Lessons from My World War II Heroes Part Three: Give Thanks

As I’ve read about the Dutch Resistance and the stories of other World War II heroes, something that has stood out to me is how thankful they were for the things we often take for granted. 

These were ordinary people who chose to take a stand against evil and help those in need, no matter the cost to themselves. They often ended up in prison and concentration camps for their stand. But something I notice again and again as I read these stories is that, even in the most terrible of places, they found things to be thankful for. 

In concentration camps where daily life consisted of hunger, sickness, forced labor, filth, cruelty, and confinement, they found things to be thankful for. 

And those who lived to see freedom were simply overwhelmed with gratitude for the simplest pleasures of life. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (whom you can learn more about here) was a German pastor who became involved in the Resistance against Hitler and was eventually arrested, imprisoned, and executed. But a fellow prisoner, British Intelligence Officer Payne Best, described him this way, “he always seemed to me to diffuse an atmosphere of happiness, of joy in every smallest event in life, and of deep gratitude for the mere fact that he was alive…” 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Corrie ten Boom (whom you can learn more about here) was a Dutch watchmaker. She and her family opened their home to shelter Jews. Corrie and her sister Betsie spent several months in concentration camps. Yet in the camps, they continually found things to be thankful for. They wrote of how wonderful it was to enjoy the beauty of nature and continually marveled at clouds and color. They even gave thanks for the fleas in their dirty, overcrowded barracks. (You can read that story here.) 

Corrie ten Boom

And when Corrie was at last released, she tells of arriving at a hospital. She followed the nurse “down gleaming corridors in a kind of happy dream,” to take a bath. She said, “Nothing in my life ever felt as good as that bath.” Then she was tucked into bed. “White sheets top and bottom. I could not get enough of running my hands over them… I struggled to stay awake: to lie here clean and cared for was such joy that I did not want to sleep through a minute of it.” 

Diet Eman (whom you can learn more about here) was another Dutch woman who ended up in a concentration camp after helping the Jews.  One evening, Diet was talking to the other women prisoners and one of them asked her, “If you could choose what day you would go out and be free, what day of the week would you choose?” 

Diet Eman

Diet thought of Sundays with her family and how they would get all squeaky clean on Saturday and said, “If I had the opportunity to choose, I would want it to be a radiant sunshiny day. I’d love it to be a Saturday morning. I’d go home and take a bath and soak and shampoo and put on clean underwear and clean clothes. And then Sunday morning I want to go to church and thank God for freedom–with capital letters.” She added, “Of course, if it’s Monday morning, I’ll go too–even if it’s pouring.” Saturday, August 19th, a radiant sunshiny day, Diet was released from Vught concentration camp. 

Sometimes we don’t realize what a gift something is until we lose it. But what if we could open our eyes and recognize the gifts we have been given, now, today? What if, instead of taking things for granted, we could take joy in the simple pleasures of life? 

How easy it is to ask God to meet our needs but then forget to thank Him when He does. We are like the nine lepers who asked Jesus to heal them but failed to thank Him when He did. If only we could be like the one who remembered to come back and give thanks (Luke 17:11-19). 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us to, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 

I truly believe the way to be happy is to be thankful. (Like they say in Veggie Tales, “A thankful heart is a happy heart!”) 

And to quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”

Let us follow the example of my World War II heroes and remember to be thankful, thankful for the things we’re quick to take for granted. 

Thankful simply to be alive. 

To be with family and friends. 

To be free. 

To be healthy. 

To have enough food to eat. 

To be able to take a hot bath or shower. 

To have clean clothes and clean sheets. 

To be out in nature, enjoying the sky and sun and birds and flowers. 

And above all, thankful for Jesus. For what He has done for us. For the hope we have in Him that nothing can take away. 

***

Well, always remember, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it,” (1 Thessalonians 5:24). 

All for Him, 

Savannah Jane

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Notes: 

All Scripture taken from the New King James Version® Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Sources for World War II stories: 

Things We Couldn’t Say by Diet Eman with James Schaap
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom with John and Elizabeth Sherrill

A Prisoner and Yet by Corrie ten Boom 

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas