The Face of a Hero: Hero Meme

In a previous post about “A Portrait of the Artist as a Real Hero” I defined a real altruist as Nature’s Real Hero and described the Vervet Monkey as an example. In literature and in the “hero’s journey”, the hero is defined as the altruist, willing to sacrifice herself for the sake of the greater good.

I've written several posts on altruism, the altruist (the true definition of the hero) and the hero, including:

Altruism at the Heart of True Happiness
Gaia vs. Medea: A Case for Altruism
What Altruism in Animals Can Teach Us About Ourselves
The Samaritan Paradox Revisited: The Karma Ran Over the Dogma
Our Obsession with Ownership
Is James Bond an Altruist? – part 2
A Hero’s Journey: the Journey
The Hero’s Journey: Archetypes

The altruist is often not noticed or recognized. The real altruist is undervalued or mistaken for something else. The Real Hero is often misunderstood, feared, and ridiculed or exiled for being different. S/he must often walk a lonely path. Yet the hero shines in the dark face of adversity. They are a bright beacon of hope, leading us through the dark forest of evil or confusion toward a better life and a better world. Not only does the hero reflect our very best selves in times of crises, but they are our catalysts for change and evolution, our inspirational sources. While we may ridicule them in one breath as brazen, foolish or impetuous, or even threatening, we strive to be them, to emulate their qualities and follow in their noble footsteps. Heroes can be mentors, catalysts, and heralds of change. They educate us, challenge us—particularly our complacency and apathy—and they ultimately inspire us. Heroes bring us back to our humanity and show us what we can be.

In any case, it got me thinking about who my heroes are and who your heroes are. So, I created this meme in honor of our heroes:

The Hero Meme:

Here’s how it’s played: those of you who have been tagged are encouraged to name FIVE HEROES in your life with a brief explanation of why they deserve this recognition. Then you need to tag five to ten other bloggers to name their heroes. You and anyone you tag should 1) link to the source post (this one) and 2) to the blog or the person that tagged you (if it’s me then you only need to link here once).

First I’ll give you my personal hero picks. Then I’ll give you my choice of 10 blog-heroes that I’ve tagged to further this worthwhile meme. Even if I haven’t tagged you, I’d love to hear from you. Who are YOUR heroes?

Here are eight of my heroes; each demonstrates to me several important aspects of heroism and altruism:

The Vervet Monkey: Commonly living in groups or “troops” of 20 or more, the Vervet possesses the “rudiments of language”. Altruistic Vervets give alarm calls to warn their group of invading leopards, snakes, and eagles. In doing so, they attract attention to themselves, increasing their chance of being attacked. Because of their being known to destroy crops in Kenya, they have been classified as vermin in South Africa and were shot without a permit until 2003. I honor these courageous and noble creatures. They are the ultimate altruist and ultimate hero: prepared to risk their life for others.

Doctor Lynn Margulis: This scientist had the courage to challenge the current scientific hegemony, based on what she felt and knew was true, and persisted with her theory of endosymbiosis despite being ridiculed by the “ruling” scientific community. She endured two decades of censure only to see her theory finally accepted and reported in every text book on biology. Certain “greats” were compelled to retract their censure, which she accepted with grace and forgiveness. I draw inspiration from this courageous and persevering scientist in pursuit of the truth.

Victor Frankl: Gentle spirit, psychologist and founder of existential logo-therapy, Frankl endured and survived the atrocities of Auschwitz with incredible grace and equanimity. He wrote the profound book “Man’s Search for Meaning” which contained these stirring words: That which is to give light must first endure burning. Frankl referenced Nietzsche, "he who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how," when he argued that what made the difference between those who survived and those who did not was not the intensity of their suffering, but whether or not they retained meaning and purpose in their lives. Amid the degradation and abject misery of a concentration camp, Frankl was able to exercise the most important freedom of all—the freedom to determine one's own attitude and spiritual well-being. Said Frankl, “love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire…The salvation of man is through love and in love.” I honor his deep courage and his merciful compassion for those who tormented him with undue cruelty.

