Remembrance Day—Veteran’s Day in the United States—is a chance for us to honour our veterans and reflect on the reality of war. If we nurtured empathy in our everyday lives, would peace be more inevitable than war? Here's what Dr. Jonathan White, a professor of political economy and sociology at Bridgewater State University, had to say.
“We now know that many of those who saved Jews during the Holocaust were actually ordinary people,” said Dr. White. “They were farmers, teachers, business owners and factory workers. Some were rich, some were poor, some Protestants, others Catholics. Many have done little else that is extraordinary, either before the war or since. One of the things that they all seemed to have in common, however, was an ability to feel empathy and to act on it.”
Living in Nazi Germany, Gitta Bauer’s ability to see beyond prejudice saved many lives.
By the time Hitler came to power, Gitta was a young woman. She watched as the treatment of Germany’s Jewish citizens grew worse by the day. As violence escalated, Gitta chose to act. As she explained it, “My aunt’s friend had a twin sister who came to me in 1933 and said that her daughter was in danger. What else could I say but ‘I’ll take her into my home’? This was no big moral or religious decision...she needed help. We knew it was dangerous, and we were careful, but we didn’t consider not taking her.”
The girl whose life Gitta saved was 21-one-year-old Ilse Baumgart who lived with Gitta for nine months, until the end of the war. Decades later, Ilse’s testimony led to Gitta being honoured with a Yad Vashem medal for her compassion and courage during one of the greatest horrors of the 20th century.
“Gitta’s story is one good example of the way that normal people took a stand for their beliefs,” Dr. White explained. “Obviously, the details of each case are unique, but the process she went through is similar to many others.”
The lives of people like Gitta hold important lessons about the way that empathy develops and moves people to action—lessons that we can all learn from.
Read about Dr. Jonathan White and more on Gitta Bauer in Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World, the fully-revised, second edition of the bestselling Me to We book by Craig and Marc Kielburger. Find it on amazon.com, metowe.org or in bookstores near you! The Me to We philosophy is about improving our lives and our world by reaching out to others. It involves focusing less on “me” and more on “we”—our communities, our nation and our world.
Get a boost every morning with Me to We Everyday Actions! Visit www.metowe.org to download a calendar of daily actions you can take to nurture empathy and live the Me to We philosophy.
