11oct03

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Exhibit focuses on Italy's war crimes.

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As a child growing up in Ethiopia, Hirut Kassaye would press her fingers, feeling the bullet buried in her grandfather's knee.

He told her how he got the war wound, narrowly escaping death when millions of his countrymen were less fortunate. Many were burned, slaughtered, dismembered, gassed, and put in concentration camps during Italy's occupation of Ethiopia from 1935 to 1941.

This weekend Kassaye will come face-to-face with images of those harrowing years in the East African nation when Lauderdale Lakes presents:

"The Day the Angels Cried: The Ethiopian Holocaust 1935-1941 Traveling Museum Exhibit." The exhibit chronicles the largely untold stories of Italy's war crimes in Ethiopia.

It will be on display from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. today Saturday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday in the multipurpose building at the Lauderdale Lakes Municipal Center, 4331 NW 36th St. It is free. On Monday it moves to Broward Community College's North Campus in Coconut Creek and the following day to Florida Atlantic University's Central Campus in Davie.

The exhibit is based on 22 years of research of Imani Kali-Nyah, a historian, and images from her book, _Italy's War Crimes in Ethiopia 1935-1941: Evidence for the War Crimes Commission_.

Kali-Nyah became fascinated with Ethiopia's battle with Italy as a child after overhearing her father and uncle, both World War II veterans, quietly discussing what happened in Ethiopia.

She made it her mission to find out more about the years when Italian dictator Benito Mussolini attempted to colonize Addis Ababa and about the bloody struggle that ensued on the African Horn.

On Oct. 3, 1935, Italy attacked Ethiopia from Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.

The result was more than 5 million women and children killed, said Kali-Nyah.

[Source: By Toni Marshall, Staff Writer, The Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach, 11oct03]

This document has been published on 17oct03 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.