A.E. Whittall: My high school English teacher, who had the courage to be different and led a new movement in English instruction that challenged students like no other teacher had before. He “pushed” me and every other student toward achievements previously unimagined. He did this through his passionate treatment of writing and literature and by creating an even-playing field of mutual respect. He challenged us to think and to challenge him back by courageously offering his own vulnerability and passion. He inspired, cajoled and compelled, openly sharing his heart, his mind, and his spirit. I admire his courageous devotion to opening our minds and hearts toward ultimate expression.

Nikola Tesla:  Tesla was a humble genius, intense mystic and gentle spirit whose indomitable faith against all odds carried him through the many hardships and actions of betrayal and brutal jealousy that he endured with grace throughout his career as scientist and inventor (he insisted that he was not so much an inventor as a discoverer of ideas gifted to him in flashes of light). His many achievements include alternating current, wireless communication, the electric motor, lasers and radar, x-rays, neon, robotics, remote control, the expansion of ballistics, nuclear physics and theoretical physics, cellular technology, and even tactical space-warfare. Tesla was a rare breed of scientist/engineer, one who intuited his discoveries and inventions. And one who was also a poet, a philosopher, an appreciator of fine music, a linguist [he was fluent in eight languages], and a connoisseur of food and drink. He was also a humanitarian and loved animals.



Tesla was a selfless, giving and nonjudgmental spirit of incredible integrity who practiced altruism in his constant attempts to better the world. Despite the cynical and greedy actions of others around him, Tesla prevailed in his faith in humanity until he passed away, a pauper and generally unrecognized by the scientific community. This distinguished, sincere and modest altruist demonstrated great generosity in continually bestowing his gifts of genius to the world.


 

My Brother: When we were children, he protected me without dominating me, loved me unconditionally (for who and what I was), believed in me, respected me and knew just how to tease me (to get my goat!). At ease with himself, he is quietly assertive, has a wonderful sense of humor, and remains a strong advocate for justice and fairness. I forgive him for calling me an alien (well, that’s what I am, after all…) and “runt”... well, I was that too…

His Holiness the Dalai Lama:  His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama embodies harmony, ethics and happiness among all peoples. This past April, I participated in a conference in Zurich, Switzerland, on altruism and compassion in economics with His Holiness. I watched in awe as he guided each of the scientists and economists with a humble wisdom toward a common resolution. Delivered with his signature smile and laughter, the Dalai Lama disarmed conflict and promoted the joining of spirits toward true altruistic thought. His belief in and devotion to kindness, compassion and love on the planet is inspirational.

Karen Mason: Publisher, advocate, advisor, mystic and so much more, Karen is a gentle spirit who delivered me a dream by showing me an unfailing faith to achieve it. Karen’s undying optimism and indomitable faith against all odds has carried her through much that would have beaten others into defeat—and each time she prevailed with grace and compassion. Karen is a humanitarian and healer with an empathic gift with animals, a Kabbalist, accomplished musician, gifted cryptologist and linguist [she is fluent in six languages including Ancient Hebrew), and connoisseur of food and drink. Intelligent, wise and incredibly accomplished in art, communications and technology, she has demonstrated in all her actions a heroic quality that most of us can only strive to achieve: a truly selfless, giving and nonjudgmental spirit of incredible integrity who practices altruism in its most pure form. She is my ultimate inspiration for living a life of faith, genuine kindness, joy and continued wonder. Karen is a beautiful spirit who I am honored to call my friend and mentor.

Here are the blog heroes I’ve tagged:

Kathleen Maher, the Diary of a Heretic
Bob Kingsley, Somerset Bob's Place
Jean Luc Picard, Captain Picard's Journal
Heather Dugan, Footsteps
Princess Haiku, Princess Haiku
Dcr, DCR Blogs
Manchild, When Least Expected
Jennifer Rahn, Random Synaptic Transfers
Lynda Williams, Reality Skimming
Toulouse LeTrek, Toulouse LeTrek

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.

