Hallo All
This morning I heard Thomas Buergenthal speaking on the radio and I found
myself wanting to share it on CT. If not 'a community' in the strict sense for
me, then certainly I'm experiencing a growing attachment to CT!
Thomas's details are below in the book promotion but what I want to share is
his emphasis on moral courage. He said that in the literature of the Holocaust
and the war what is rarely spoken of is moral as opposed to physical courage.
And he told his story. Aged 9 in Auschwitz he witnessed his first hanging. A
number of prisoners had tried to escape but where caught and bably beaten by
the Nazis. They were then lined up for execution and for each one a friend was
ordered to put the noose around their necks. In the case of one man as he
approached his friend to execute his grim task he was so distressed and his
hands were shaking so badly that he couldn't fulfil his instructions.
Witnessing this the condemned man bent down and took the noose from his
friends grip and slipping it round his own neck. He then bent down and kissed
his friend as his last act . Moral courage on an epic scale.
Moral courage operates in the ordinary interactions of every day life too and I
have been hearing a kind of moral courage in many of the contributions on CT
of late. What resonated with me personally was in your words Alison when you
wrote:
"Back then, I never noticed the song¹s underbelly-- the inexorable alchemy in
which the victim becomes a perpetrator‹ the ever-present danger, unless
tempered by awareness, vigilance, and deepening levels of resolution and the
reconnection to love. ... In listening to the song now, I hear it reminding me
to assess whether I¹m at risk or placing another at risk when I move out into
worldly action.
Even the subtlest wisdom can harden into an ideology when applied too broadly,
imposing itself ocircumstance, rather than guiding inner personal
transformation. Given all the pain in the world, the need for solutions is
urgent and yet, and yet... I feel we need to be humble and wary. As the I Ching
says, "evil when branded thinks of weapons. Let a man first rid himself of the
faults he sees." The Hippocratic oath, "First, do no harm," has a place here
despite the longing to extend the fruits of our experience to help others avoid
future suffering.
So when we talk about faith and hope, here¹s my prayer:
Let me find confidence that the work of cleaning whatever I¹ve been given to
clean within myself is a task of dignity and worth. For when I fear that it
isn¹t, I might be tempted to look out to sea for the black freighter. If this
work and this loosely formed community do nothing else, they endow that inner
task with dignity and point me towards the love."
I like to keep a little book of quotations and learnings. These words have gone
in to it to remind me of the ever present need for awareness, vigilance, and
deepening levels of resolution and the reconnection to love - of moral courage.
I hope that CT is a place where we can inspire and support each other in the
quest for moral courage in our work with people and with our loves ones - and
dare I say it, with our enemies too
Barbara S
Barbara Stones
stonesbarbara@xxxxxxxxxxx
59 Englewood Road
London SW12 9PB
__________________________________________
Book Promotion
At the age of seven Thomas Buergenthal was imprisoned in Nazi ghettos and
camps, being rescued by Soviet and Polish troops when he was eleven. Separated
from his parents in Auschwitz and surviving the 'Death March' of 1945 he was
miraculously reunited with his mother a year and a half later. The rest of his
family and almost all of his friends were killed. After experiencing the
turmoil of Europe's post-war years - from the Battle of Berlin, to a Jewish
orphanage in Poland - Buergenthal went to America in the 1950s at the age of
seventeen.He eventually became one of the world's leading experts on
international law and human rights. His story of survival and his determination
to use law and justice to prevent further genocide is an epic journey through
20th century history. Buergenthal gives his perspective - as a child - on life
in the camps. And, uniquely, he shows how his past has informed his
understanding of the modern day war-crimes he sees as a
judge. His book is both a special historical document and a great literary
achievement, comparable only to Primo Levi's masterpieces.
More info
Thomas Buergenthal is a judge at the International Court in The Hague who was
rescued from the death camps of Auschwitz at the age of eleven by Soviet and
Polish troops. These memoirs present the story of his extraordinary journey -
from the horrors of Nazism to an investigation of modern day genocide.
020 8673 2508
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