Actor Dan Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and UK Harry Potter audio book narrator Stephen Fry have donated their glasses to a project being held as part of Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK. This is North Scotland reports that they donated their eye wear for an exhibit that reflects this striking photo of discarded glasses taken from the victims of the concentration camps in World War II. Upon making his donation Dan wrote “Please find enclosed my first pair of glasses which I wore at school at six. I wish you every success with the exhibition.”
These glasses are part of the Respectacles Project and will be on display in Liverpool, England January 21 to 26, with the glasses later being donated to the Vision Aid Overseas charity. Also in Liverpool, England there will be a special Holocaust memorial event held at the Philharmonic January 27, which will be lead by actor Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy).
apart from it being applaudable that mr.Radcfiffe and mr.Fry donate to charity
I am a bit confused:
In one of the many intervieuws of snips of info about Dan I recall to have read at first abhorred the glasses of his character Harry, ” because he himself did not wear glasses.” neither contact, because then his eyecolour in the movie could have been changed to green easily.
Now suddenly it says he wore glasses at school? Weird.
That is good of Dan and Stephen to contribute (I didn’t know Dan wore glasses in real life too..). Stephen certainly had family members from Austria who were victims of the Holocaust.
kamion I found this quote from a 2004 interview in Veritaserum
“Do you wear glasses when you’re not playing Harry Potter?
I’m supposed to but I always lose them or a lens falls out or something. So after we went through three pairs, we stopped buying them.”
Another good chartiy work by Dan! And don’t you just learn something new everyday about him? I always thought he had 20/20 vision and now we learn he wears round glasses like Harry too..
And look at how they’re all playng up Dan’s Jewish roots. Still, it’s a worthy cause…
Many genocides have been perpetrated during the last 5000 years of recorded history. It is morally wrong to claim that one is worse than the other. The time, place, circumstances, and numbers may be different, but the principle is the same. Or is it the headcount that matters? Then what about the estimated 10 million Ukrainians exterminated by Stalin in the artificially created famine in pre-WWII USSR? The Nazis exterminated non-Germans on the basis of their ideology of racial purity and superiority. Some people also claim some form of superiority on the basis of their religious belief that they are god’s chosen people. Shouldn’t they have learned by now that such ideologies and beliefs are dangerous?
If you read the articles pertaining to this exhibit, this is only the culmination of a series of exhibits,lectures etc and includes other more recent genocides. They are using the date of the liberation of Auschwitz to end it all. So they will be looking at all these horrible events. It’s wonderful/terrible/sad that the usage of a celebrity’s name (Dan) would bring world attention to a memorial of such a terrible and very well known event.
What? There is? Why the heck haven’t I heard about that? Hmm…actually, maybe I have and just forgot…yeah, if I at any point knew, then that would explain it. I forgot. Maybe it’s also because it’s not on any of my calendars…heck, one I have mentions British, Canadian, Australian, whatever the term would be for New Zealand, and American holidays, but not this? I’ll have to check out the link. I assume it’s the one in Washington…thanks for notifying me!
I don’t think Dan wrote that note that accompanied the glasses. “Please find enclosed…”? Sounds like somehting a secretary would write. And an old fashioned secretary at that. Modern business communication doesn’t use trite phrases like that anymore.
But congrats Dan for partcipating in a worthy event. You inspire by your example.
That is diffinetly Dan’s handwriting on the note,
I am sure he was taught to write that way by someone, probubly his mum,
who was used to dealing with the public,which his mum surely is.
It doesn’t really matter ,it’s the donation and
bringing people together for a cause —-and a horrid chapter in history when mankind forgot is’s humanity—that should never be forgotten about.
Of course that’s Dan’s handwriting!! It seems any change to diss him or take some credit away from him, some people are quick to do it! Dan is an old soul, he said he should have been born in Victorian times so his speech is very old-fashioned, a renaissance man.
Many congratulations to Dan, Stephen & Jason as well as all the other people contributing to this event. Although I’m not Jewish myslef, but I love history and the savagery of the holocaust can never be justified & should NEVER be forgotten.
No-one’s saying this is worse than any other genecide, hopefully it will bring all these into focus and stop it happening again. Some people on here just use that as another excuse to take credit away from Dan, I’m certain. What have you done to commemorate these other genecides, nothing at all I should imagine!!
Yes, I was also going to mention the U.S. Holocaust Memorial museum in Washington DC. No need to be disgusted, Helios. On the west coast, there is the Simon Weisenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
Anne, Kamion, and others: I, too was confused a bit. Clearly the glasses shown in the photo as Dan Radcliffe’s are oval, not circular as Harry’s are, and Dan says they were his, worn as a young child. So, I figure he’s wearing contacts now.
But for me, the most extraordinary news in this article is the fact that Dan’s mother is Jewish. According to Jewish law, that means that he is Jewish. Actually, I had long ago wondered whether someone named Daniel Jacob had Jewish ancestry, since it is a Jewish tradition to name one’s child after deceased relatives and those are Hebrew names. I am curious to know if he has any Jewish experience, education or identity. I wonder if his mother’s family had any direct experience in the holocaust or resistance. But, as these are his personal matters, we have no business asking.
I also want to support Black Boggart’s point, above, though in a gentler tone.
Unfortunately, it is true that many, many peoples on every populated continent have experienced genocides on some scale at one time or another. And it is impossible and pointless to try to rank them for degree of horror.
What is important is, as JKR has said and made so clear in the HP books, that we do not pre-judge people based upon some preconception of their religion, race, gender, sexual preference, or “blood purity.” As muggles living in the real world, our job is to be engaged, take responsibility, and act for what right (not for what is easy), as does the DA. Those of us living in the US have an excellent opportunity in 2008 wiith the Presidential campaign. In the dictionary, the word “liberal” means “open-minded and generous,” not “tax-and-spend.”
apart from it being applaudable that mr.Radcfiffe and mr.Fry donate to charity I am a bit confused: In one of the many intervieuws of snips of info about Dan I recall to have read at first abhorred the glasses of his character Harry, ” because he himself did not wear glasses.” neither contact, because then his eyecolour in the movie could have been changed to green easily. Now suddenly it says he wore glasses at school? Weird.