Moroccan Journalist Souad Mekhennet Receives Simon Wiesenthal Award in Los Angeles
Washington - Moroccan journalist and writer Souad Mekhennet has been awarded the International Leadership Award from the U.S. Simon Wiesenthal Center (CSW) in Los Angeles.
The award was presented to the German-born journalist with a Moroccan father and a Turkish mother at a recent ceremony held at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, in front of an audience of personalities from various backgrounds.
"Mekhennet has been recognized for her prolific work and courage as a journalist and author," the US centre said, praising her "central role in resolving the case of a major Nazi war criminal.
Currently an international correspondent and member of the Washington Post's National Security Desk team, the journalist, who has previously worked for the New York Times and the Herald Tribune, among others, is co-author of "The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim," an investigation published in 2014 into Aribert Heim, the Nazi "doctor of death" at the Mauthausen camp, considered one of the world's most wanted war criminals.
On the run for half a century, the fugitive had settled in Cairo, under a false identity, in the mid-1970s until his death in 1992 at the age of 78 from cancer.
"Souad Mekhennet can serve as a role model for millions of people of all faiths, creeds and nationalities," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and program director of the Jewish organization dedicated to perpetuating the memory of Nazi crimes.
In her speech, the journalist and writer recalled her journey as the daughter of immigrants living in Germany as well as the values passed on to her by her grandparents in Morocco, stressing how the late HM Mohammed V had protected 250,000 Jews in the kingdom from the French occupying forces of Vichy and the Nazis during the Second World War.
"As 'Commander of all believers', he placed all the 'People of the Book' under his protection - Jews, Christians and Muslims. Such stories must not be forgotten, even if they do not fit into our dominant narrative," she said.
She added: "I now live in America and I am struck by the way people react differently to extremist attacks depending on the identity of the aggressor. Don't people perceive the same anti-Semitism with a Christian or American-born attacker as they do with an immigrant or a Muslim?".
Souad Mekhennet has already won several awards for her research both in the field in Iraq, Afghanistan, Algeria and Libya, but also as a writer inspired by her investigations in radical circles.
The award was presented to the German-born journalist with a Moroccan father and a Turkish mother at a recent ceremony held at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, in front of an audience of personalities from various backgrounds.
"Mekhennet has been recognized for her prolific work and courage as a journalist and author," the US centre said, praising her "central role in resolving the case of a major Nazi war criminal.
Currently an international correspondent and member of the Washington Post's National Security Desk team, the journalist, who has previously worked for the New York Times and the Herald Tribune, among others, is co-author of "The Eternal Nazi: From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim," an investigation published in 2014 into Aribert Heim, the Nazi "doctor of death" at the Mauthausen camp, considered one of the world's most wanted war criminals.
On the run for half a century, the fugitive had settled in Cairo, under a false identity, in the mid-1970s until his death in 1992 at the age of 78 from cancer.
"Souad Mekhennet can serve as a role model for millions of people of all faiths, creeds and nationalities," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and program director of the Jewish organization dedicated to perpetuating the memory of Nazi crimes.
In her speech, the journalist and writer recalled her journey as the daughter of immigrants living in Germany as well as the values passed on to her by her grandparents in Morocco, stressing how the late HM Mohammed V had protected 250,000 Jews in the kingdom from the French occupying forces of Vichy and the Nazis during the Second World War.
"As 'Commander of all believers', he placed all the 'People of the Book' under his protection - Jews, Christians and Muslims. Such stories must not be forgotten, even if they do not fit into our dominant narrative," she said.
She added: "I now live in America and I am struck by the way people react differently to extremist attacks depending on the identity of the aggressor. Don't people perceive the same anti-Semitism with a Christian or American-born attacker as they do with an immigrant or a Muslim?".
Souad Mekhennet has already won several awards for her research both in the field in Iraq, Afghanistan, Algeria and Libya, but also as a writer inspired by her investigations in radical circles.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Moroccan-Journa...