OUR MISSION
My parents, Ziuta & Olek, and my brother Joseph - Poland, 1945
CHOOSE LOVE OVER HATE. It sounds like such an obvious choice, doesn’t it? And yet, how often do we make the wrong choice? We just have to turn on the evening news to see. In schools, in the workplace, on the streets and in the marketplace. Our world has too long been divided by hatred, fear and misunderstanding. Hoping things will change is great, but it’s not enough. Isn’t it time to give peace and love a chance? Over half a century ago, men like Oskar Schindler and my father, Olek Glazewski, defied the forces of evil and did what was right and noble. What an incredible example they set for us all. So what can we do today? Plenty!
Although the Nazi Holocaust is over, there are holocausts — mass murder in the name of ethnic cleansing — like Rwanda, Darfur and Bosnia — that have stained mankind ever since. While we have to protest these atrocities — with letters, mass marches and speaking out — we have to realize that the seeds of these disasters lie in our individual hearts. If we look away, we are just as guilty as the perpetrators of evil. Every time someone rejects another or causes emotional or physical pain to another, because of their differences, that is bigotry. That is racism. I hope my film and book inspire people to learn about the Holocaust — and the lessons of the Holocaust; I seek to disseminate these works as widely as possible — as vehicles to promote tolerance of those who pray to a different deity, look different, or look at the world differently. And lastly, I hope the book, the film and the website inspire unconditional love – not just romantic love, but the love of fellow human beings. We needed that so much back then. We certainly need it now.
I invite you to share your experiences and revelations with a community of like-minded people. It is my hope and belief that the discussions that unfold here will prove to be enlightening and meaningful. I thank you in advance for your courage, your curiosity and your compassion.
— Martin Kent, Los Angeles, 9/9/09
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for telling your father’s story. You are right. We are living in a world that can destroy itself through hatred. It’s people like Oskar Schindler and your father who allow us to keep hope in the goodness of mankind.
You and your family’s story is a part of human history that should be recorded in gold filled stenciled letters for proper reverence to the far stretches of love to hate which resides in all of us who possess a soul or black hole where one once exited.
You speak of hope. Hope is not universal and a lot of times foreign to those most in need of its magical powers. Your father, Olek Glazewski, survived on hope and faith when the Catholic Church failed him in fracturing the doctrine and example of its creator: Jesus Christ. You speak of love. When will we become perfect as a race of sheep and lay down our lives for our fellow man by the example of the Lamb? You speak of peace. How will peace ever exist in a world whose commissioned guardian: man, idolizes the ferocious hunger and thirst of the beast for the blood of his fellow man? In truth, faith is the string through time that is the common ingredient to the “Family of Man” and our only hope is that we will be given opportunity to grow love by our legacy. We are not asked to understand evil; just to not imitate it.
May God Bless,
Dennis Bresher
Thank you, Martin!
This is an amazing story of courage and spirit to survive. Thank you, for sharing your parents story. Through your going back into your past were able to correct anything in your own life and what. Lorrie
We must also remember Osker Schindler’s wife. She helped her husband throughout this time.
What a wonderful and moving story. I wish everyone would always remember the holocaust. If we do not remember, it will very likely happen again. Please keep me posted on any materials you deem important. Thank you so much!
Your parents’ stories can be summed up into one word: Love. Easier said than done, though. In this world where hatred and jealousy always play a role in our lives, it is often neglected. Current news and events make me shiver everyday – not a day passes by without useless deaths. Threats are lashed out at every nation who seem not to agree with the others. The greed for power is always on top of every leader’s agenda. Ah, we need more people like you to put into everyone’s mind that no matter the generation – nothing will come out of greed and lust for power – just suffering and death for innocent people who are at harm’s way. Thanks for sharing, Mr. Kent.
Your father was a man of courage and didn’t think about himself.
If there where more people like Oskar Schindler and your father, the world would be a better place. I am sure Oskar Schindler is in heaven with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Also those who love God’s chosen people will be Blessed; those who curse them will be cursed. As we can see, anti-semitism is rising up once more in Europe and the U.K. I think the only refuge there will be is Eretz Israel, which is God’s own precious land. May God Bless You.
Joyce
I’ve always wondered if I have it in me to stand up for what’s right, no matter the potential cost. This is especially on my mind now, during the Easter season.
I guess it’s like Eleanor Roosevelt said: “A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.”
