Modern heroes

Modern heroes
These generations, too, will rise to their challenges

October 11, 2001

As Americans waited for the first shots in a new war, a name from World War II appeared in the news. Emilie Schindler, the widow of a man who saved more than a thousand Jews from Nazi death camps, died in Germany last Friday.

Emilie Schindler’s husband, Oskar, was a German industrialist who opened a factory in Poland with the intention of profiting from the war effort. The movie "Schindler’s List" described how he had diverted Jews from the camps to work in his enamelware factory.

Oskar Schindler was a member of the Nazi party, a beneficiary of Aryanization policies, and a profiteer whose business depended upon slave labor to produce intentionally shoddy goods. Throughout the rest of his life, his personal ethics were less than admirable. Yet he and his wife responded to the times in which they lived by acting heroically.

So it will be during this war. Heroes will emerge, some of them from the most unlikely sources. Younger generations of Americans have heard for far too long that no one too young to remember World War II could hope to be as noble, as brave, as heroic, as patriotic as "The Greatest Generation." Now they will be called upon to meet those standards, and so far they’ve performed admirably. They’ve volunteered for military service. They’ve stepped forward to do rescue work, and when that was no longer the mission, to provide financial and moral support for the families of the victims. They’ve given evidence that in a crisis, the Americans of 2001 are no different from the Americans of 1941.

More will appear in the United States and among our allies, and some will come from among our enemies. One of our greatest challenges will be to recognize them. Some will be Muslim moderates. Some will be aid workers. Some will be diplomats. Many will have their own agendas that do not agree exactly, as Oskar Schindler’s did not, with ours.

Heroism transcends the boundaries of faith and ethnicity. Schindler was a German Catholic in occupied Poland. The French Resistance, the Underground Railroad, dedicated dissidents within the oppressive Soviet Union — heroes often aren’t people who would rise to the top when things are going well. Instead, they’re people whose ordinary, imperfect lives are suddenly useful, people given the clarity to see what must be done and the courage to do it.

We cannot all be soldiers. As in World War II, some must be riveters, some must be medical personnel, and many must stay at home to keep the economy afloat and to raise and educate the next generation of heroes. We must be careful not to define patriotism too narrowly in this new kind of war, or to discount the efforts of those whose missions are not as familiar to us. Essential work will be done in microbiology labs as well in military jets, at computer terminals as well as in the caves of Afghanistan.

When times get tough, some people rise to the challenge. They will be the heroes of our era.