11 years after a racist attack in Germany left him paralysed, this Briton wants to take his life

Kate Connolly in Berlin
Sunday April 22, 2007
The Observer

A British construction worker who was paralysed from the neck down after being attacked by neo-Nazis near Berlin 11 years ago has announced plans to take his own life by the end of the year.Noel Martin, 47, who rammed his car into a tree after far-right extremists hurled a 44lb concrete block at him in Mahlow, south of Berlin, has outlined his wishes in his autobiography, Call It My Life, to be published in Germany this week.

Martin told The Observer by telephone from his home in Edgbaston, Birmingham, that he felt he had nothing left to live for because his life had been reduced to being confined to a wheelchair and reliant on round-the-clock care.'It's not a life, it's an existence,' he said. 'I can't feel anything, so I can't touch the world and can only watch as it passes by.'
Martin, a Briton of Jamaican origin, said that he had contacted Dignitas, the assisted-suicide clinic in Switzerland. 'They assessed my case and agreed that, based on my condition, my wish to die is justified.'
It is towards the end of the 252-page book that he announces his intentions. He says he will drink a cocktail through a straw, and 'shut (my) eyes and wake up in another world'. He said his only regret was that he had not been able to carry out a double suicide pact with his wife Jacqui, who died of cancer in 2000.
Martin's story, first highlighted in Britain by The Observer shortly after the attack, is well known in Germany, where he has returned twice since the attack in 1996 to support anti-racism youth exchanges and protest marches. His efforts have even extended to inviting a reformed neo-Nazi and her children to his house last Christmas.
News of his suicide wish was greeted with shock by politicians. Matthias Platzeck, head of the state of Brandenburg, where the attack took place, appealed to him to change his mind. 'Brandenburg needs you,' he said. 'You give us courage. You are an inspiration for us.'
But some residents of the town of Mahlow were among the respondents to neo-Nazi websites who gloated over Martin's plans. Opening his post with the word 'Heil,' one wrote: 'He wants to take his own life just to attract some attention.'
Another neo-Nazi, identified as Andi, wrote: 'No one will miss him ... if he believes he has to kill himself, then please, we won't stop him.'
The taunts were repeated on the German TV news magazine programme Panorama, in which one neo-Nazi said: 'It's fine by us if he goes and buries his carcass in Switzerland.'
The neo-Nazi response rubs further salt into the wounds of a shameful case which illustrated how ingrained far-right extremism is in many eastern German towns. Martin's two attackers, Mario P, who drove the car, and Sandro R, who threw the stone, received sentences of only eight and five years each for what the judge dismissed as 'silly racism'. Both have long since been released.
Martin's autobiography spans his happy childhood in Jamaica, his less happy move to Birmingham, and his fateful decision to take up a job as a plasterer in Germany.
One evening in June 1996 Noel, accompanied by two of his British workmates, was taunted by two neo-Nazis who shouted '****** piss off' before chasing the men in a car. The last thing he recalls of the incident was a concrete block being hurled through a side window of his car.
He slammed the vehicle against a tree, waking from a coma weeks later to find that he had no feeling from the neck down. The tree has since been replaced by a local charity with a granite monument marking the spot.
Martin's autobiography outlines in graphic detail the pain of his everyday life, including his daily struggle with sweat attacks, cramps and haemorrhoids. 'People should be aware that I got a life sentence and all that that means,' he said.
Getting up in the morning takes four hours and he controls the joystick of his wheelchair using some muscles in his right shoulder. A huge bedsore which has seen him confined to bed for four months will prevent him from travelling to Potsdam, east of Berlin, for the launch of his book tomorrow. Instead he will be represented by his son, Negus, 29, and a video message from Martin pre-recorded by a German camera team at his home earlier this month will be played on a large screen.
Robin Herrnfeld, a friend of Martin's with whom he wrote the book over several years, said that his intention to commit suicide was far from being a cry for help. 'He's very serious about taking his own life,' she said. 'He describes his life as a prison, and however much I or his friends encourage him to go on, I think his mind is made up.'
Martin said that all that was delaying him were some legal loose ends as he attempts to put all his assets into a computer library charity for poor Jamaicans before he dies.
'I would go to Switzerland tomorrow,' he said. 'But then the government would get my house and everything that I and my wife worked for all our lives, and I would very much like that to be my legacy.'



http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/art...062923,00.html

Gosh that is so deep! I feel so sorry for him. He needn't worry cause thoes *******s will all rot in hell for what they did. I hope he finds it within himself to see that suicide is not the answer.

Although I can't comment on his situation I have always said that if I ever reach the stage where I feel my own life is worthless I would devote it entirely to helping other people.

"The taunts were repeated on the German TV news magazine programme Panorama, in which one neo-Nazi said: 'It's fine by us if he goes and buries his carcass in Switzerland.'
The neo-Nazi response rubs further salt into the wounds of a shameful case which illustrated how ingrained far-right extremism is in many eastern German towns. Martin's two attackers, Mario P, who drove the car, and Sandro R, who threw the stone, received sentences of only eight and five years each for what the judge dismissed as 'silly racism'. Both have long since been released."



This makes my blood boil

For those who imagine racism lives in the past...

..all over the developed world , neo nazi groups are starting to rise, russia for example, can boast several marches. the govt are doing nowt about it.

.lol.

Question is wtf did they fight hitler for? I mean Russia and England are both bases for Neo Nazis. Yet they were the two who fought the most against Hitlers Barbar'y'anideaology in the first place.

Oh the irony.