History provides us with the stories of individuals who put the needs of others above their own, whose lives set an example for others, regardless of the times.
Waitstill and Martha Sharp may not be recalled and remembered now as they were decades ago. But that is about to dramatically change and should bring their story, and the example it sets, to a new audience.
The Sharps, who lived on High Street in Greenfield during the 1970s, are the subject of a new Ken Burns documentary, scheduled to air on PBS stations Tuesday, and a film that was shown at the White House earlier this week as part of the Obama administration’s effort to address the Syrian refugee crisis.
Their story is of a Unitarian-Universalist minister and his wife, a social worker, who went to Czechoslovakia to lead an emergency relief mission in 1939 as Nazi Germany was overwhelming much of Europe.
“The story of the Sharps reads like a spy novel, but it’s all true,” Burns wrote in his forward to a book by Artemis Joukowsky III about his grandparents. He was the person who approached Burns for help with a documentary he wanted to make about their story, which Burns said, “explores that rare level of character — selfless sacrifice for the greater good — that we have always admired and celebrated in this country. … The Sharps saw there was a job to be done and, quite simply, did it. Their objective was to rescue enemies and victims of the Nazis. Personal glory wasn’t the point. It was just the right thing to do.”
That meant putting themselves in danger as the Sharps tried to help Jews and gentiles find ways to survive the Nazi occupation while establishing ways for individuals and families to escape. The Sharps, too, became targets and left before they were about to be arrested.
Their return to Wellesley, however, wasn’t the end of their effort on behalf of the people looking to get away from the Nazis. The Sharps landed in Lisbon, Portugal, helping put together the Unitarian Service Committee’s office there as a way to help refugees. Later they could be found in Vichy France, providing milk products for starving infants and other assistance in helping people escape the Nazis.
It’s not just a piece of history from this nation. The Sharps set an example of the differences people can make in the lives of others, especially people who are threatened by war.
The Sharps’ story “represents great moral courage, but in addition, great determination and the willingness to make very substantial sacrifices leaving their children behind, ” Erwin Staub, the University of Massachusetts emeritus psychology professor, said. “We seem now to be in a variety of ways on a downward course, with people getting more and more critical of each other (with) expressions of hostility … towards various other groups, and here were these people willing to put themselves out so intensely for the other. They saw the humanity in the other and the great danger to the other and were willing to do whatever was within their power to protect people and save lives. We desperately need this. It would transform the public domain if many people engaged in ‘active bystandership at various levels, and this film can be an inspiration for that, at many levels.”
The world is a different place than the one the Sharps had to deal with. But there is still a need for people to step up to help refugees from war-torn lands. And in looking for inspiration, people can do a lot worse than trying to follow the path Waitstill and Martha Sharp carved out in the world.