Mindset
Who Would Hide You?
“Who were friends? Those who would agree to hide me.”
— Ruth Rack, Holocaust Survivor
When all things “normal” seem out of sync, it gives one pause to consider who actually has your back.
I was reminded of this recently when I heard about Ruth Rack, a Holocaust survivor whose definition of true friendship touched a nerve of realization.
During the rise of the Nazi regime, the Jewish people, along with immigrants, Gypsies, and people who had physical and mental disabilities were being more and more marginalized, ostracized, and terrorized.
One can only imagine the fear that grew within them every day as their sociological fabric was being torn apart and burned.
Who could you rely on, who could you believe in, what truth or trust could you expect?
As the walls of hate began to squeeze closer and closer, required to walk the streets with badges that defined your status, there was no hiding, no safe state of place.
People you have known all your life within your community suddenly behave differently. Maybe in the beginning, just ignoring you, or avoiding you. Then shouting at you, or saying things to you that you would never have expected them to say in a million years. Rising to the level of taunts, or actual physical abuse.
Your world is being flipped upside down. Nothing seems like it should be, yet your mind keeps telling you it can’t get any worse. This must be as bad as it will or could be.
And then you see something even worse?!
Now you must evaluate your circumstances. Are you safe? Should you leave? Should you run?
But everything you have, everything you have known is where you are, you are becoming lost in your place. Everything looks the same, but nothing is the same.
Who are your friends?
Real friends.
How do you know they won’t hurt you, or turn on you? Now you are forced to evaluate real friendship, the kind you can truly count on.
That friendship becomes connected to another person’s willingness to risk their own safety in order to provide you with the same feeling.
That person IS willing to hide you. To put you somewhere when all hell has broken loose, the rules have all changed, and their overture places them in the crosshairs of hate.
That is one heck of a definition of “friend”.
Who would hide you?
If the circumstances in your world were to change tomorrow, as evidenced by history, who are your real friends?
How many of those do you have?
It’s quite something to ponder this question. Quite revealing.
Who would YOU hide?
Maybe even more revealing.
Something to think about.
