Last Friday, on the eve of International Human Rights Day, a small group of Aboriginal and Jewish people came together to commemorate the 84th anniversary of the call to support Jewish people against Nazism by Yorta Yorta man, William Cooper.
On the 6th of December, 1938, William Cooper, led a delegation of the Australian Aborigines’ League to the German consulate in Melbourne, to deliver a letter to the German government, which in part read:
“On behalf of the Aboriginal inhabitants of Australia, we wish to have it registered and on record that we protest wholeheartedly at the cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government in Germany. We plead that you would make it known to your government and its military leaders that this cruel persecution of their fellow citizens must be brought to an end.”
The delegation was not received by the consulate and the letter never delivered to the German government. The march on the consulate was the only significant contemporaneous act of opposition of its kind in the world, against what became known ‘Kristallnacht’, the first Nazi pogrom against the Jews in Germany. Over 90 people murdered that night and 7,000 Jewish businesses ruined. Kristallnacht ultimately signalled the beginning of the Holocaust which saw an estimated six million Jews killed.
William Cooper’s 1938 protest in Melbourne happened during a time when his own people were facing their own genocide. It was an incredible demonstration of compassion and human rights in an environment where none had been shown to him or his people, since the time of colonisation.
Last week’s commemoration in Sydney saw about 20 people walk from Redfern to Darlington, and then on to the Newtown Synagogue, where Rabbi Eli Feldman led a Shabbat service, acknowledging the contribution William Cooper had made to the Jewish community. Present were William Cooper’s great granddaughter, Aunty Barbara Mcdonogh and great-great-grandson, Michael McDonogh. The service was followed by kiddush, dinner and speeches.
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