Film icon Arnold Schwarzenegger will receive a special award for his work in opposing antisemitism.
The Hollywood actor will receive an “Award of Courage” from the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles.
Schwarzenegger has been widely praised for speaking up about the issue.
In a video in March addressing a rise in antisemitic crimes in the US, Schwarzenegger said he sought not to preach to the choir, but speak to people who "heard some conspiracies about Jewish people or any race or gender and thought, 'That makes sense to me."'
He added: "There has never been a successful movement based on hate. Nazis? Losers. The Confederacy? Losers. The Apartheid movement? Losers - and the list goes on and on. I don't want you to be a loser. I don't want you to be weak."
The former Governor of California has cited his own personal experiences watching his late father and other men whose lives were in disarray in the wake of World War II.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger will receive the award in September (Photo: Getty)
Schwarzenegger was born in Austria to a father who joined the Nazi party during the war. He was left injured fighting in Leningrad.
Referencing his father, Schwarzenegger said: “I’ve talked a lot about my father, and the broken men that I was surrounded by when I grew up in Austria after World War II.
“Nobody who has chosen the easy path of hate has gotten to the end of that road and said ‘oh, what a life.’ No. They die as miserably as they lived.”
In September last year, Schwarzenegger undertook a visit to Auschwitz concentration camp as part of his work with the Auschwitz Jewish Centre.
Schwarzenegger said: “When I walked through that camp in Auschwitz and I put myself in the shoes of those people herded into those gas chambers, it was horrifying.
“One of the darkest moments of my life. But in that darkness, a woman who survived the horrors of Auschwitz helped me find the light.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger at Auschwitz
Arnold Schwarzenegger hugs Holocaust survivor Lydia Maksimovicz, who was subject to experiments by Nazi doctor Josef Mengele as a three year old child. (Photo: Getty)
He is set to receive the award from the museum at its 15th annual gala on November 6 at the Beverly Hills Hotel, according to KTLA, an LA-based television station.
Holocaust Museum LA CEO Beth Kean said: “The first Award of Courage embodies all the lessons of the Holocaust, the spirit of educating and elevating humanity to fight hate in all forms.
“Arnold, by speaking out publicly, embodies our museum’s essence of inspiring humanity through truth.”
