I’m going to let it shine
Oh, this little light of mine
I’m going to let it shine
This little light of mine
I’m going to let it shine
Let it shine, all the time, let it shine
Hide it under a bushel? No!
I’m going to let it shine
Hide it under a bushel? No!
I’m going to let it shine
Let it shine, all the time, let it shine.
We're watching our way through the excellent drama series, A Small Light. It's about the courageous efforts of a woman named Miep Gies who, along with her husband and co-workers, hid Anne Frank, her family, and four other Dutch Jews in a secret apartment above Otto Frank.s business premises during World War II.
The acting is excellent, the story is well told, and while only three episodes have been released so far there have already been lots of thrilling and moving moments. As we watch we wonder whether we would have summoned the courage to put ourselves at risk for the sake of those who were targetted by the Nazis. The invaders enlisted the help of non-Jewish neighbours in every country they invaded in Europe.
During our recent visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem we were reminded of the complicity of Germans and people from Poland and Ukraine and Romania and other nations in killing six million Jews, 1.5 million of them children. Canada has a shameful history of not accepting Jews who were attempting to flee a murderous regime.
There were 20,000 Dutch people who aided Jews during the war in a variety of ways, including hiding children. We know that many of them were Christians, including Corrie Ten Boom's family. Ten Boom's book The Hiding Place became a bestseller and was made into a film. Several family members, including Corrie, were incarcerated for their efforts and the father died in prison.
Sadly, Anne and her sister Margot perished in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp a few months before the end of the war.Miep Gies found and hid Anne Frank's diary after the family was arrested and Otto eventually published it. Miep lived to be 100 and she often spoke about the ability of even an ordinary person to “turn on a small light in a dark room.” It brings to mind the old children's hymns "This Little Light of Mine" and "Jesus Bids us Shine" which are both based on the verses in Matthew 5, part of the Sermon on the Mount.
I need the reminders of how others have maintained their moral compass in dark times, often motivated by their faith in a god of justice and compassion.
1 Jesus bids us shine with a pure, clear light,
like a little candle burning in the night.
In this world is darkness, so let us shine,
you in your small corner, and I in mine.
2 Jesus bids us shine first of all for him;
well he sees and knows it if our light grows dim:
Jesus walks beside us to help us shine,
you in your small corner, and I in mine.
3 Jesus bids us shine, then, for all around;
many kinds of darkness in the world are found:
sin, and want and sorrow; so we must shine,
you in your small corner, and I in mine.
3 comments:
This is 100% on our "to watch" list. I'm looking forward to seeing it for sure...
Re: "The Hiding Place." We visited the Corrie Ten Boom House in Haarlem, Netherlands. Until they were betrayed by an informant, they provided refuge for Jews and others fleeing from the Nazis. When the Gestapo and local counterparts came to the house on the fateful day, they didn't find the 6 people hidden in the house behind a second wall in the bedroom (who actually got away to safety a couple of days later). But they judged by the number of ration books the family had, that they were feeding others. The family was arrested and its members sent to concentration camps or prison. All perished except Corrie. A plaque reads: "They died in faith, beieving that the best is yet to come." Sustained by their Calvinist faith.
We were allowed, with respect, to step inside the enclosure where the pepole had been hidden. It's hard to imagine what it must have been like to be confined in there during the Gestapo visit, terrified.
The family knew full well what the consequences could be if they were caught harbouring Jews and other fugitives from the Nazis. Yet they did it, and saved hundreds and hundreds of lives. Most of us will never be tested in this way and its even hard to imagine how we would react, but I guess we can aspire to small acts of courage. KB
Thanks for sharing this experience, Kathy. No matter what we read about certain situations, nor how they may be depicted on a screen, there is something about being in a place which brings home the magnitude of the circumstances. No doubt the claustrophobia of that brief time in the enclosure was more powerful than anything even the most eloquent person could describe or enact. The exhibits of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial are like that as well.
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