Valkyrie’s Heroes

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it—Santayana

On this very day last year Bryan Singer released his motion picture Valkyrie—based on a true story of a cabal of Nazi officers who conspired to assassinate Adolf Hitler during the latter days of the war. July 20th 1944 represented the fifteenth known attempt by Germans to assassinate an evil tyrant propelling them into global shame.

You may be wondering why I’ve chosen to discuss this film today of all days. It’s Christmas Day, after all, the birthday of Jesus Christ, our savior. It is a day about birth, hope, wonder and joy; not death, shame and murder. Well, hear me out. Bryan Singer may have randomly chosen a Christmas Day release following several delays from the initial June release date. But I think the Christmas Day release was very appropriate. And fateful. And I’ll give you my reasons…after I discuss the motion picture and the German Resistance, that is.

Despite its obvious outcome, the historical thriller, written by Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Nathan Alexander, runs tautly (for one, you wonder how they fail; but a part of you also roots for an alternative reality aka Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards). Claus von Stauffenberg’s (Tom Cruise) bold yet brilliant plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler and arrest key SS officers using Hitler’s own Operation Valkyrie National Emergency Plan—effectively taking control of the country—required unmitigated commitment and precise action by his associate plotters. His associates included a prestigious inner circle of Nazi officers such as General Henning von Tresckow (Kenneth Branagh), Colonel General Ludwig Beck (Terence Stamp), General Friedrich Olbricht (Bill Nighy), Dr. Carl Goerdeler (McNally), Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben (Schofield), and General Friedrich Fromm (Tom Wilkinson). Wikipedia gives a good in-depth summary of the real events of the July 20th coup attempt, faithfully rendered in the movie.

Many reviewers of Valkyrie focused on whether Tom Cruise redeemed himself in this “well-crafted thinking person’s action movie” (Rotten Tomatoes) at the expense of the significance of the movie’s content. For instance, Kam Williams of NewsBlaze pretty much dismissed the film as “an interminable costume drama strictly for Tom Cruise fans or World War II buffs.” I don’t think he got it. His review incited several comments including this one by Wayne B., who replied with, “Nonsense. The rest of the country is out making cartoons about toy robots, vampires and car chases and Tom Cruise is making a movie about history. We don’t learn much from the majority of movies out there, but Valkyrie takes us inside the terror of Nazi Germany and shows us the history of some real heroes most of us never think of [or even know of, I would add]. Valkyrie was an amazing glimpse into history that matters and unfortunately most of us are too busy trying to be entertained than to actually learn anything.”

And what we learned was this: there was an active German resistance to Hitler’s brutality, intolerance and racial hatred. Many opposed his evil mania for eugenics and the creation of a super-race of “normal” Aryan heterosexuals. This, despite the horrible shadow cast by the Hitler Youth, Gestapo, and the SS to maintain national order. People were shot or disappeared for just thinking wrong thoughts or worse yet for someone else thinking they did or just being what they were. Those caught actively resisting the Third Reich were imprisoned, tortured and executed. Active resistance spanned from acts of sabotage to publicly denouncing actions of the regime to assassination attempts. Between 1933 and 1945 more than 3.5 million Germans had been interred in concentration camps or prison for political reasons. An estimated 77,000 Germans were killed by Special Courts, courts martial, and the civil justice system for subversion and conspiracy against the Nazi regime. Many had served in government, the military, or in civil positions.

