One of the initiatives of the Lantos Foundation is The Front line Fund Grant program. Through this fund, we seek out human rights activists who are literally on the front lines of various human rights fights. Ordinarily, we try to devote the funds to small, grassroots heroes who are perhaps not well known, but who exemplify the best in human decency and a willingness to go beyond their own comfort zone to right a wrong that comes across their path. Over five years ago, we came across an article about a German woman, Irmela Mensah-Schramm, who had quietly taken it upon herself to remove every pro-Nazi anti-Semitic sticker, poster, or graffiti that she came across. There was 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. Today, her mission has expanded to include educating the young generation about tolerance. Needless to say, we reached out to support her through our Front Line Fund and were proud and honored to do so. But proud is not a word that one is likely to hear from Irmela about her work. Indeed, it would be hard to find a more modest, straight forward, and humble hero than this charming, earnest, silver-haired lady.

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