Friday, October 29, 1999
Courage fights hate, activist says
Group planning peace pole
BY ALLEN HOWARD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ANDERSON TWP. — If you want to know about courage, ask Cor Suijk. He can talk about it because he experienced it during the Holocaust.
Mr. Suijk was the speaker for the Anderson Promotes Peace meeting Thursday night at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church on Beechmont Avenue. The group was started after hate groups spray-painted a Jewish home with swastikas and a white racist distributed hate literature in the township.
The 75-year-old peace worker from Holland is chief executive officer emeritus of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and the international director emeritus of the Anne Frank House in New York.
Mr. Suijk was arrested in Holland in 1944 as part of the Dutch Resistance and served four months in a concentration camp. He talked about courage prior to his speech Thursday, and how it can be used by groups as the Anderson Promotes Peace group to generate racial and ethnic understanding.
“First, courage in this case means to be able to recognize what causes the hate,” he said. “We must understand that these acts of intolerance come from losers in our society. They are insecure and frustrated, so they act out their frustration on others.”
"We cannot be silent'
He said ignoring such behavior is not a solution.
“We cannot be silent. We should never leave people alone. I have seen the hate that develops from this insecurity in people. We have to learn how to look for it,” he said.
He used his own example, when he was arrested and found carrying more than 35 identification cards in his socks.
“At the time, I was involved in getting Jewish people from one address to another so they could work. They could not have an identification on them that said they were Jewish. I had access to get I.D. cards of people who had died and I used them to help the Jews,” he said.
He said he learned that one of the people in charge of the concentration camp had gone to school with him.
“I suddenly remembered that he was a good student, but he was always very insecure. I began to feel that I might have contributed to his intolerance because I ignored him,” Mr. Suijk said.
Finding site for pole
The two women who started Anderson Promotes Peace, Louise Lawarre and Ellen Fettner, said the meeting is the first step toward getting a peace pole erected in the township. They have received approval from the township board of trustees to help look for a place.
“We would like to have a public place to display the pole, preferably in Juilfs Park (on Clough Pike near Eight Mile Road),” she said.
The peace pole movement is part of a worldwide project. There are 100,000 peace poles in 160 different countries, Ms. Lawarre said.
She said once they get a location, the group will conduct a design contest among local artists and design high school classes to submit drawing to be placed on the pole.
“A typical pole is about 8 feet tall. We would like the drawings to reflect something related to peace,” she said.
She said the number to call to get information on how to become involved and enter the design contest is: 588-8391.
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