The German Resistance was not a united organized movement so much as a common sentiment shared by many disparate and isolated individuals and loose groups. Resistance comprised of opposition by underground political and ideological networks like the banned Social Democrats (SPD) and Communists (KPD); public protest of Catholic and Protestant clergy against mistreatment of minorities (e.g., the T4 euthanasia program, deportation of Jews, Kristallnacht and other atrocities); and perhaps the most heroic—resistance of individual Germans who acted on their own moral principles, at risk of death, to evade serving in the Nazi regime (e.g., military or Hitler Youth), and to defy or subvert government policies. This included helping Jews survive the Nazi Holocaust by hiding them, obtaining papers for them, etc.; spreading news about and protest material against Nazi atrocities; and other forms of passive resistance. The stories of brave women and men who resisted are many.

Elisabeth von Thadden, a private girls' school principal, disregarded official edicts and continued to enroll Jewish girls at her school until May 1941 when the school was nationalized and she was dismissed (she was executed in 1944, following the Frau Solf Tea Party).

A Berlin Protestant Minister, Heinrich Grüber, organised the smuggling of Jews to the Netherlands. Many of us know about Schindler’s act of altruism from the movie, Schindler’s List, starring Liam Neeson.

Many Germans rallied against the program of so-called “euthanasia” – in fact a campaign of mass murder – directed at people with mental illness and/or severe physical disabilities started in 1939 under the code name T4. By 1941 more than 70,000 people had been killed under this program, many by gassing, and their bodies incinerated.

The "White Rose" was a Munich-based student resistance, formed in 1941 in response to a sermon by August von Galen the archbishop of Munster and to claims that the Nazis were killing undesirables and calling the practice euthanasia. They published radical leaflets rejecting fascism and militarism, and called for justice. Six members of the White Rose were executed on February 22, 1943.

Catholic Bishop of Münster in Westphalia, Clemens August Graf von Galen publicly denounced the “euthanasia” program in a sermon, and telegrammed his text to Hitler, calling on “the Führer to defend the people against the Gestapo.” Kiel Professor Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt saved most of his patients from death through Action T4 ; he "re-diagnosed" them so that they no longer met the T4 criteria, although this ran the risk of exposure when the Nazi zealots from Berlin conducted inspections. After the Kristallnacht (the first organized Nazi pogrom in Germany), German Catholic priest, Fr. Bernhard Lichtenberg prayed publicly for Jews at Evening prayer. He and Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber of Munich also protested against the T4 “euthanasia” program.

On August 9, 1943 Franz Jägerstätter was beheaded by the Nazis for refusing to fight for them. It was the very same day (though not the same year) that Edith Stein was brutally gassed (along with hundreds of other Jews) in Auschwitz. Both were canonized as Saints by the Catholic Church (though much later).

I only recently learned that over forty-two separate plots to kill Hitler were identified by German historians. Hitler’s would-be-assassins ranged from “simple craftsmen to high-ranking soldiers, from the apolitical to the ideologically obsessed, and from enemy agents to his closest associates,” wrote British historian Roger Moorhouse in his 2007 book Killing Hitler, who went on to observe that “inexplicably, few of these men are known beyond the narrow confines of academic history…Their greatest failing was that they were unable to carry out their allotted task—that of ridding the world of Adolf Hitler—but they nonetheless deserve greater recognition.”

Among those who tried but failed to stop the madness of a brutal dictator were:
Swiss university student Maurice Bavaud, whose three easily thwarted tries in November 1938 to shoot Hitler got him guillotined. Johann Georg Elser, a Swabian carpenter who tried to kill Hitler with a bomb on November 8, 1039 (the Nazi leader left the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich only 13 minutes before detonation). Elser died in the Dachau concentration camp.

Claus von Stauffenberg and other high officials of the German Military attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler inside his "Wolf's Lair" field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia on July 20, 1944. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi regime. The failure of both the assassination and the military coup d'état which was planned to follow it led to the arrest of at least 7,000 people by the Gestapo According to records of the Führer Conferences on Naval Affairs, 4,980 people were executed, resulting in the destruction of the resistance movement in Germany (Wikipedia).

