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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
Who Am I? Young Minds Forced to Choose
May 31 - June 2, 2019
Liberation75
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Ontario, Canada
For more information about Liberation75
This 13-panel exhibition created by the Arnold-Liebster Foundation examines the lives and experiences of young Jehovah’s Witnesses who suffered due to their refusal to accept Nazi ideology.
Simone and Rudolf, two young, persecuted Jehovah’s Witnesses, narrate the stories of their families and friends. Each panel heading poses a probing question for young viewers. Short, true-life accounts show how young Jehovah’s Witnesses answered these questions when faced with Nazi persecution. Using both historical and modern graphics, the exhibit seeks to touch the core of each visitor, to help us all to think about our identify and values.
For more information about the exhibition
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 1st.
For further details:
To order the book:
March 11, 2019 - Basalt Middle School
On March 11, Simone Liebster shared her story with the 8th grade students and their teachers during an interactive Skype conference at Basalt Middle School in Colorado.
Read comments about the conference from Principal Jennifer Ellsperman in the Basalt Middle School Weekly Newsletter of March 17.
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.”
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