Today I had the pleasure of stumbling upon a book I couldn't pass up reading. The title of the book is War Letters, and it is a collection of letters written by Americans from the Civil War and on through the Persian Gulf wars. There was one letter in particular that caught my attention; it was written in 1942, the midst of the Second World War. The author of the letter was Patrick Hitler, the nephew of the infamous ruler of the Third Reich. My first reaction was shock and horror at the thought of what someone related to Hitler could possibly have to say, but I was pleasantly surprised by what the letter contained. Patrick was a well-educated and respected scholar in England and later America. He fled Germany in 1939, to escape his uncle’s tyranny, and to warn other nations of the horrors to come.

This letter that he wrote was addressed to none other than Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of America. In the Letter Patrick appeals to the President to allow him to fight for America in the war against his Uncle. His mother’s home nation of England refused his offer, and the Canadians never gave him an answer. This was his last attempt to begin to make amends for the wrongs his uncle had done. What struck me most about this letter was the pure sincerity of Patrick’s words. As a studied scholar and political speaker, he was well acquainted with the situation from both sides. This gave him an interesting viewpoint of the war that he would use to speak publicly against his uncle.

Against all odds of Americans trusting someone who shared blood with their enemy, he never gave up trying to do what was right. In his letter he says “Everyone in the world today must answer to himself which cause they will serve… I am one of many, but I can render service to this great cause and I have a life to give that it may, with the help of all, triumph in the end.” Life is filled with nothing but choices. He understood that it is the choices you make that define you rather than the blood that runs in your veins, and not the nation listed on your birth certificate. His willingness to do the right thing when the whole world was telling him not to shows that there is always hope to be found in the most unexpected places. His courage made me reflect on the current situation of the world, and in particular the issue of refugees. The world today as it stands is living in fear that refugees fleeing unimaginable situations have ulterior motives.

The issue with this is that like Patrick Hitler so eloquently put, everyone has to make the choice of what side they will be on, the riotous side, or the one that only creates destruction. If the only nephew of Adolf Hitler, the most famous mass murderer of all time could choose to be on the side or justice and freedom, then why can’t a refugee make that same choice?As FDR once said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” and if people keep making judgments based on fear, then nothing will ever truly be accomplished for the greater good in this world. Accepting that our fears have roots in the things we simply do not understand is the only way to move passed them. If President Roosevelt had acted on his initial fear of allowing a Hitler to fight for America, the nation would have been one loyal soldier short in its most crucial years. Don’t judge a book by its cover, FDR surely didn't, so what gives any of us the right to do so today?

[MMZ1]