Holocaust Memorial Museum Hosts Annual Patches Program with Jewish Community Relations Council
December 1, 2021
On Sunday, November 7, the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio hosted its annual Patches: Others Deemed Dangerous or Inferior Program. This event annually highlights other groups victimized by the Nazis during the Holocaust. This year the HMMSA partnered with the Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council to feature a contemporary social justice issue by highlighting the experiences of the Uyghur people in Northwest China with the screening of the film In Search of My Sister from director Jawad Mir, Sky Blue Productions. Over 100 members of the San Antonio community joined together to view the film.
The film focuses on Uyghur advocate, Rushan Abbas, Founder and Executive Director of Campaign for Uyghurs, and her struggle to learn information about her sister who is presumed kidnapped by the Chinese government. On September 11, 2018, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, sister of Ms. Abbas, disappeared from her home and is believed to be held prisoner in a concentration camp in China. To date, over one million Uyghur people have disappeared at the hands of the Chinese government.
Although the response from the international community has varied, on January 19, 2021, the United States Department of State declared the abuse of human rights in China a genocide.[1] Ms. Abbas and Julie Millsap, Director of Public Affairs and Advocacy for the Campaign for Uyghurs, were the featured panelists at the event along with the film’s director and producer, Jawad Mir. Dr. Sean Viña, University of the Incarnate Word, served as the panel moderator and U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro provided introductory remarks on the importance of legislation to end human rights violations.
The program concluded with a call to action for the support of the bipartisan HR 1155: Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would ban the importation of any goods produced with the use of labor in the Uyghur concentration camps.
For more information on how you can help visit https://campaignforuyghurs.org/ and jww.org or contact Congressman Tony Gonzales (210) 806-9920 & Congressman Chip Roy (210) 821-5024 and ask them to cosponsor HR 1155, a critical step in the fight to end the genocide of the Uyghur people.
This program was in cooperation with: Campaign for Uyghurs • Chinese American Citizens Alliance • SOL Center • Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Texas • World Affairs Council of San Antonio