Moral courage

Re: “It was a matter of humanity,” Oct. 17 The courage of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara who thwarted his superiors by issuing thousands of visas to desperate Jews during the Second World War defies the imagination. Because he could not ignore the plight of “thousands of people hanging around our residence,” he ignored directives from Japan and risked losing his job and being able to support his family. In fact, after the war he was dismissed from the foreign office and suffered the humiliation that came when he could only find menial work.

The moral dilemma of risking all to save others has haunted me personally for all my adult years whenever I reflected upon the indescribable courage of the extended Counord and Gardon families who, over a period of years, risked physical torture, loss of limb and life, to save my mother, my two sisters, and me in occupied France during the Second World War. I have asked myself time and time again what I might have done had I found myself in similar circumstances. And even if I had had the personal stamina and courage to be the “hero,” would I have been willing to risk the lives of my parents, my spouse and my children?

It may be true as Rabbi David Wolpe states that moral courage and moral greatness “requires a mysterious and potent combination and deep conviction that social norms cannot shake,” but it is equally true that no one can know how they would behave in such trying situations. One can only hope and pray that one never has to face such a dilemma, and that if it should ever arise, that one would behave honourably. Eli Honig, Toronto