Thread by @NzekweGerald

HISTORY -- With Nzekwe Gerald Uchenna

THE STORY OF BRUCE MAYROCK (1947- 1969) - A Jewish Student who Set himself Ablaze because of Biafran Genocide during the Civil War.

During the Nigeria/Biafran Civil War, So much Genocide was Carried Out against the Biafrans.

Bruce Mayrock became Biafran Unsung Hero during the War.
While the war raged on in Biafraland, the whole world watched in awe as the combined forces of British, USSR, Egypt and Nigeria bombard and place an economic blockade over Biafraland, while the USA supervise them.

Bruce Mayrock Tried all he could to get the attention of the United Nations to stop the Genocide going on in Biafraland but all to no avail.

So he sacrifice himself by taking his own life, so that the Biafrans maybe saved.

For us to Understand what might have triggered Bruce Mayrock's Action, let us take Some Excerpts from Some of the Actors of the Nigeria/Biafran War;

“I want to see no Red Cross, no Caritas, no World Council of Churches, no Pope, no missionary, no UN delegation...

"I want to prevent even one Ibo from having even one piece to eat before their capitulation. We shoot at everything that moves and when our troops march into the centre of Ibo territory, we shoot at everything,...

even things that do not move” (Benjamin Adekunle, Commander, 3rd Marine Commander Division, Nigerian Army to French Radio Reporter).

"All is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder”, (Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian Minister of Finance, July 28, 1969)

“Until now efforts to relieve the Biafran people have been thwarted by the desire of the central government to pursue total and unconditional victory and by the fear of the Ibo people that surrender means wholesale atrocities and genocide.

"But genocide is what is taking place right now and starvation is the grim reaper. This is not the time to stand on ceremony, or go through channels or to observe diplomatic niceties. The destruction of an entire people is immoral objective, even in the most moral of wars...

It can never be condoned”, (Richard Nixon, during the presidential campaign, September 9, 1968)

"Federal troops killed, or stood while mobs killed, more than 5000 Ibos in Warri, Sapele, Agbor” (New York Times, 10th January, 1968).

"Its (mass starvation) is a legitimate aspect of war (Anthony Enahoro,
Nigerian Commissioner for Information at a press conference in New York, July 1968)

“Starvation is a weapon of war, and we have every intention of using it against the rebels” (Mr Alison Ayida, Head of Nigerian delegation, Niamey Peace talks, July 1968.)

“The Igbos must be considerably reduced in number”, Lagos Policeman quoted in New York Review 21 December, 1967)

"One word now describes the policy of the Nigerian military government towards secessionist Biafra: genocide. It is ugly and extreme but it is the only word which fits Nigeria’s decision to stop international Red Cross and other relief agencies from flying food to Biafra

( Washington Post editorial, July 2, 1969).

“In some areas in the East, Igbos were killed by local people with at least the acquiescence of the Federal forces, 1000 Igbo civilians perished in Benin in this way” (Max Edward Reporter, reporter on the ground - New York Review, 21 December 1967).

“After federal forces take over Benin, troops killed about 500 Igbo civilians after a house to house search with the aid of willing locals” (Washington Morning Post, 27 September, 1967)

"The greatest single massacre occurred in the Igbo town of Asaba where 700 Igbo male were lined up and shot as terrified women/children were forced to watch” (London Observer, 21 January,1968)

"Federal troops killed or stood by while mobs killed more than 5000 Ibos in Warri, Sapele, Agbor (New York Times, 10th January, 1968).

“There has been genocide on the occasion of the 1966 massacres, the region between the towns of Benin and Asaba where only widows and orphans remain, federal troops having, for unknown reasons, massacred all the men” (Paris Le Monde, 5th April, 1968)

"In Calabar, federal forces shot at least 1000 and perhaps 2000 Igbos, most of them civilians” (New York Times, 18th January,1968)

“Bestialities and indignities of all kinds were visited on the Biafrans in 1966.
In Ikeja Barracks (Western Nigeria) Biafrans were forcibly fed on mixture of human urine and faeces.
In Northern Nigeria numerous housewives and nursing mothers were violated before their husbands..

and children. Young girls were abducted from their homes, walking places and schools and forced into intercourse with sick, demented and leprous men” (Mr Eric Spiff, German War Correspondent, eyewitness, 1967)

“650 refugee camps, contained about 700,000 haggard bundles of human flotsam waiting hopelessly for a meal, outside the camps, was the reminder of an estimated four and half to 5 million displaced Kwashiokor scourge, a million and half children, suffer(ed) from it during January;

that put the forecast death toll at another 300,000 children. More than the pogroms of 1966, more than the war casualties, than the terror bombings, it was the experience of watching helplessly their children waste away and die that gave birth to, a deep and unrelenting loathing.

It is a feeling that will one day reap bitter harvest unless” (Frederick Forsyth, British Writer, January 21st 1969)

“The Nazis had resurrected just here as Nigerian forces” (Washington Post, editorial, July 2, 1969).

“The loss of life from starvation continues at more than 10,000 persons per day over 1,000,000 lives in recent months. Without emergency measures now, the number will climb to 25,000 per day, within a month and 2,000,000 deaths by the end of the year.

The new year will only bring greater disaster to people caught in the passion of fratricidal war, we cant allow this to continue or those responsible to go free” (Senator Kennedy appeals to Americans Sunday November 17, 1968)

"Myself and the same UNICEF representatives went on to convey something of what lay behind this intransigence: Among the large majority hailing from that tribe who are the most vocal in inciting the complete extermination of the Igbos.

