Courage

I was reading a short story in a magazine while I was waiting at the dentist office for my son this past week. It was a story about a woman named Luba Gerack...

Luba Gerack was a nurse at a Jewish concentration camp and one night in December of 1944 she awoke from the sounds of children crying. Her bunk mates begged her not to open the door, but against their wishes she arose from her bed, opened the door and found DOZENS of children standing outside their door in the freezing cold air.

She asked them what had happened and they told her that soldiers and just left them there. She knew it was dangerous and it could cost her her life, but she brought the children into the barracks. She was once a mother of a child and a wife, but had lost them both in the war. Because they were gone this was all she could do and decided to help save these children who were now under her protection.Values, Heartwarming Stories,

The next morning she told the guard what happened and she received threats and abuse because of her decision. But he finally agreed to let her keep the children and gave her a note for 2 loaves of bread, which was just enough to keep them from starving. We weeks went by and Luba was able to scrounge of enough food to feed them when they were hungry. She comforted them when they cried. She nursed them back to health when they were sick.

She had these children in her care for over 4 months when the war ended and they were freed. 52 children were saved and reunited with their mothers.

As Aristotle put it, so perfectly, "Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others."