Hello ,
A day hardly goes by without a mention in the news of our American freedoms, freedom of speech, religion, the right to bear arms, etc.
Despite all these freedoms and our right to pursue happiness, how many moments of the day do we find ourselves wanting something more, or something
different?
Coming up on the Fourth of July, I’ve been thinking about true freedom and how that might look. We experience true freedom when our fears and desires fall away, allowing us a clear view.
True freedom allows us to open our hearts without counting the cost.
Clear sight plus compassion equals freedom, the freedom to act with
courage upon what really matters.
Here's a man who put skin on those somewhat nebulous and high-minded ideals.
Freedom Leads to Compassionate Action |
Nicholas Winton was a successful stockbroker living the good life. Like many others around the world, in 1938 he read in the newspaper about Nazis persecution of Jews.
After the Munich agreement, when the Nazi’s marched into Czechoslovakia,
Nicholas read about the thousands of families fleeing to Prague in hopes of escaping.
He took a two week vacation from his job and home in London and went to Prague to see if he could help. The children were especially vulnerable. “I went out into the camps where the people had been put who had been displaced and it was winter and
it was cold.” Nicholas Winton rented a hotel room and started figuring out a way to get the children out.
But nobody wanted them. He tried to get the Americans to take some of the children, but our doors were closed. An embassy letter told him, “…United States Government is unable…” to help.
Finally, the British said the kids could come to England if families would agree to take them in. While the travel
documents stalled in government bureaucracy, prisoners at Dachau were forced to build a large complex of buildings to upgrade the concentration camp in preparation for large numbers of prisoners. Nicholas Winton's small volunteer organization started to forge documents, bribe and blackmail. His motto: “If something’s not impossible, there must be a way of doing
it.”
A train carried away the first 20 children the day before Nazi’s marched into Prague and Adolf Hilter stood in an open vehicle touring the city and waving to the crowds. Nicholas kept at it.
Over six-hundred children on seven trains journeyed across Nazi Germany to Holland, where they caught a ferry to England.
Nicholas had an eighth train loaded with 250 children and scheduled to leave September 8th when the war in Europe started.
About 88,000 Czech Jews were deported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. In 1945, some 15,000 children were found living in the children's home inside Auschwitz, only 93 of those children survived. Sir Nicholas Winton, died this past week at age 106. He kept silent for 50-years about how he saved hundreds of children from Nazi genocide.
Hindsight, it's tempting to think we might have seen clearly what the Nazis were doing. We might have had the compassion to try and help. We might have been free from our fears, our plans, our wants, free enough to widen the net of our responsibilities and act with moral courage.
But listen to this.
Nicholas explained he never talked much about what he did in 1938 because "...there's too much emphasis on the past...nobody is concentrating on the present and the future."
Watch a 60 Minuntes story on Sir Nicholas Winton
below. It's 15-minutes, but it's worth it. Many thanks to the Paradise Prairie Book Club for reading PURE GRIT, and inviting me to visit with them.
So wonderful to spend a beautiful summer evening with beautiful, thoughtful women.
We ranged
over many topics of conversation, including one member's mother's experiences as a U.S. navy nurse on Guam in 1945, (Don't you love looking at old scrapbooks?) and where to find hope when world events get you down. Hint: just ask for it. People sharing where they find hope spreads hope.
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