Ginetta
Sagan is a Holocaust survivor who helped to found Amnesty International USA. She
is personally responsible for the release of 6000 political prisoners in Vietnam
as well as prisoners in Czechoslovakia, Latin America, Poland and South Africa.
The prisoners of conscience she helped set free include Vaclav Havel, president
of the Czech Republic, and Kim Dae Jung, the South Korean president. She has successfully
lobbied for legislation against torture including the Prisoner's Bill of Rights.
Ginetta encouraged people to write to prisoners of conscience with encouragement,
as when she was imprisoned during World War II, after being raped and tortured,
someone smuggled into her cell a loaf of bread that contained a matchbox and a
note that read, "Courage! We are working for you." That note helped
her endure the torment until she was rescued, and for the rest of her life it
would remain the mantra that drove her on to help other prisoners of conscience.
Ginetta Sagan received
numerous awards and accolades including the International Humanitarian Award,
the Patricia Neal Courage Award, and in 1996, she was awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom. In 1994,
Amnesty International USA established the Ginetta Sagan Award for women's and
children's human rights to honor "ordinary'' women who have the courage to
try to change the world.
