COURAGE TO HELP THE HELPLESS

Luba: The Angel of Bergen-Belsen
as told to Michelle R. McCann by Luba Tryszynska-Frederick (Berkeley: Tricycle Press, 2003)

Introduction

In Germany in the 1930s, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party rose to power. As its power increased, it became known as the Nazi Party and it imprisoned citizens who disagreed with its political ideals and practices. It built bigger prisons—concentration camps—and imprisoned German citizens who were not “Aryan,” or blond-haired, blue-eyed descendents of Northern Europeans). The Nazi’s especially targeted Jews, and in every country it invaded, it took steps to remove all Jews from the country—both by killing and by relocating.

Summary

This is based on a true story of Luba, a young Jewish Woman in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. According to the author’s account, one winter night, she heard distant crying. Following the sound, she found 54 children abandoned by Nazi soldiers to die in a field in the winter cold. The soldiers couldn’t bring themselves to shoot them as they had been ordered, so they left them to die. She takes them into the work camp barracks and hides them. Many of the other Jewish women in the barracks told Luba to send the children away because if they were discovered, all the women in the barracks would be punished. But even though Luba had never before seen these children, and even though the children were not of the same nationality as Luba, she risked her life to care for them.

She risked her life daily to find food, clothing, and fuel for the children. A Russian butcher would contribute some meat, a German cook offered leftovers, and the German guards’ wives gave old clothing. The author realised that with the passage of time, the butcher, cook, wives and soldiers had mostly likely figured out that Luba had rescued a bunch of children, but they still helped these fifty-four children.

Questions and Discussion

The Nazi guards and their wives never apologize for mistreating Jews, or for keeping Jews imprisoned in the camp, they do not recognize the intolerance and brutality of the Nazi regime, but they show a humane side to every member of an intolerant regime. Regimes can profess absolute intolerance, but individual members will see the humanity of their victims and some will react in a manner to display their own humanity.

What made Luba risk her life for children she had never seen before? What made the Nazi guards, their wives and other individuals contribute to the welfare of the children by contributing food, clothing, fuel, and safe passage for Luba to seek out these necessities?

How can we show our humanity when injustice is occurring?