In the time Francesca Albanese had South Africans eating out of the palm of her hand in Johannesburg and Cape Town, my restless mind shifted to memories of a man named Hans Hubermann. His home address was 33 Himmel Street.
Hubermann was a good man, a man’s man. He was a painter. Not a painter in the mold of Picasso but a painter as in the guy who waits with a placard at the street corner on most mornings, hoping to be picked up for an odd job, which almost invariably never materialises.
Hubermann, the lovely man that he was, an upright citizen in the 1940s Germany of Adolf Hitler, had a weakness, an Achilles heel.
He was a “Jew lover”, a terrible, unpardonable crime in the jaundiced Nazi eyes of the time.
As the Jews were being marched through town to the death camps in Dachau, in his basement at home, Hubermann hid a Jewish fist fighter named Max Vandenburg.
With his wife, Rosa, an Amazon of a woman, they adopted a child, Liesel, whom they schooled in the art of caring.
It is thanks to this teaching that Liesel, following her papa’s example, unwittingly fed bread to the Jews being marched to their death.
For this indiscretion, Liesel gets to see Hubermann paying dearly, being beaten to a pulp by a young German soldier.
With Albanese in town, primarily to deliver the 23rd Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, I got to thinking that the plight of the Palestinians shouldn’t be left to human rights lawyers and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories alone.
It is a task best left to Israelis themselves. Jews have been shown mercy before – by the likes of Hubermann and, perhaps more prominently, by Germans like Oskar Schindler.
Schindler’s brand of humanism was depicted in the 1993 film Schindler’s List directed by Steven Spielberg, starring a stellar cast that included Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley and Embeth Davidtz.
It is an epic tearjerker, showing the human heart is not German or Jew or gentile. It is just universal.
Hutus were able to spare the lives of Tutsis during the height of the Rwanda genocide in 1994, for which, like Hubermann, they paid dearly. Some paid with their lives.
Just when I was beginning to despair, thinking my search was in vain, I caught sight of a report that said: “Prominent Jewish figures around the world are calling on the United Nations and world leaders to impose sanctions on Israel over what they describe as unconscionable actions amounting to genocide in Gaza.”
There were over 450 signatories, including former Israeli officials, Oscar winners, authors and intellectuals who have signed an open letter demanding accountability over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“We have not forgotten that so many of the laws, charters, and conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were created in response to the Holocaust,” the signatories write.
“Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel,” the open letter reads in part.
Signatories include ex-speaker of the Israeli Knesset Avraham Burg, former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, conductor Ilan Volkov, playwright V (formerly known as Eve Ensler), among others. South African novelist Damon Galgut is among the signatories.
These modern-day Hubermanns want to “ensure adequate humanitarian aid to Gaza and reject false claims of antisemitism against those advocating for peace and justice”.
They insist: “Our solidarity with Palestinians is not a betrayal of Judaism, then, but a fulfilment of it.
“We bow our heads in immeasurable sorrow as the evidence accumulates that Israel’s actions will be judged to have met the legal definition of genocide,” the letter reads further.
Hubermann showed the way; Schindler proved it was humanly possible. The ball is now firmly in the court of the Israelis of conscience to stop the killings.
All praise to Francesca Albanese, who continues to shine the beam of hope on the hardships faced by the Palestinians!
• PS: Hans Hubermann is a character in the 2005 book – published in 2007 – by Markus Zusak titled The Book Thief.
• Makatile is weekend editor
