tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3655400718416930206.post4176885027690839916..comments2020-04-17T11:43:33.460-07:00Comments on Ars Veritatis: The Harry Potter School of HeroismUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3655400718416930206.post-40121442723076803642013-01-21T13:48:08.677-08:002013-01-21T13:48:08.677-08:00Gordon, Thanks for the note. Here's a link to ...Gordon, Thanks for the note. Here's a link to the Quakers' Nobel Peace Prize:<br /><br />http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1947/<br /><br />This also reminds me of the story of Maximilian Kolbe, who gave his life to a stranger in Auschwitz. His is an extraordinary tale of strength, generosity and utter heroism.<br /><br />From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_Kolbe<br /><br />"At the end of July 1941, three prisoners disappeared from the camp, prompting SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 men to be starved to death in an underground bunker in order to deter further escape attempts. When one of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, "My wife! My children!", Kolbe volunteered to take his place.<br /><br />In his prison cell, Kolbe celebrated Mass each day and sang hymns with the prisoners. He led the other condemned men in song and prayer and encouraged them by telling them they would soon be with Mary in Heaven. Each time the guards checked on him, he was standing or kneeling in the middle of the cell and looking calmly at those who entered. After two weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe remained alive. The guards wanted the bunker emptied and they gave Kolbe a lethal injection of carbolic acid. Some who were present at the injection say that he raised his left arm and calmly waited for the injection." Gully Burnshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01469243376705899596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3655400718416930206.post-92093911912405627732013-01-21T13:11:52.253-08:002013-01-21T13:11:52.253-08:00Here is an example from actual history. The quote ...Here is an example from actual history. The quote is from the presentation speech for the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize.<br /><br />"When the First World War broke out, the Quakers were once more to learn what it was to suffer for their faith. They refused to carry arms, and many of them were thrown into prison, where they were often treated worse than criminals. But it is not this that we shall remember longest. We who have closely observed the events of the First World War and of the inter-war period will probably remember most vividly the accounts of the work they did to relieve the distress caused by the war. As early as 1914, the English Quakers started preparation for relief action. They began their work in the Marne district in France and, whenever they could, they went to the very places where the war had raged. They worked in this way all through the war and when it ended were confronted by still greater tasks. For then, as now, hunger and sickness followed in the wake of the war. Who does not recall the years of famine in Russia in 1920-1921 and Nansen's appeal to mankind for help? Who does not recall the misery among the children in Vienna which lasted for years on end? In the midst of the work everywhere were the Quakers. It was the Friends Service Committee which, at Hoover's 12 request, took on the mighty task of obtaining food for sick and undernourished children in Germany. Their relief corps worked in Poland and Serbia, continued to work in France, and later during the civil war in Spain13 rendered aid on both sides of the front.<br /><br />"Through their work, the Quakers won the confidence of all, for both governments and people knew that their only purpose was to help. They did not thrust themselves upon people to win them to their faith. They drew no distinction between friend and foe. One expression of this confidence was the donation of considerable funds to the Quakers by others. The funds which the Quakers could have raised among themselves would not have amounted to much since most of them are people of modest means."<br /><br />There is a legend, which I have been unable to verify, that Quakers were allowed to extract Jews from pre-WWII Germany, because even the Gestapo had been fed by Quakers when they were children. Perhaps. But I have verified that a Quaker delegation visited the Gestapo in 1938 for this purpose, and that their lack of guile made a big impression.Gordon Roesler, Ph.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07100234762066668917noreply@blogger.com