I often heard remarks that all Nigeria’s ills will be cured once the Igbos have been exterminated from the human map.” (Dr Conor Cruise O’Bien, 21 December, 1967, New York Review

This is really to expand the Igbos and not to wipe them out - Obasanjo.

BRUCE MAYROCK ACTION TO STOP THE GENOCIDE:

In 1969, Bruce Mayrock set himself on fire in front of the United Nations building, New York City,USA.
Bruce Mayrock was born May 6, 1949 and he took his own life for the people (Biafrans) whom he had never met before in May 30, 1969.

Bruce Mayrock was a 20years Old Jewish - American Medical Student
Who reside at Westbury, L.1.
he enrolled in GS and the Jewish Theological Seminary in September, 1967, but dropped out after one year
Afterwards,He then studied briefly at Hofstra University.

While Mayrock Was in Columbia, he worked as a photographer for the Spectato sports department.

During the Biafran Civil War, Bruce Mayrock worked’ actively to protest the war in Biafra,by writing letters about the war to the President and leading government figures of that time.

However, according to one Jewish Rabbi, ‘ who said he was close to Bruce Mayrock's family, he said, Bruce Mayrock believed that “no one was listening.”
“He was an idealistic young man deeply upset by the events in Biafra,”

The rabbi Continued. “People were being killed and he felt no one was doing anything. That’s why he did what he did.”

On May 1969, two United Nations Guards saw Bruce Mayrock On fire,after settings himself Ablaze. They chased Mayrock across the lawn with fire extinguishers.

But Bruce Mayrock eluded the guards, racing in front of the North Lounge of the building before several hundred horrified delegates and onlookers.

Mayrock eventually fell to his knees beside a statue bearing the Biblical inscription “Let us beat our swords into plowshares * and the guards extinguished the flames.

Bruce Mayrock was then rushed to Bellevue Hospital where ...

he was listed in critical condition with burns over most of his body and was Pronounced dead shortly after midnight (9hours after).

Meanwhile,At the U.N, Guards found a large cardboard sign on the front lawn which said, “You must stop the Genocide–Please save 9million Biafrans.”

At the bottom of the sign, a quotation read, “Peace is where there is an absence of fear of any kind.” hero on fire.

Bruce Mayrock died from his fire burn-wounds.
He carried out this protest after seeing videos of millions of Biafran children dying from starvation in Biafraland.

According to Bruce Mayrock :
"I am still in shock as to how blacks will carry out such atrocities against fellow blacks and move-on like nothing happened. The annoying part is that the Nigerian government continues to kill Biafrans. And you wonder why Nigeria is a failed state?"

“you must stop the genocide in Nigeria – please save nine million Biafrans”.

Odumegwu Ojukwu's Instruction to his Wife before his Death about Bruce Mayrock :

According to the Wife of Odumegwu Ojukwu, Chief Mrs Bianca Ojukwu, She said Ojukwu made three dying wishes before his death.
These are:
That his body must be taken to Aba, Abia state before burial,

2. Erecting a monument in memory of a 20 year old Jewish-American, Bruce Mayrock who died for Biafra, during the Nigeria/Biafran Civil War.

Mrs Bianca Ojukwu said, the Monument would soon be built.

Bianca, however refused to reveal the third wish, promising to do so at the appropriate time.

Her words: “There are three things Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu asked me to do for him when he is dead. I have done one; the first is that he demanded that when he is dead,..

before he is buried, I should take his body to Aba. When I get to Aba, that I should place the coffin on the ground, touch the dust and sprinkle it on the coffin.

“After this, we should bury him whenever we wish to. By the grace of God, I was able to do that.

“The second one is that before Dim Ojukwu died, he narrated the story of a young American boy named Bruce Mayrock. He told me that this young boy was 20 years old, a white Jewish-American and University student who came from a wealthy family.

During the Biafra war, Mayrock was too disturbed about the pictures of starving Biafran children and the genocide. He wrote letters to American senators and President, individuals,..

Christian organizations and the United Nations calling on them to come to the aid of the Biafran people. Mayrock lamented that the Biafrans were facing extermination.

"All these people even the United Nations could not do anything. To bring attention to the plight of suffering Biafrans, this boy went to the front of the United Nations building doused himself with gasoline, struck a match and set himself on fire.

When they were chasing him to put away the fire he was running with the inferno. He ran until he collapsed. He was taken to the hospital and by midnight on 30th May 1966, he died.

Ojukwu was humbled that a 20 year old boy sacrificed his life for a people thousand miles away that he never knew or met.

“His parents were unhappy that he sacrificed himself but he had told his priest that it was the only way he could get attention from the United Nation to take notice and save dying Biafra people.

“Ojukwu demanded that when he is dead, the story be narrated to his children and when his son turns 19, that a little plot of land be gotten to erect a monument in honour of Bruce Mayrock who sacrificed his life for the people of Biafra.

Today in America, many Igbo people regularly visit Mayrock’s grave to lay flowers and pray for him.”

Bruce Mayrock's Burial Place:

Mount Ararat Cemetery,
East Farmingdale,
1165 Route 109 (NY-109)
Lindenhurst, NY 11757,
New York, USA.
It is a Jewish Cemetery.

A Question for Nigerians to Ponder On?:

But why have the Western media suppress this tragedy?
Not many Nigerians nor Biafrans know about Bruce Mayrock..

Sources : NGU Library, Nairaland, History Ville, Wikipedia, The New-York Times

#Nzekwe Gerald Uchenna (NGU)
#MovementForTheEmancipationOfNigerianYouths(MENY)