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Posts: 8948
Jun 7 11 6:40 PM
Posts: 7802
Jun 8 11 3:20 AM
I once made a series of radio documentaries to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands.During production I interviewed dozens of vets, former members of the resistance and concentration camp survivors.Most of them were very reticent and humble. None of them considered themselves heroes.
I met one incredible guy, who had a profound impact on me.He was a Jew, Louis de Wijze, who lost his entire family during the war, survived Auschwitz and returned the Netherlands completely destitute.I spent a whole day with him, commuting quite a long distance in his car (because mine broke down - groan) to Westerbork, the Jewish transit camp in the north of the country, where the Jews were housed before being shipped to the east.Throughout the day I was impressed by his sense of humour, which was boisterous, not cynical or wry as you might expect, and his genuine zest for life.I found it quite amazing, particularly as the details of his horrific war-time experiences unfolded.When we got to the camp, he matter-of-factly talked about conditions at the camp; weird, incongruous things like playing soccer, which was his passion, and acting in the weekly variety shows. Conditions at Westebork were austere but nothing like the death camps in the east.Then he spoke about being sent eastwards, a succession of camps before arriving in Auschwitz. No need I think to focus too much on the horrors he experienced there.He survived, partially because of his passion for soccer. As crazy as it sounds, games were staged at Auschwitz and guards bet on the outcome. Players got somewhat favourable treatment, getting slightly better rations and being exempt for the most arduous physical tasks.Then told of the death marches and his final escape, being repatriated to the Netherlands to find he was alone and without possession. He talked about rebuilding his life, starting a family and business and he was very successful. He spoke with great compassion and satisfaction about the life he had snatched back from the gates of hell.His passion and commitment to life was quite amazing to me. I was a pretty dour and bleak young man back then (changed a lot, huh?) and it made me feel uneasy that I would had never really experienced any hardship was so down on life, whereas this man who seen the worst excesses man is capable of (not only in the camps mind you) was aglow with a lust for life.I asked him how he managed to go on and for the first time that day he got really emotional. His face clouded and a fierce resolve entered his eyes. He looked at me and said that if he had allowed the rest of his life to be miserable, then the Nazis would have had the final victory but - and I'll never forget it - he looked me straight in the eye and I could see the triumph there and said; "all those bastards (I remember being shocked by the ferocity of the word because he was very soft-spoken), Hitler and Himmler and Goering, all those bastards who wanted me dead.... I survived them all!" To me then - and even now - Louis embodied the triumph of good over evil, proving to me - contrary to all the evidence to the opposite - that we are capable of greatness and great courage, without resorting to violence.We stayed in touch for a while after that day. I would ring him up periodically and he would always ask me if I had bought a new car yet. ;-)My first child was on the way when I interviewed him and he always asked after him.We lost touch, which saddened me, but when my second book was published in 2006, I wanted to give him a copy because the book particually deals with self-actualization; a process I trace back to my meeting with him. MY girlfriend reached out to him because I was too reluctant to 'intrude' and presume upon our acquaintenceship. He remembered me and eagerly agreed to a meeting. Something came up, however, (ain't that life) and we didn't meet up. He died about two years ago.Louis de Wijze, he was one of the good ones. Btw, I just now realized that his surname means 'the wise one' in Dutch. Ain't that a kick in the head?Don't know why I felt compelled to write that all down.
Jun 8 11 4:03 AM
Jun 8 11 4:40 AM
Posts: 471
Jun 8 11 5:38 AM
Posts: 4703
Jun 8 11 6:04 AM
Golden Age
Binecon wrote: A personal hero of mine, but whom I never had the chance to meet, was Jeanette Rankin:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_RankinShe voted against US entry into both World War I (not then known by that name), and World War II. (She also, disappointingly, supported the draft in WWI...)She was the only member of Congress who possessed the courage to oppose the madness of the second war, and as with her vote against the first war, she was attacked at every turn.
Jun 8 11 6:10 AM
Jun 8 11 6:20 AM
Jun 8 11 6:29 AM
Jun 8 11 6:33 AM
Jun 8 11 6:39 AM
Jun 8 11 6:56 AM
Jun 8 11 7:04 AM
deejayway wrote: Quick, let us hug like men Binecon before we get this thread locked down.
Jun 8 11 7:10 AM
Posts: 3259
Jun 8 11 11:22 AM
deejayway wrote:In peace time, sons bury their fathers. During war, fathers bury their sons.
Posts: 6863
Jun 9 11 1:15 AM
Registered Member
deejayway wrote:And I too feel that the conscientious objectors - not the draft dodgers who got daddy to keep them at college - but the folks who went to jail or fled to Canada for their beliefs, were the true heroes of the Vietnam conflict.
Jun 9 11 3:09 AM
Jun 9 11 3:59 AM
Jun 9 11 4:24 AM
Not to be contentious and no offence intended to Dearlenbaugh, but Carabimero are you saying that principle that every conscripted soldier sent to a combat zone is courageous? Often, as Dearlenbaugh and Binecon have stated, it was just the path of least resistance and there was no real choice involved.Defy the prevailing social mores and face the vitriol and abuse of your peers or sign up and hope for the best. No real choice at all.
Of course the Vietnam vets had no way of knowing that there choice would eventually lead to widespread condemnation and alienation.
16 years after the fall of the Muslim safe haven of Srebrenica in Bosnia, Dutch society is still grappling with the failure of the Dutch UN Blue Helmets to do anything when Serb General Mladic rolled over them and subsequently slaughtered 7000 Muslim males there.
The Dutch soldiers were sent to protect the local Muslim population and they failed miserably. Most of them were poorly trained and armed conscripts who found themselves in a situation in which they were completely out of their depth.I feel they - and the Dutch government which send them and the UN that mandated the mission - are partially culpable for those deaths.They weren't courageous for going. They were short-sighted, failing to exercise a real informed choice, mainly motivated by monetary concerns because going abroad rendered huge bonuses. and ultimately the Muslims paid for their lassitude.
You can't really blame the Dutch troops; they were young and inexperienced and they didn't have the means (or the will) to carry out there mission.But to call them courageous......no.
I'm preaching I know, but war will only end when the ordinary people of all nations recognise they are all on the same side and collectively say: "hell no, we won't go!"That would be truly courageous.
I always thought it was a sad statement about the state of the world when after the first world war, the international trade unions and workers federations solemnly agreed that they would no longer heed the call to arms of their masters and if war threatened they would collectively say NO, call strikes and cripple their country's ability to wage war. It was a great show of international solidarity and it could've worked.But what happened?Once the war drums started beating, the blood got up, nationalist sentiment was whipped up in a frenzy by bellicose propaganda and the international solidarity evaporated. It wasn't long before everyone was back in the trenches doing their duty as good little tin soldiers. So sad.
Jun 9 11 4:33 AM
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