Conscience & Courage

The Muehl Public Library's summer reading program includes an adult version. I've been participating for a few years.

I am supposed to read six books to fulfill the requirement of the year's overall theme: Underground. So far I've read a mystery by Nevada Barr that takes place in the Natchez Trace, one of the National Forest Parks and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, one of three suggested books that changed literature.(I'd already read the other two.)

One of the categories is the underground movements during WWII. I selected Conscience & Courage; Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust, by Eva Fogelman. With nothing but rain, rain and even more rain, Gary and I holed up in the camper to read. I finished the book in one day.

Fogelman, a social psychologist, became interested in the stories of those who rescued Jews. Why did they do it? She began to track down these heroes to find out. Initially, she found out there were no comprehensive records but by talking to survivers in Israel and placing ads in newspapers she found countless stories of courage and valor.

She found  there were no complete answers. Sometimes, people felt morally obligated to save human lives, but oddly it was not always because of religious upbringing. In some cases, churches might cooperate with the Nazis. Atheists were as likely to take Jews into their homes.The Vatican ordered clerics to stay out of it, though many ignored those orders.  Some rescuers were concerned professionals such as doctors and nurses. Some diplomats worked tirelessly. I knew about Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat, and Oskar Schindler, of Schindler's List. I didn't know about Sempo Sugihara, the Japanese consul, who ignored his orders from Tokyo and issued thousands of visas. Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portugeuse consul stationed in Bordeaux went even further by signing some 30,000 entry visas. Both Sugihara and Mendes were brought back to their countries in disgrace to die penniless, though after their deaths they were honored.

Most of the rescuers were in danger of worse treatment. Anyone hiding a Jew would get shot or hanged by order of Hitler. With one Jew or dozens it was the same punishment, so the rescuers figured why not go for bigger numbers. In one two room apartment, a teenager managed to hide thirteen Jews.

What interests me about this book is the question the author poses: What would I do? Would I hide a Jew? And in these days of increasing persecution of minorities, would I hide Muslim? An illegal imm

igrant? A whistleblower? A Trayvon Martin?

I like to think that I have what it takes to speak out against injustice, but would I put my life on the line? I would hope so.

Tomorrow, Gary and I will be going to the Florence library where I hope to find something to read that is a little more cheerful.