When Singer began filming Valkyrie in 2008, Germans were initially reluctant to cooperate due to Cruise’s practice of Scientology (viewed with suspicion in the country). When they were convinced of the film’s serious intent, they whole-heartedly supported the film to spread global awareness of von Stauffenberg’s plot and his fellow officers’ heroics.

"It has always aggrieved me,” said Frank Schirrmacher in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany “that it's nearly impossible to make people in foreign countries aware of the fact that in Germany there were also people who risked their lives to oppose the Nazi order. … With his decision to lend Graf von Stauffenberg a face, Tom Cruise will change the image that the world has of us Germans.”

Bryan Singer gained permission to film at Bendlerblock, the building in Berlin that served as the seat of the Reichswehr command and Ministry of Defence—and, under the leadership of Infantry General Friedrich Olbricht, was the focus of military resistance to the Nazi regime. It was in its courtyard that a firing squad assembled the night of July 20, 1944 and executed Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, First Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, General Friedrich Olbricht, and Colonel Albrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim. Just as Stauffenberg was about to be shot, he raised his head high and shouted, “Long live sacred Germany!”

In the courtyard of the Bendlerblock, south of the Tiergarten in western Berlin, stands a statue of a naked man and a plaque where the July 20th plotters were shot: a memorial to the entire German Resistance (Deutscher Widerstand) that reads: “You did not bear the shame. You resisted, sacrificing your life for freedom, justice and honor.” According to archives documenting anti-Nazi resistance in Austria, German military courts condemned over 70,000 people to death, two thirds of whom were members of its own forces.

Nature produces many heroes; those among us who willingly (whether hard-wired, subconsciously or consciously) sacrifice something for the benefit of our world. This does not necessarily mean our lives either; but something we usually value that belongs to us or resides in us. Anything from giving away what little wealth one has to compromising one’s position in society; anything from risking one’s health or security to incurring the ridicule or wrath of one’s cherished community for adhering to a principle or personal truth or defending an outsider. To be a hero is to stand out and make oneself a target. Like the Vervet monkey crier. Real heroism, like real altruism, isn’t often recognized or valued for its true virtue. We all recognize the Hollywood stereotype, the Die Hard types that blow up a city to save a world. But who recognizes the quiet heroism of Louis, the young school kid who refuses to join in with his friends to bully and ridicule René for smelling funny because she has poor hygiene and rotten hand-me-down clothes?

Christmas is a time to celebrate the wisdom of the child (and the child in us all). Children are often surprisingly resilient about the deeper ills of the world; they often show a simpler, more healthy perspective on humanity that supersedes arbitrary and shallow prejudices, demonstrating an inner wisdom many of us "forget" as we grow older and distracted by the trappings of peer pressure and consumerism. Christmas is ultimately a time to celebrate and strive for innocence and childlike virtues such as faith, optimism, courage, enthusiasm, cheerfulness and the simple joy of being. It is a time of tolerance and acceptance; a time of forgiveness, of healing and reconciliation. A time to set aside our differences and fears and embrace our humanity, foibles and all. A time to walk deep into one’s soul and find one’s inner calling, one’s gift to the world. It is a time surely for giving. A time of service and love.

Victor Frankl, who survived Auschwitz and lost virtually his whole family in Nazi concentration camps, wrote that he had finally grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: “The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world may still know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when a man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way—an honorable way—in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment.”

So, today, when Christians all over the world (myself included) are celebrating the birth of the child-gift, our savior Jesus Christ, I dedicate my gratitude to the heroic men and women who gave their lives to save us from the violence of prejudice, racist hatred and genocide such as The Final Solution. I give thanks to their noble spirit, altruism and bravery to speak out and act selflessly for a noble cause. Every one I list below was a light in the darkness; each one gave his or her life to make a better world for you and me. Each one acted in the spirit of Jesus Christ. Each one acted out of selfless love with hope and faith for a better world, a better humanity. Many were executed in the Third Reich's Volksgerichtshof or thrown into concentration camps. There are many many more, I know. But these are some notable ones I found:

• Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, the Kreisau Circle and the Abwehr
• Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg
• Adam von Trott zu Solz
• Otto Carl Kiep
• Lieutenant Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg
• General Henning von Tresckow
• General Helmuth Stieff
• Colonel Hans Oster
• Admiral Wilhelm Canaris
• Colonel General Ludwig Beck
• General Friedrich Olbricht
• First Lieutenant Werner von Haeften
• General Erich Fellgiebel
• Abwehr Colonel Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim
• Edith Stein
• Franz Jägerstätter
• Richard Kuenzer
• Walter Cramer
• Professor Alfred Delp
• Hans von Dohnanyi
• Albrecht von Bernstorff
• Klaus Bonhoeffer
• Georg Elser
• Helmuth Hübener. At age 17, he was the youngest opponent of the Third Reich to be executed.
• Members of the White Rose resistance movement: Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, Alex Schmorell, Willi Graf, Christoph Probst, and Kurt Huber.
• Julius Fučík.
• Karlrobert Kreiten
• Max Josef Metzger
• Erwin von Witzleben
• Johanna "Hanna" Kirchner
• Lieutenant-Colonel Caesar von Hofacker
• Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
• Elisabeth von Thadden, and other members of the anti-Nazi Solf Circle.
• Julius Leber
• Klaus Bonhoeffer and Rüdiger Schleicher

Be at Peace. See light in darkness. Spread Hope. Create Joy and Celebrate the Wonder of Christmas.
“The Word was the source of life, and this life brought light to people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.” –John 1.4-5 (GNT).

"He has shown you … what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

Photos:1. cast of Bryan Singer's 2008 film Valkyrie
2. Claus von Stauffenberg
3. Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg in Valkyrie
4. Friedrich Olbricht
5. Erwin Witzleben
6. Henning von Tresckow

7. Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen

8. Franz Jagerstatter

9. Bernhard Lichtenberg

10. The Bendlerblock courtyard where Stauffenberg and other were shot

11. The Valkyrie of Norse Legend

12. Victor Frankl

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.

Victor Frankl and the Holocaust

What is to give light must endure burning—Victor Frankl

Victor Frankl survived Auschwitz to write those words (whose meaning resonates more profoundly, given his experience).

So, on this day, when Christians all over the world (myself included) are observing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for us, I dedicate this Good Friday Feature to the men, women and children who gave their lives in Nazi World War II concentration camps. Let us not forget their sacrifice and the lessons we can learn from the Holocaust.

Six million European Jews were brutally executed during World War II, as part of a program to deliberately exterminate them by the National Socialist (Nazi) regime in Germany led by Adolf Hitler. The persecution and genocide of the Holocaust ("completely burnt”) was accomplished in stages. Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. Jews and Roma were crammed into ghettos before being transported hundreds of miles by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were killed in gas chambers. Every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal state."

In a stirring speech, upon her resignation from office, Alexandra Levi said, “…when we journey into Holocaust remembrance and stay there for an extended time, we cannot come out the same persons we went in…When we make ourselves serious students of the Holocaust we must regularly recuperate from our study, go out into the sunlight, partake in the peace and cheer of today. Look: the sun is shining, the season is changing, lives are being lived. But when we return to the books and the testimony, we enter once again the truth of a time when Jews cringed in death camps like beaten animals, eating with a feral rush what little they were given, and knowing in the words of Primo Levi, "that in a few weeks nothing will remain of them but a handful of ashes in some near-by field and a crossed-out number on a register." …when infant children were torn from their parents' arms to be smashed upon paving stones; that grandmothers and grandfathers were stripped naked and lined up at the edge of muddy pits to be machine-gunned into mass graves; that nearly half of our total nation was herded and sheared like worthless livestock to be gassed and burned…Those scenes were painted on the canvas of history. They must now be made imperishable in our consciousness, and taken as a lesson - and a turning point.”

