Dutch nonagenarian returns Righteous Among the Nations medal after six relatives killed in Gaza

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Dutch nonagenarian returns Righteous Among the Nations medal after six relatives killed in Gaza Henk Zanoli, who helped save a Jewish child from deportation to concentration camps, said holding on to the medal would be an 'insult to the family.'

A 91-year-old Dutch man who was declared a Righteous Among the Nations for saving a Jew during the German occupation on Thursday returned his medal and certificate because six of his relatives were killed by an Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip last month.

In 2011, the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum declared Henk Zanoli and his late mother, Johana Zanoli-Smit, Righteous Among the Nations for having saved a Jewish child, Elhanan Pinto, during the Nazi occupation of Holland. Pinto, born in 1932, was hidden by the Zanoli family from the spring of 1943 until the Allies liberated Holland in 1945. His parents perished in Nazi death camps.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/.premium-1.610682

Ambassador Haim Davon

Embassy of Israel

Buitenhof 47

2513 AH The Hague

The Hague, August 11 2014

Subject: Return of medal of honour

Excellency,

It is with great sorrow that I am herewith returning the medal I received as an honour

and a token of appreciation from the State of Israel for the efforts and risks taken by

my mother and her family in saving the life of a Jewish boy during the German

occupation of The Netherlands.

My mother and her nuclear family risked their lives fighting the German occupation.

My mother lost her husband who was deported to Dachau as early as 1941 because of

his open and outspoken opposition to the German occupation. He eventually perished

in Mauthausen Concentration Camp. My sister lost her husband who was executed in

the dunes of The Hague for his involvement in the resistance. In addition to this my

brother lost his Jewish fiancée who was deported, never to return.

My steadfast and heroic mother nevertheless continued the struggle, amongst others,

by taking in an 11 year old Jewish boy in her home risking both her own life and that

of her children. This boy survived the war under the wings of my mother and

eventually moved to Israel.

Against this background it is particularly shocking and tragic that today, four

generations on, our family is faced with the murder of our kin in Gaza. Murder carried

out by the State of Israel.

The great- great grandchildren of my mother have lost their grandmother, three

uncles, an aunt and a cousin at the hands of the Israeli army. Their family apartment

building in Bureij Refugee Camp in Gaza was bombed on July 20 from an Israeli F16,

turning the four storey building to rubble, leaving every single family member inside

it dead.

I understand that in your professional role, in which I am addressing you here, you

may not be able to express understanding for my decision. However, I am convinced

that at both a personal and human level you will have a profound understanding of the

fact that for me to hold on to the honour granted by the State of Israel, under these

circumstances, will be both an insult to the memory of my courageous mother who

risked her life and that of her children fighting against suppression and for the

preservation of human life as well as an insult to those in my family, four generations

on, who lost no less than six of their relatives in Gaza at the hands of the State of

Israel.

On a more general note the following. After the horror of the holocaust my family

strongly supported the Jewish people also with regard to their aspirations to build a

national home. Over more than six decades I have however slowly come to realize

that the Zionist project had from its beginning a racist element in it in aspiring to build

a state exclusively for Jews. As a consequence, ethnic cleansing took place at the time

of the establishment of your state and your state continues to suppress the Palestinian

people on the West Bank and in Gaza who live under Israeli occupation since 1967.

The actions of your state in Gaza these days have already resulted in serious

accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. As a retired lawyer it would

be no surprise to me that these accusations could lead to possible convictions if true

and unpoliticized justice is able to have its course. What happened to our kin in Gaza

will no doubt be brought to the table at such a time as well.

The only way out of the quagmire the Jewish people of Israel have gotten themselves

into is by granting all living under the control of the State of Israel the same political

rights and social and economic rights and opportunities. Although this will result in a

state no longer exclusively Jewish it will be a state with a level of righteousness on

the basis of which I could accept the title of ‘Righteous among the Nations’ you

awarded to my mother and me together with the medal.

Today I am a 91 year old man who does not expect radical change with regard to the

current sad reality within my, most likely, still limited lifetime. If your state would be

willing and able to transform itself along the lines set out above and there would still

be an interest at that time in granting an honour to my family for the actions of my

mother during the second world war, be sure to contact me or my descendants.

Sincerely,

H.A. Zanoli