Durban | Thursday
THE state of Israel was committed to fighting each and every form of racism, Israeli ambassador to South Africa Tova Herzl said on Wednesday.
Speaking in Durban, where she honoured a Dutch couple who saved Jews during the Holocaust, she said the state was established partly to give shelter to those persecuted for no fault of their own, but because they were Jews.
”One can know where racism begins, but one cannot know where it ends,” Herzl warned.
She presented the award of ”Righteous Among the Nations” posthumously to Martinus and Gerda Moolenschot. Their son Hans, who now lives in South Africa, received it on their behalf.
The award is made to people who helped to save Jews during the Holocaust for no reward.
Martinus Moolenschot was known in the underground as a builder of hiding places for Jews in homes, the Israeli embassy said. He held the keys to some Jewish families’ houses so he could keep an eye on their vacated properties under the pretext that he was renovating them.
Jewish customers of his placed their sons, then aged four years and 18 months, in the Moolenshots’ care when the persecution of Jews started.
While the children, John and Hans Sanders, stayed with the Moolenschots in their summer home in the village of Blaricum, a closet in their Amsterdam house served as a hiding place for the parents.
Martinus Moolenschot took food to them daily. The children remained with the family for nine months, but the Germans became suspicious and they were removed to another hiding place.
Accepting the medal and certificate, Hans Moolenschot said his parents were deeply committed Christians. They were acutely aware of the possible consequences of what they did, but were prepared to risk that.
Senator JJ van Heukelum of the government of the Netherlands said, referring to the World Conference Against Racism in Durban from which the Israeli government withdrew: ”This week there is a conference here, where a lot of talking is taking place.
”Mr and Mrs Moolenschot did not talk so much. They had things to do.” – Sapa