Freedom's high price

A few years ago, I wrote a book ("My Name is Aron: Journey to the light of freedom") about a Holocaust survivor, and all throughout that experience of turning his words into a heart-wrenching story of imprisonment and forced labor I was visited in my sleep for months by HIS terrible memories of five years spent in four concentration camps in three countries. His story, like so many of those millions that were imprisoned and murdered by an oppressive regime that was based on hatred and prejudice, is a lesson for all of us.

Though the re-telling of those stories is painful to hear for current generations of Germans and non-Germans alike, they  must continue to be retold because they remind us of those terrible years of the oppression of ethnic, racial or religious groups AND that under the right conditions it could happen again. Writing Aron's memoirs also made me keenly aware of how fragile freedom and human rights are and how we must all work together to protect them.

My first encounter with European resistance fighters came in 1984 when I lived in The Hague in The Netherlands. Because of my diplomatic status, I was able to get access to a handful of a few brave Dutchmen who engaged in sabotage against the Nazi occupiers and who faced death every day of their lives during a period of five long years, starting on the 10th of May in 1940. I heard stories of extraordinary bravery and of enormous suffering that took place only a mile or so from my home in the small town of Scheveningen which bordered the North Sea. Dutch resistance fighters who were imprisoned in that town and were 'convicted' of sabotage by kangaroo courts were summarily marched into the nearby sand dunes and executed.

Years later, I lived in Denmark, another occupied country during WWII. The scabs of the Danes'  wounds were routinely pulled off, every year, as survivors and their families commemorated the sacrifices made by their underground fighters at a memorial park called Ryvangen. While the Nazi occupation of Denmark was less severe than that of The Netherlands, the Danes suffered, similarly, with limitations on their movement, on their speech and assembly. The Danish King, Christian X, refused to be holed up in his Amalienborg palace and frequently rode his horse through the streets of Copenhagen in an attempt to bolster the spirits of his countrymen. The average Danes did their parts, too, to keep the flames of liberty and hope burning...if only in their own hearts.

My wife's father was in the Danish resistance movement and participated in many acts of sabotage against the Nazi occupiers. Late in 1944, he was eventually forced to flee to Sweden for refuge, leaving his wife and two children behind. He was unable to return until Denmark's liberation as his home was being watched by the SS. The stories of individual courage of people like Aron and those  brave souls in Holland and Denmark are compelling, and many books and movies have been made about them. They remind us that while our bodies may be imprisoned our "Gedanken sind frei" (our thoughts are free) and they will win out over time. The uncomfortable truth is that freedom is never safe from attack by people that believe they have the right to take it from others.

Our First Amendment to the Constitution protects us from such attacks (on paper at least), but it, too, is routinely coming under siege by people who believe that there is only one right way to feel, think or speak about controversial issues. Instead of protesting the efforts of these people who wish to severely limit or destroy our right to speak or assemble peacefully, some are reverting to violence to prevent what they feel is objectionable or disagreeable speech. It is these very people and their willingness to take away our freedom of expression that are, maybe unwittingly, giving fascism the fertile soil in which to grow its poisonous seeds. We must be vigilant and never forget how placing any limits on our ideas and words can give rise to destructive ideologies that can undo the freedoms we enjoy. As Americans we have no choice and must do this if for no other reason than to honor the millions around the world that gave their lives to protect it.      

Stephan Helgesen is a retired U.S. diplomat, now author and political strategist. He has written over 600 articles and six books on politics, economics and social trends. He can be reached at stephan@stephanhelgesen.com