther King Jnr, Mandela, Gandhi or even an Aboriginal Moses by various commentators."I think of the great Jewish leader Moses as he stood on Mt Nebo in present-day Jordan and looked at the Promised Land which he was prevented from entering... In Martin Luther King Jnr's famous speech "I have a dream, made in 1963 in Washington, we see how he paved a path for Black Americans to freedom, equality and human dignity. But he was cruelly gunned down before he saw it achieved... William Cooper ... was not there to see his dreams come true, though most of what he worked for has been achieved in succeeding generations." Barbara Miller, White Australia Has A Black History ."... an indigenous man who too did not enjoy full rights in the country of his birth, should have found it within himself to stand up for the plight of Jewish People. That man was William Cooper and I do not think it inappropriate to refer to him as the Martin Luther King of Australia." Rob Schneider, CEO Australian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem"... by the Ti-kun Olam he (William Cooper) constantly demonstrated, together with the leadership of delivering his people to their 'promised land' of civil rights, human rights and land rights - I believe make him a contender for the title of 'The Aboriginal Moses'." Abe Schwarz, Convenor William Cooper Legacy Project
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