world war II

Martin Niemöller was a Lutheran pastor in Germany when the Second World War began. He is immortalized for being the one who said, “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Millions of people around the world have wrestled with this very issue. With everything that hangs in the balance, it’s easy to see why so many take the question so seriously.

Apparently, even Adolf Hitler had come to a conclusion on the matter.

Imagine that you’ve just been set free from an oppressive concentration camp. You’ve been ruthlessly worked and have seen friends and loved ones die in the process. How would you react to your freedom?

It’s a safe bet that Viktor Frankl responded differently.

Dachau Concentration Camp, 1945. A place of unrelenting suffering and death. More than 25,000 “enemies of the state” lost their lives in this hellish place during the Holocaust. Every prisoner trapped behind the wire jumped at the chance of escape.

Every prisoner except Viktor Frankl.

Where did you meet your spouse? (Fellas, I apologize if I put you on the spot.) Did you meet her at college? Did you find him at church? Elevator? Job interview? Married couples have met in some unique places over the years.

But no one has ever met their spouse in a stranger place than William Tippins.

In 1940, Langdon Gilkey, equipped only with a degree in philosophy from Harvard, went to China to teach English at Yenching University. Three short years later, he was taken prisoner when the Japanese Army came crashing into the city.

His confinement taught him a powerful lesson: fellow prisoners could be less merciful than the enemy.

Peleliu is a six-mile long island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Philippines. It’s a tropical paradise, with rich vegetation, beautiful beaches, and exquisite views. But the tiny island is virtually uninhabited.

That’s because one wrong step could explode a landmine buried there 70 years earlier.

If you were creating your own government, what would you do first? Would you build a strong military? Secure honest leaders? Write just laws or ensure a viable economy?

East Germany didn’t start that way. Their first official act was to apologize to the world.

Near the end of Kyle’s medical internship at the city hospital, an elderly man walked in for treatment. It would prove to be a very difficult appointment for the future doctor as the old patient had a thick accent and no health insurance.

But those problems weren’t the biggest.

Daybreak on April 2, 1945. True, it was Easter Sunday, but the last thing Louis Boyle had on his mind was the resurrection of Jesus or church services. That’s because the young Marine was standing aboard the USS Sea Bass, one of 50,000 American soldiers, about to invade the island of Okinawa.