In Part 3 we are going to look at a person that started off as a industrialist using cheap labor but ending up as a broke but heroic person. Thereafter we look further into the Bill of Rights Section 14 –17.
Oskar Schindler (1908–1974)
In December 1939 Schindler took his first faltering steps from the darkness of Nazism towards the light of heroism. As he was moved by the cruelties he witnessed, Schindler contrived to transfer his Jewish workers to barracks at his factory. As the brutality of the Holocaust escalated, something awakened in him and Schindler's protection of his Jewish workers became increasingly active. In the summer of 1942, he witnessed the Germans decimated the ghetto’s population of some 20,000 Jews through shootings and deportations. Several thousand Jews who survived the ghetto’s liquidation were taken to Plaszow, a forced labor camp run by the sadistic SS commandant Amon Leopold Goeth.
In late summer 1944, through negotiations and bribes from his war profits, Schindler secured permission from German army and SS officers to move his workers and other endangered Jews to Bruennlitz, near his hometown of Zwittau. Each of these Jews was placed on “Schindler’s List.” Schindler and his workforce set up a bogus munitions factory, which sustained them in relative safety until the war ended. By the end of the war he negotiated the salvation of his 1,300 Jews by operating right at the heart of the system using all the tools of the devil - bribery, black marketeering and lies.
When the war ended, Schindler fled to Argentina with his wife and a handful of his workers and bought a farm. In 1958, he abandoned his land and returned to Germany. He spent the remaining years of his life dividing his time between Germany and Israel, where he was honored and taken care of by his “Schindlerjuden.”
He died in Hildesheim in 1974, broke and virtually unknown
Many of the people he helped and their descendents financed the transfer of his body for burial in Israel, his final wish. In 1993, the United States Holocaust Memorial Council posthumously presented the Museum's Medal of Remembrance to Schindler.
http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/special-focus/oskar-schindler
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/schindler.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Schindler
Bill of Rights
14. Privacy
Everyone has the right to privacy, which includes the right not to have
a. their person or home searched;
b. their property searched;
c. their possessions seized; or
d. the privacy of their communications infringed.
15. Freedom of religion, belief and opinion
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion.
2. Religious observances may be conducted at state or state-aided institutions, provided that
a. those observances follow rules made by the appropriate public authorities;
b. they are conducted on an equitable basis; and
c. attendance at them is free and voluntary.
3.
a. This section does not prevent legislation recognising
i. marriages concluded under any tradition, or a system of religious, personal or family law; or
ii. systems of personal and family law under any tradition, or adhered to by persons professing a particular religion.
b. Recognition in terms of paragraph (a) must be consistent with this section and the other provisions of the Constitution.
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes
a. freedom of the press and other media;
b. freedom to receive or impart information or ideas;
c. freedom of artistic creativity; and
d. academic freedom and freedom of scientific research.
2. The right in subsection (1) does not extend to
a. propaganda for war;
b. incitement of imminent violence; or
c. advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.
17. Assembly, demonstration, picket and petition
Everyone has the right, peacefully and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions.
Explanation
Section 14: Right to privacy
Everyone has the right to privacy, including the right not to:
- be body-searched without a court order
- have your home searched without a court order
- have your things taken from you
- have your letters opened or your telephoned tapped
The Interception and Monitoring Prohibition Amendment Act (1996) prevents people's conversations being intercepted.
Section 15: Freedom of religion, belief and opinion
Everyone has the right to believe or think what they want, even if their opinion is different to the government. Everyone has the right to practise the religion they choose.
Government institutions, like schools, can follow religious practices (like having prayers in the morning) but this must be done fairly and people cannot be forced to attend them.
A person can also get married under the laws of their religion. But these cannot go against the Bill of Rights. For example, a woman who marries according to customary law does not lose her rights of equality when she gets married.
Section 16: Freedom of speech and expression
Everyone has the right to say what they want, including the press and other media.
Limiting this right
There are certain kinds of speech that are not protected. These are:
- propaganda for war
- inciting (encouraging) people to use violence
- hate speech
Hate speech means spreading hatred and encouraging people to act violently or harmfully towards other people because of their race, gender, ethnic origin or religion. In other words, hate speech encourages people to discriminate against other people.
Section 17: Freedom of assembly, demonstration, picket and petition
Everyone has the right to assemble with other people, hold a demonstration, picket or present petitions. They must do this in a peaceful way and they may not carry weapons.
The Regulation of Gatherings Act (1993) says organisers of a demonstration must give the authorities at least 7 days notice. The organisers must give the names, purpose of the event, the place of the gathering or the route of the march and the numbers of people expected to take part. The police can disperse a crowd, using reasonable force, if they believe there is a danger to people or property.
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