Viktor Emil Frankl, M.D., Ph.D., (March 26, 1905 - September 2, 1997) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, whose book Man's Search for Meaning (first published in 1946) chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones. Frankl was one of the key figures in existential therapy. He founded logotherapy and Existential Analysis, the "Third Viennese School" of psychotherapy.

In the preface to Frankl’s book, Man's Search for Meaning, Gordon W. Allport writes:

"...in one life there is love for one's children to tie to; in another life, a talent to be used; in a third, perhaps only lingering memories worth preserving... As a long-time prisoner in bestial concentration camps he [Viktor Frankl] found himself stripped to naked existence. His father, mother, brother, and his wife died in camps or were sent to gas ovens, so that, excepting for his sister, his entire family perished in these camps. How could he - every possession lost, every value destroyed, suffering from hunger, cold and brutality, hourly expecting extermination - how could he find life worth preserving?"

Frankl references Nietzsche, "he who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how," and argues that what made the difference between those who survived and those who did not was not the intensity of their suffering, but whether or not they retained meaning and purpose in their lives.

Frankl writes of his experience as the guards herded them in forced labor in the Nazi concentration camp:

“We stumbled on in the darkness, over big stones and through large puddles, along the one road running through the camp. The accompanying guards kept shouting at us and driving us with the butts of their rifles. Anyone with very sore feet supported himself on his neighbor's arm. Hardly a word was spoken; the icy wind did not encourage talk.” Even there, in the degradation and abject misery of a concentration camp, Frankl was able to exercise the most important freedom of all - the freedom to determine one's own attitude and spiritual well-being. No Nazi SS guard was able to take that away from him or control the inner-life of Frankl's soul. One of the ways he found the strength to fight to stay alive and not lose hope was to think of his wife. Frankl clearly saw that it was those who had nothing to live for who died quickest in the concentration camp.

It was as he contemplated his beloved wife that a transcending thought came to Frankl: “For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth--that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world may still know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when a man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way--an honorable way--in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life, I was able to understand the words, The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.”

Frankl continues, “My mind still clung to the image of my wife. A thought crossed my mind: I didn't even know if she were still alive, and I had no means of finding out (during all my prison life there was no outgoing or incoming mail); but at that moment it ceased to matter. There was no need to know; nothing could touch the strength of my love, and the thoughts of my beloved. Had I known then that my wife was dead, I think that I still would have given myself, undisturbed by that knowledge, to the contemplation of that image, and that my mental conversation with her would have been just as vivid and just as satisfying. Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death."

In a compelling post, Gavin Ortlund wrote this in his blog recently: “What gripped me most about [Frankl’s] book, and has stayed with me to this day, is not the horror and barbarity of his experiences in concentration camps - when you pick up a book about the holocaust, you expect that. What really struck me was Frankl's repeated insistence that even there, in the most inhumane and horrific conditions imaginable, the greatest struggle is not mere survival. The greatest struggle is finding meaning. As I was reading, I was struck with this thought: going to a concentration camp is not the worst thing that can happen to a person. The worst that can happen to a person is not having a transcendent reason to live. Life is about more than finding comfort and avoiding suffering: its about finding what is ultimate, whatever the cost.”

Said Frankl, “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”


Easter is a time of contemplation, of reflection. A time of death and resurrection (yes, creative destruction too)… It is a time of tolerance and acceptance, of forgiveness, of healing and reconciliation. A time to set aside our differences and embrace our humanity, foibles and all. A time of humbleness, of humility. A time of consciousness, of integrity, and honor. And uplifted spirits. A time to walk deep into one’s soul and find one’s inner calling, one’s gift to the world. It is a time surely for giving. A time of service and love.

Then again, why confine this thinking to Easter? Do we confine our love and proclamation of love to Valentine's Day?

So, I leave this post with you for NOW and always...And with another piece of wisdom from Frankl on SUCCESS:

"Again and again I therefore admonish my students in Europe and America: Don't aim at success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run - in the long-run, I say! - success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it."

Happy Easter!

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.