When people are forced into extreme situations, bravery must be measured in different ways. There was bravery of all kinds taking place in the concentration camps of World War II.
The courage it must take to see your 12 year old daughter on the other side of a chain link fence lined with razor wire must be incredible. It's the closest you can get to her, but the distance might as well be comparable to the moon's. You might never see her alive again, but would you want to miss the chance?
Or the desire to escape your prison so completely you come up with a whole new way to teach mathematics to children. You have no paper, no type writer, no calculator. The only technology you have access to is the few inches or so of grey matter inside your skull. Wetware.
A woman gathers up colored bits and pieces the Nazi guards might have thrown away and arranging them so she could show the children around her what flowers look like.
The gypsy who danced in the dark of the night, then collapsed because she was too weak to keep it going.
The 10 women who saved the fat clinging to the gruel they were fed. Then finding a Rabbi so they could light the candles of Chanukah. Fellowship. There is strength in numbers. Even small numbers
The American soldier who found the strength, both physical and emotional, to walk across the compound and steal a pot of broth for the starving inmates in his unheated barracks and the frigid cold of winter.
And the Nazi guard who "didn't see" the desperate act of said soldier.
They were all humans determined to keep hold of their humanity in spite of the fact this radical regime insisted on treating them like contaminated animals who deserved nothing better than to be put to death. Or worse, to be experimented on like rats in a laboratory.
Today is Yom Hashoah.
3 comments:
Simple but powerful. You are an amazing writer!
You have the right idea lil'one, but there is more to see. John
Of course there's more to it. 12 million people died. Even more were affected.
If you're going to say something, say it. Don't just tip toe around it like some shaman trying to control the population.
M
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