On June 16, 1996, the Jamaican born British citizen Noël Martin became the victim of a racist attack in the small town of Mahlow in Brandenburg , Germany . He was one of the approximately 80,000 construction workers from Great Britain and Ireland who worked in Germany at this time.

He was chased in his car by two 17 and 24 year old right-wing oriented men. When they passed him at high speed and threw a rock through his car window, Noël Martin lost control of his vehicle and his car hit a tree. Since then he is paralyzed from the neck down. The perpetrators, sentenced to five and eight years in prison, have finished their terms and live in freedom. They have never shown any remorse, and Noël Martin has never received an apology.

Noël Martin has taken on the fight against racism and led an anti-racist demonstration in Mahlow in 2001. During this visit to Germany he spoke with the Minister President of Brandenburg , at that time Manfred Stolpe, and initiated a youth exchange scheme for young people from the region of Brandenburg and his home town of Birmingham .

Brandenburg immediately allotted money to start up the Noël- and Jacqueline Martin-Fund, which was, since 2003, administered by the Foundation "Großes Waisenhaus zu Potsdam ".

On 14th of July, 2008, Noël Martin finally established the "Noël- and Jacqueline-Martin-Foundation", thus creating a steady base for the first contact between German and British youths.

Press Release from 07/14/2008, as PDF

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