Veterans of Life

Years ago, I periodically visited with a retired Army veteran named Carl. He and his wife were both in their late 80s and battled an assortment of health concerns, but in spite of their fragile bodies, they always cheerfully welcomed me into their home. Carl had proudly served in the Army for over 30 years. The walls in their home were covered with memorabilia from his service years—medals, ribbons, pictures, and commendation letters from his superior officers.

Carl was part of the largest seaborne invasion in history when he landed in Normandy on D-Day 1944. He fought in a number of battles across Europe to help liberate France and Germany from Nazi tyranny. I was fascinated by his combat experiences during the war. He was awarded several Bronze Stars and other service medals. And while he spoke freely about what his unit did, he never mentioned his own achievements. He was modest to a fault and a man of honor.

I learned much from my friend Carl about the war and the horrors he witnessed. He reminded me that freedom is never free, but costly. If we take freedom for granted, he said, we will certainly lose it. It saddened me when he passed away, but his memory continues to be a blessing.

LSTs with barrage balloons deployed, unloading supplies on Omaha Beach for the break-out from Normandy

The people who lived through those momentous years during the 1930s and 1940s are few in number these days, but they can still contribute greatly to today’s world. We have much to learn from these veterans of life, “The Greatest Generation,” as Tom Brokaw so aptly called them.

Recently, I read the story of another remarkable person who lived through World War II, Liliana Segre. She was born in 1930 in Italy and now lives in Milan at the age of 93. Shortly after her birth her mother died of cancer, leaving her upbringing to her father, a secular Jew. In spite of the loss of her mother, Liliana was raised by a gentle and loving father who taught her to love nature and other people. Her early childhood was happy and she enjoyed school, especially literature, but in the late 30s her life was turned upside down.

She was 8-years-old when Mussolini’s racial laws took effect, and she was prohibited from attending school. During this period, Jews were treated harshly and experienced severe persecution. Liliana’s former classmates and friends now ignored her when they saw her on the street, having been indoctrinated by the Italian Fascists that Jews were inferior beings.

It wasn’t long before Liliana, her father, and 600 other Jews lost their freedom when they were sent to Milan’s San Vittore prison. In January 1944, under the cover of darkness, the Jews were loaded onto freight trains, where dozens crowded into individual boxcars, equipped only with a single bucket for waste. They arrived at the notorious Auschwitz death camp in February.

Auschwitz

Most of the Jews who arrived on the trains were immediately sent to the gas chambers and then cremated in ovens. Liliana was spared death and sent to work long hours in a munitions plant. She was tattooed with the number 75190, which, after almost 80 years, is still clearly visible on her arm.

Liliana did not know what happened to her father and learned only after the war that he had been killed by the Nazis shortly after their arrival in the death camp. The brutality, suffering, and death she witnessed on a daily basis left lasting scars on her life.

After the war, she went back to Italy where she lived with her maternal grandparents, who survived the war by hiding. She married, had children, and rarely discussed her past. She believed, falsely, I might add, that the past was the past and would never be repeated. Surely, she thought, Europeans would adamantly reject any totalitarian movement should it ever threaten democracy again.

When Liliana began to witness right-wing demonstrations popping up all across the globe, she realized her experience needed to be shared, especially with the younger generation. Thirty years ago, at the age of 60, she decided to break her silence and share her story, a horrendous ordeal that she had tried for decades to suppress. She began to tell her story in schools and wherever the opportunities presented themselves and continues to this day.

In January 2018, she was made one of Italy’s Senators for Life, the country’s highest honor. She has been called the conscience and living memory of the Holocaust. Her vivid portrayals of Jewish suffering during the war years has awakened a country that had ignored the troubling trends of right-wing extremism.

Senator Liliana Segre

Not all Italians support her attempts to educate and enlighten the Italian public about the terrors of authoritarian regimes. In 2019, the Italian government provided Liliana with full-time police protection because of the threats made against her life. The anti-Semitism and racial hatred toward migrants in places like Italy, France, Germany, Britain, and even the U.S.A. have frightened Liliana and resurrected disturbing memories of pre-war Europe in the 1930s. She is well aware that history could repeat itself, unless people bravely speak out.

She often asks herself if all the years she spent telling children about the gas chambers, the atrocities of rape and murder, tattooed arms, slave labor, and the deaths of millions upon millions of men, women, and children have been wasted. “Have I lived my life in vain,” she wondered out loud to a reporter who interviewed her.  

It has been 90 years since authoritarian governments came to power in Italy and Germany. They were placed in power by people who willingly exchanged their personal liberties for dreams of racial purity, the hope of restored national respect, and promises of economic prosperity. The people’s support for totalitarian leaders uprooted civilization by launching a World War that destroyed beautiful cities and killed millions of people. Tragically, it seems that many people, fearful of a changing world, are attempting to turn the clock back by once again voicing support for autocratic styles of leadership. We would do well to listen to the words of Benjamin Franklin who said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

My wife and I were watching television a few nights ago when a reporter asked a number of people attending a political rally if they would favor a dictator over a candidate from another party. Person after person, without exception, said they would prefer a dictator to a person from another party as leader of our country. We could scarcely believe our ears.

Have we become so fearful and insecure in the modern world that we are willing to give up our freedom for the illusion of safety? I say illusion because racial purity will not make countries more secure and, besides, there are no pure races. Moreover, crime will always be a problem until we address the root causes created by gross inequality in wealth and education. And regardless of how strong and vigilant our military, there will always be tensions and attacks from rogue countries who want nothing more than the destruction of our way of life.

A powerful leader, whose authority and decisions are unchecked by laws, congress, and the American people, may sound appealing at times, but then our country would no longer be America. America is above all else an idea. The people who came to these shores had a vision of a country where people would be free to speak their minds, to vote for the candidate of their choice, and to worship God or not as they felt led. It is the dream of a country where all races and religions are welcome. America is a big family of people—red, yellow, black, and white—large enough to include anyone who is willing to peacefully coexist with others.

This democratic form of government can be frustrating at times! The wheels move slowly when so many varied voices are given freedom to speak. Winston Churchill once quipped that democracy was the worst form of government, except for all the others. It should surprise no one that democracy, by its very nature, requires compromise and the willingness to put aside partisan politics, if democracy is to work.

Unfortunately, it seems that compromise has become a lost art in our country. In today’s political climate, politicians seem more interested in making points with their constituency than they are passing legislation. In earlier times, with a few exceptions, congressional votes seldom went strictly along party lines, but today that is almost always the case. A democracy will certainly fail if people are not willing to negotiate and reach across the aisle in an honest effort to work together.

I discussed politics only once with my friend, Carl. His wife was in the hospital, where he sat patiently by her bedside day after day. When I entered the room, his wife was asleep and we chit-chatted about various things. After a little while, the conversation turned to the gubernatorial race. He asked me who I was going to vote for. I told him, and he smiled, shook his head, and said, “Pastor, that’s the wrong guy.”

Before I could dig myself into a deeper hole, he graciously said, “That’s okay, though. That’s why we stormed the beaches in Normandy. We wanted to give you the freedom to be wrong!”

It took me just a moment to catch his jest, but then I saw his eyes widen and the corners of his mouth turn up. Then I knew. We giggled softly like teenaged boys in church, trying hard not to waken his wife.

Democracy! It’s worth saving.