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| ▲ In October last year, citizens marched in Berlin, the German capital, protesting the authorities’ demolition order for the “Peace Girl Statue” installed on the street. | |
| Ⓒ Yonhap News |
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The grandmothers of Berlin, the capital of Germany, stepped out again to keep the’Girl of Peace’.
The grandmothers dismissed the thesis by Harvard Law School Professor Mark Ramsey, who defined the victims of Japanese military comfort women as “voluntary prostitutes,” as “bullshit.”
The German civic group’Omas Gegen Rechts’ held a rally in front of the Peace Girl Statue in Berlin, Germany on the 19th (local time). I remembered 10 people.
Omas Gegen Rechts is a civic group active in Germany and Austria, with grandmothers as the main focus, opposing the extreme right for generations of children and grandchildren, and focusing on activities to protect parliamentary democracy and social peace. The group has continued to participate in activities such as rallies to protect the Peace Girl Statue in Berlin.
In a statement that day, the grandmothers called the names of 10 extreme right terror victims aged 20 to 72, and said, “Don’t forget these names and remember that words lead to action.”
They emphasized that “hate speech spews out of violence, and racist and fanaticism stimulates cruel behavior in the illusion of doing good.”
Han Jeong-hwa, CEO of KoreaVerband, who led the installation of the Girl of Peace in Berlin, said at the rally, “Today is a very important day in that Berlin has become a place to talk about the unjust things that happen to us and to remember. “Thank you to my grandmothers,” he said.
About 50 grandmothers and Koreans re-German attended the rally that day. Participants kept a distance of 1.5m, and masks were worn except for the speaker.
Omas Gegen Rechts activist Renate Christiansen said, “The girl statue is a great place for today’s rally, given that it is a symbol of peace against all violence.”
He said that in order to urge the permanent installation of the girl’s statue, he would continue the third Friday rally every month. Regarding the lukewarm attitude that the competent ward office has not yet initiated discussions for permanent installation, he was optimistic that “the girl statue will be able to stay.”
Regarding Professor Ramzier’s thesis, which deprecated the Japanese military comfort women victims as prostitutes, he dismissed “there are people who claim that there is no new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) in the world.”
Previously, the Mitte-gu Council of Berlin decided on a resolution for permanent installation of the Girl of Peace on December 1, last year, and decided to come up with a plan for permanent installation of the girl’s statue with the participation of the ward.
The resolution also contains the details of withdrawing the order to remove the Peace Girl Statue and extending the installation deadline from August 14 next year to the end of September next year by six weeks.
Since then, the competent Mite-gu Office has not started discussions on permanent installation of the girl statue.
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