Christine Westrom-Seip
How great it is! Martin, I have to say that you are the good man just like Saints or the great student of the Saints.
You love Your father, Olek Glazewski and Oskar Schindler so much , and you respect them, learn to be a good person like what they did, what they think :Full of bravery, compassion and love-kindness,not only found out the truth and tell people the story of them but also do the kind deeds as they did then teach everyone to interact with all beings with equality ,to share the prosperity, and to co-exist in harmony. I could see that you have the six virtues as the sages’:
1. By giving of selflessness;
2. Strict Morality (nothing is based on wishful thinking);
3. Be Patient with frustration and pain ;
4. Diligence all the time;
5. Deep Concentration in any event(even through Misery, sorrow and pain ) ;
6. PRAJNA Wisdom that distinct from ordinary human intelligence,(Had attained the state of Enlightenment and enable to perceive life without error and to distinguish between what is true and false.
Thank you for sharing your parents story.
I wish everyone would always remember our Mission:CHOOSE LOVE OVER HATE.
Please keep in touch with Benjamin (I was Lance but Benjamin now )
Warmest regards
Benjamin Guo
i’m a senior in high school and ever since we covered the holocaust in school it has been one of the events in history i cant seem to learn enough about. its one of those things that shakes me to my core and i cant seem understand or begin to understand the justification for the actions that were made.
After reading the story of your family I once again had that same feeling I always get when I read about the absolute cruelty the human race is capable of.
For as long as I can remember I have been interested in the Holocaust and I have read and still do, everything I can find on the subject.
My deepest worry is that people will forget and I am sad to say that it is already happening. That is why the work you are doing is so wonderful and from today onward the name Martin Kent will be in my prayers always, just as Israel always is.
God bless you, your work and your family.
Love and kind regards
Gerrit Smith.
Over the years I find myself becoming more and more of an amateur historian of the Holocaust. I am not Jewish, nor was my family ever impacted as yours, but the need for the society of today to not forget is essential. 5 years ago I visited Dachau and was overwhelmed, and this has led me to set a goal of visiting Poland as you did. If you have any additional recommendations of sites to visit or new text that are published please forward if you would.
Respectfully
Jeryl Savage
I am pleased that your father was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations medal! What a precious marker to represent his legacy and experiences he went through.
Like you, it is a priority in my life to promote tolerance among people–humans and seek information and inspiration to apply to my life work as a therapist. I visit websites such as this frequently to get a glimpse of intolerance so that I never forget this important priority in my life. My work and interest in tolerance has grown over the years and has been an interest of mine my entire life–reinforced by my parents largely. When I was 18 years old I took a job as an aupair and was further inspired while living with a Jewish family who taught me so much about Holocaust history. I had the good fortune to talk firsthand with survivors, and was so inspired, I began my pursuit of tolerance as a study, later going on to college to get my Master’s degree in Counseling/Psychology as a way to educate and work with the topic in general.
It is refreshing to know that no matter how much angst and terror there was and still is in the world today that we can be friends despite our different lineages when so much of the world still rages over their different resumes and it saddens me that people have to define themselves still today by race or religious ethnicity when being human and in this world together is enough !
I am relieved about your parents and that they escaped the barbarity of the death squads back then ,Their bravery was beyond question and i hope this intellectual moving piece of filmmaking gets its due for if it were not for the modern day non fiction storytellers such as you these days then i fear we could be condemned to repeat these nightmares to heinous to believe yet as real as rain. Thank the Gods Martin !
Martin, i am so glad of a forum to congratulate you on what i guess is a labour of love, as well as a lifelong quest to keep the Shoah in peoples minds.I have been passionate in learning all i can, not only about the Holocaust, but through personal experiences and family history, the places and events that shook the world at that time. From visiting Dachau, to finding the spot where my uncle’s Lancaster hit the ground after being shot down in France, to learning about my Dutch grandmother’s (The Omar) hiding of Jews in Rotterdam, opposite a huis (house) where German Officers were billeted.I believe that it’s so important that people like yourself must carry on the good work, as i feel, now i’m an ex-pat living in Canada, and so far from where i was brought up, two miles from Winstons ‘Chartwell’ and four miles from Biggin Hill! that it’s the same dis
tance, in a way, back to those terrible days, when lives were taken away, and families split asunder, forever, for no good reason.