The final episode of this special Solidarity Sabbath season on anti-Semitism is being released on World Humanitarian Day. The United Nations calls this day a global celebration of people helping people. There are numerous examples of humanitarians throughout history who have given so much of themselves to fight anti-Semitism or to protect the Jewish people. But not every humanitarian’s contribution to the world is grand or dramatic. Sometimes, humanitarians accomplish great and lasting service to humanity through small and simple acts. This episode offers the story of one such humanitarian – a German woman, Irmela Mensah-Schramm, who has quietly taken it upon herself to remove, erase or cover up every pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic sticker, poster or graffiti that she comes across. There is no organization backing her, no funding from any government agency – just a decent, good humored, brave woman with a bucket, a scraper and an inner moral compass that we should all seek to emulate. Irmela, who is a grantee of the Lantos Foundation’s Front Line Fund, exemplifies the words of Stephen Grellet, a Quaker missionary from the late 1700s, who wrote, “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.”

Front Line Fund: https://www.lantosfoundation.org/frontlinefundgrants

Meet the 71-year-old “Graffiti Grandma” Scrubbing Away Hate (Great Big Story): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSdqtEWEshc&feature=emb_title

Anti-Nazi ‘Graffiti Grandma’ Fined After Painting Over Nazi Tag (DW): https://www.dw.com/en/anti-nazi-graffiti-grandma-fined-after-painting-over-nazi-tag/a-50803853

World Humanitarian Day (United Nations): https://www.un.org/en/observances/humanitarian-day

Irmela holds up an image from her archives to the camera during the Skype interview.