The Hate Hypothesis

Love’s Amazing Power

Germany, 1945

Bill was a prisoner at Wuppertal Concentration Camp in May of 1945. George Ritchie, a soldier who was assigned to go in to liberate and relocate the inmates, stumbled upon this Polish man whose name was really “seven unpronounceable syllables” of Polish, but because he wore a long drooping handlebar mustache, George and the others nicknamed him “Wild Bill Cody.”

As the soldiers worked to relocate the inmates, Wild Bill’s help was invaluable. Not only did he help them through 15- and 16-hour days without sign of fatigue, he also still had his command of 5 languages. He was not emaciated like the others! What’s more, along with never tiring, Wild Bill showed each person such compassion. “We have time for this old fellow,” he would say, “he’s been waiting to see us all day.”

George thought that surely, with all his ability and stamina, Wild Bill had not been an inmate long. Turns out, when his own papers were checked, they found Wild Bill had been incarcerated in Wuppertal since 1939! Six long years! Surely, George must have reasoned, Bill had never had anything horrific happen to him! Wrong again.

One day, Wild Bill opened up to him, “‘we lived in the Jewish section of Warsaw, my wife, our two daughters, and our three little boys. When the Germans reached our street they lined everyone against a wall and opened up with machine guns. I begged to be allowed to die with my family, but because I spoke German they put me in a work group.’ He paused, perhaps seeing again his wife and five children. ‘I had to decide right then,’ he continued, ‘whether to let myself hate the soldiers who had done this...Hate had just killed the six people who mattered most to me in the world. I decided then that I would spend the rest of my life—whether it was a few days or many years—loving every person I came in contact with.’

”

Love was the only difference between him and all the other inmates who were skin and bones, sick and apathetic, hardly alive. “For six years he had lived on the same starvation diet, slept in the same airless and disease-ridden barracks as everyone else, but without the least physical or mental deterioration.” Wild Bill had kept his health, his intellectual abilities, and his empathy for others—all because he decided to love.

See George Ritchie, Return from Tomorrow, page 114-116.

This week is Holocaust Memorial Week, marking 70 years since this liberation of the survivors began. As these events fade from our memories, some may try to rewrite history and say it never happened. But we must learn from the Holocaust. We must celebrate victories such as Wild Bill’s.

This Wednesday evening, 7pm at Mesa High School, 16 Spotlight Drama students directed by Sandy Stones will be performing “The Hate Hypothesis” based on this true story. Only $3 admission, this student-written (by Kyle Ellingson) play celebrates the heroic ability of Marek (Wild Bill) to overcome cruelty and atrocity—and hatred—by choosing to love. Further, it takes this one step further and celebrates the power of two Mothers who instilled in two sons two different ways to deal with the hatred they are dealt. One boy is urged to seek revenge, the other to always love no matter what. Mothers truly influence generations.

Here are some pics of "The Hate Hypothesis"