On the occasion of the death of the prominent German humanitarian Heribert Holz, who devoted 30 years of his life to humanitarian work in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Düsseldorf newspaper Rheinische Post (RP) recalled his humanitarian involvement.
Holz was a social worker, music teacher and ambassador for Bosnia and Herzegovina at Caritas in Duisburg. He was employed there since 1968, and five years later he moved to Neukirchen-Vluyn. In the early 1990s, during the outbreak of war in the former Yugoslavia, his life changed completely. The scenes of suffering did not give him peace, writes RP.
“In February 1992, he himself went to Bosnia, where he experienced the horrors of war at close range. The sheer poverty of the inhabitants in many areas of that country motivated him to commit himself to the seemingly forgotten country during the following decades. Because even many years after the end of the war, indifference and corruption prevent the inhabitants from returning to the values of normal life. Since then, Holz organizes aid convoys, collects donations and travels there himself again and again. He has been more than 90 times to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he describes as the ‘orphanage of Europe’ ‘”, writes RP.
One of the projects that was close to his heart was the establishment of soup kitchens in Zenica and Banja Luka, which was supported by his humanitarian organization Bosnienhilfe. Annual costs for the public kitchen in Zenica alone amount to 30,000 euros, RP reminded.
With his wife Ursula, he made thousands of jars of marmalade, the sale of which raised aid for Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the way, his wife Ursula, with whom he celebrated his golden wedding anniversary in 2021, as he writes in a German newspaper, was his precious support and support all that time.
“Until his death, Heribert managed to collect 10,000 euros per month for his projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, according to a free estimate, would represent around two million euros over three decades. It was important to him to help people so that they could later support themselves. help. Anyone who has a roof over his head and receives a few sheep through Bosnienhilfe, can stand on his own two feet, Holz believed,” writes RP.
For his involvement and helping people in need, Heribert Holz received numerous awards during his lifetime, such as the German Cross of Merit, the Medal of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia, the prestigious papal order “For the Church and the Pope”, and in 2011 he was proclaimed in his native Duisburg and “Citizen of the Year”.
“He has always been skeptical of expressions of gratitude from official state or political actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Because those in charge in Bosnia and Herzegovina often appear ostensibly full of gratitude, but in reality they are mostly only interested in getting their own political capital out of it,” writes the Rheinische Post on the occasion of the death of prominent humanitarian worker Heribert Holz, reports Deutsche Welle.
Photo ©️ Bosnienhilfe
