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Any human society, if it is to be well-ordered and productive, must lay down as a foundation this principle, namely, that every human being is a person, that is, human nature is endowed with intelligence and free will. Indeed, precisely because one is a person one has rights and obligations flowing directly and simultaneously from one's very nature. And as these rights and obligations are universal and inviolable, so they cannot in any way be surrendered. Peace on Earth #9
IMAGINE The Story of Leon Skurko By Mike Dodson
Imagine your home being blasted into tiny fragments… Memories strewn about a rocky landscape that had once been your town.
Imagine your family uprooted and moved… Some who would never be seen again… Parted for life.
Imagine enduring hours of hardship… Traveling war-torn areas looking for comfort and safety… And coming up short.
Just another day as a tailor in Warsaw… Cleaning the store for normal business.
Suddenly the manager bursts in… The Germans are coming.
You run home to your brother and sister-in-law. “Get dressed! They’ll be here any minute!”
You run outside… People are running for their lives. The streets are in chaos…
You and your brother join the crowd… In the panic, you head for the Russian border.
The journey stretches for miles… You are so weak that you almost collapse.
You and your brother spend one night in Russia… But decide to return to Poland to get the rest of your family to safety.
When you return, you learn heartbreaking news… Your mother died while you were gone.
You take your eleven-year-old sister andseven-year-old brother to a local children’s home… But the Germans arrive and destroy the building and carry away the children.
Crushed by guilt and sadness… You return to Russia.
You are asked to become a Soviet citizen. “No! I am Polish, and I will only fight for Poland.”
You find a room in a local house, and fall asleep. At 3:00 a.m., you hear a loud knocking on the door.
You are gagged and handcuffed… And thrown in prison.
In the morning, you and 15,000 othersare put on barges… and sent to Siberia.
For three years, you do nothing… but cut trees.
Finally, you get tired of waiting… You walk alone to the main office… and join the Soviet Army.
You are on your way back to Poland… but now you are in uniform.
You liberate a concentration camp… full of dying women.
After three years fighting, you are shot… You receive five operations before being discharged.
Now, with the war ending, you return to the German-occupied city of Warsaw… It is still not safe for any Jew.
You stay in a small apartment… The view looks into another apartment across the street.
One day, you see a woman nursing a child in the opposite apartment. A German officer bursts into the room…
The officer grabs the child… And throws it out of the window, onto the pavement.
In 2005, I interviewed Mr. Skurko… I met true courage, bravery, and compassion.
In him was an example… of how we all should live.
Each life is sacred. Mr. Skurko proves it.
