As a young Jew in Nazi-occupied Europe Judge Thomas Buergenthal found his faith tested in the crucible of war. By luck and guile, he survived the ghettos of Poland and concentration camps at Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen. As an adult, Buergenthal has devoted his life to promoting human rights and international justice, including serving on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and his current position as the American judge on the International Court of Justice at The Hague. His most recent book is titled “A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy.” Buergenthal spoke with The Examiner about the ethics that have guided his extraordinary years.
Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?
I am Jewish. I don’t believe in a personal God, but I believe in the ethical teachings of Judaism. I believe in Judaism’s traditional commitment to learning and equality.
Did anyone or any event especially influence your path in life?
Odd Nansen was a Norwegian political prisoner whom I met in the concentration camps. He was the first person, after the war, to make me think about how to react toward the Germans and how to think about reconciliation. Here was a man who suffered as much as many of us and after the war was willing to give the proceeds of his published diaries to German refugees. I was just a kid of 15 or 16 years old, and kept thinking, why would you do that? Why would you give them anything? Around the same time, he gave a speech in Frankfurt which I attended, honoring Albert Schweitzer, about the need for reconciliation. More than anyone else he made me think about the importance of not hating, and dealing with the world in terms of tolerance.
Odd Nansen went on to become one of the founders of UNICEF.
What character traits have you found to be consistent among people who, in words from your book, have “the moral strength not to sacrifice their decency and dignity, regardless of the costs to themselves, whereas others become murderously ruthless in the hope of ensuring their own survival”?
I asked the question so often in the book because I don’t have an answer. The thing I’ve discovered is that you cannot, ahead of time, come up with any traits. Some people confront certain terrible situations and rise to the occasion dramatically, regardless of their educational level or anything else, and others just fail.
I do believe that we have to start early with children in schools to talk about equality and the things that bind all humanity. We have to start early enough before they are spoiled by the prejudices of their parents.
Some people criticize the U.N. for not having adequate power in the places where problems are most prevalent. What do you believe can be its positive effects?
We should not forget that the U.N. reflects the views of close to 200 countries. Besides, the U.N. is not just the General Assembly or Security Council, it is also the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Metereological Organization, UNESCO, etc. U.N. peacekeeping operations perform valuable services in many international trouble spots. If the U.N. did not exist, we would have to invent it, and that despite its many faults. The U.N. has also done much in promoting human rights.
That it has not done enough is true, as is the fact that more needs to be done, but that should not surprise given the world we live in. I believe that if in the 1930s we had had some of the human rights treaties and institutions the U.N. created, we might have been able to prevent at least some of the suffering of that period.
To me, it’s very important that we have these institutions, and that we strengthen them. They’re helping a lot of people in other countries that need them. We may not see much of that in the U.S., but we have other institutions that are protecting our rights. Others do not.
At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?
I believe that it is possible to create a world in which the things that happened to my family can be prevented, and that’s what is driving me. That may be idealistic, but that’s what I believe. I hope I’m right.
