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FOUNDATION MISSION
The Arnold-Liebster
Foundation seeks to
promote peace, tolerance, human rights, and religious freedom by peaceful and
non political means...
ACTIVITIES
The foundation has
sponsored or shared in numerous international events...
ARNOLD-LIEBSTER FOUNDATION
News and Events
Simone Arnold Liebster continues to visit students worldwide during the pandemic through interactive Zoom conferences.
For more information: Video Conferences
Exhibition
Jehovah’s Witnesses: Faith Under Fire
July 24, 2021 - January 2, 2022
Florida Holocaust Museum
55 5th Street South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
This 12-panel exhibition created by the Arnold-Liebster Foundation chronicles the Nazi persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Witnesses’ nonviolent resistance to Nazi terror inside and outside the camps.
Their story is one of immeasurable faith and courage, especially since they always had before them the opportunity to seek relief by signing a declaration to renounce their faith and give their allegiance to Hitler. They showed that it was possible to stand up against Nazi terror, even though they were a minority. Their story can inspire visitors to stand up against hatred and violence no matter what others do, or fail to do.
Arnold Family Artifact
During the Nazi era, resistance came to mean any conscious attempt to stand up against the National Socialist regime. Spiritual resistance included refusal to obey rules by continuing religious practices.
After the arrest of Adolphe Arnold on September 4, 1941, Emma Arnold bought a table and using plywood, made a shallow box with two open sides that was hidden under the tabletop. She told her daughter, Simone: “Now we’ll have a discreet hiding place for Bible literature.”
Read more at The Secret Shelf
More News
A Chronicle of Hope—Revisiting the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda
At the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta, Georgia, on April 4, 2019, the program “A Chronicle of Hope—Revisiting the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda” marked the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda.
On April 7, 1994, the tiny African country of Rwanda exploded in genocide. Some 800,000 died during 100 days of murderous violence directed against the entire Tutsi ethnic group, as well as politically moderate Hutu, and Hutu who refused to kill or who tried to rescue Tutsi. About 70 percent of the Tutsi in Rwanda were killed, many by their neighbors or workmates.
Lorenz Reibling, adjunct professor at Boston College, spoke on the utter collapse of social institutions (academia, the media, and the churches) during the Nazi genocide of the Jews and the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda.
Four genocide survivors, Charles and Angelique Rutaganira and Tharcisse and Chantal Seminega, told how they evaded death at the hands of killers because they were rescued by Hutu Jehovah’s Witnesses who risked their lives to save them. The survivors related how the Rwandan Witness community held to their nonviolent and apolitical Christian ethic, refusing to participate in the genocide and taking extreme risks to shelter Tutsi.
The Arnold-Liebster Foundation and the Laura and Lorenz Reibling Family Foundation sponsored the event.
Dr. Tharcisse Seminega's new memoir No Greater Love: How My Family Survived the Genocide in Rwanda was published June 1, 2019.
For further details:
The Schoolgirl, The Nazis And The Purple Triangles
Award-winning 30-minute documentary film by Jonathan Lewis looks at the Nazi persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses through the eyes of a young schoolgirl. Based on the book "Facing the Lion: Memoirs of a Young Girl in Nazi Europe" by Simone Arnold Liebster.
Watch a 3 minute clip from the film.
Watch the full film available for classroom use.
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“What enabled us to offer moral resistance and stay firm in the face of a tyrannical state?
“Our strong convictions helped us reject omnipresent propaganda, respond to hateful persecution with love and forgiveness, and conquer despair thanks to our firm hope.
“May these reflections, testimonies, and narratives help our visitors understand that intolerance leads to exclusion, persecution, and ultimately annihilation.
“May these historical accounts likewise inspire strength and courage in those suffering oppression of all kinds.”
Legal Notice - © Arnold-Liebster Foundation 2016