Members of the Australian Aborigines League, led by William Cooper, 77, marched through Melbourne to the German Consulate on this date in 1938 to present a petition protesting Kristallnakht, the Nazi-sponsored pogrom against German Jews. The contingent was turned away at the consulate gate. Cooper had organized the League four years earlier as one of the first groups demanding Aboriginal citizenship and land rights in Australia; his Yorta Yorta people, a collection of several clans, had been thoroughly terrorized and dispersed a century earlier. In 2010, the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Israel announced a plan to build a small garden at its entrance and to establish a chair for the study of anti-Nazi resistance, both in William Cooper’s name. Although the Australian govenment had refused to permit Jewish emigration there during the 1938 Evian Conference, some 20,000 Holocaust survivors took refuge down under after the war.
“We are not an enemy people and we are not in Nazi concentration camps. Why should we then be treated as if we are?” —William Cooper
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The story of William Cooper and his march with fellow Aborigines on the German Consulate in 1938 displays the inherent decency and charity that is found within the Aboriginal community.
Think of what it would have been like to be an Aborigine back in 1938, no anti-discrimination laws, now Govt departments to protect peaceful activism, often they would have endured outward public ridicule for their stance on any issue. Yet they marched as a group in support of the Jewish community being set apon by Nazi thugs on the other side of the globe. Why?
They had a unique insight of what being discriminated against was truly like and felt motivated to act on someone else’s behalf. How bloody decent is that!!
In contrast we see recent actions on Australia Day showing a small group of Aborigines not seeking unification and generous acceptance of changing public beliefs. But seeking to fuel the flames of conflict and violent action.
I am sure William Cooper would have had a lot to say to these trouble-makers about charity & decency being better examples than loud-mouthed conflict.