Sometimes shelter means so much more than a roof over your head
Any Survival 101 course will teach you that we need only three things to survive in this world: food, water, and SHELTER. Even more than a place to kick back and relax or store our belongings, shelter provides important protection from the elements and other outside dangers, such as the looming threat of a predator.
Global history, which is plagued with periods of genocide (or the systematic killing of an ethnic, religious, or political group), offers an unfortunate reminder that all too often, the predators we need protection from are other human beings.
During these extreme times, some ordinary citizens who bear witness to the repeated atrocities against “the other” decide to take extraordinary action. Harvesting power from an internal sense of moral courage, these individuals risk their own lives to save friends, neighbors, and even strangers. PROOF has had the opportunity to work with several such rescuers, or “Extreme Givers,” who survived and resisted the extreme killings in Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Holocaust in Europe.
Each of these Extreme Givers offered shelter to a person or people being targeted for extermination by Hutu extremists, the Khmer Rouge, Bosnian Serbs, or Nazis. In these examples, shelter meant so much more than a roof over their heads. It required risking their lives to plot, deceive, and conceal, often for long periods of time and in bad conditions.
In regions of extreme conflict, offering your home can often mean offering your life.
EXTREME GIVERS
Photo Credit: Riccardo Gangale
Cristine Kamunani, RWANDA
“From our hill in Kigeme, we could see the chaos happening. During those days of violence on the adjacent hills, our hearts were filled with sorrow and compassion for the victims subjected to the massacre there.
It was around midnight when I heard the knock at the door. I said to my children, ‘Kids, our last day has come. Stay calm. I am the one responsible for this home. I am going to see what is going on.’
I went to the gate and opened the door and saw a bunch of people standing there. I was scared and praying inside, but I heard God’s voice within me saying, don’t be afraid. After opening the gate, they walked in the yard. It was dark, and a man said to me, ‘We are going to put a huge burden on your shoulders. Are you ready to take it? If not, let us know so we can continue on our way.’ I replied to that man, ‘I am ready to die with you.’ I hid them in the barn next to my house.”
Photo Credit: Neang Sokchea
Nut Seng, CAMBODIA
“In 1975, I arrived in the village. I worked in palm juice production. I climbed the trees to get palm juice for sugar. I secretly gave it to people who came asking for help. One man, named Chumno, ran to escape from the Khmer Rouge. When Chumno arrived at this village, he asked me, ‘Comrade, please let me do work for you. I am going to be killed.’ He asked me to keep his presence a secret. So, I allowed him to work with me. I was really worried about my security. If they knew that I hid an enemy of Angkar, I would have been killed. I decided to help him anyway.”
Photo Credit: Paul Lowe
Hasan Jusović, BOSNIA
“I saw that a huge group of JNA [Yugoslav People’s Army] soldiers and officers were arrested from their headquarters. In a group of arrested soldiers, I noticed one soldier who was in the same headquarters as I was. He was a driver, who was drafted while I was working as a civilian professional driver.
I didn’t know how to help him, and I wished from my whole heart to help him. So, I came very close to him but I was afraid that someone would notice that I have something with him. I kicked him a little bit with my leg and said, ‘Don’t worry I am here. Just don’t say anything.’ I saw the main commander whom I knew. I came close to him and asked him, ‘Can I take one soldier from this group? Can he go with me? He helped me a lot when I was trying to escape from JNA. The commander looked at me and asked the soldier, ‘Would you like to go with Hasan?’ He answered, ‘Yes.’ He stood up. I realized that he was quite happy. He had a huge trust in me. Then I said to him, ‘From now on, your name is Mirsad. And you are my cousin.’ I took him home with me, and he stayed with my family for a month.”
Photo Credit: Sonia Folkmann
Gesele Vandergract, AMSTERDAM
“One day, when I was painting a portrait of Rolant Holst, he said, ‘Gisele, I’m so sorry, I can’t pose for you today, because a German friend of mine is coming and he is busy doing something very wonderful. He’s trying to save a few German youngsters, who are very gifted literary young people, most of them wrote poetry, and so he’s taking them from Germany to Holland.’
I wanted to help, to save them. I had a tiny apartment; I had one floor in the house. So it started with the poet, then one boy came, then another boy came, and all together, I don’t know how many there were, but I think there were about seven that came to hide here. I just didn’t like the idea that just because these boys were Jewish that they wanted to get rid of them, either to kill them or to put them in camps or something here.”
The above photos and testimonies were taken from PROOF's ongoing project, Picturing Moral Courage: The Rescuers. Although these stories are extreme, offering shelter doesn’t always have to mean risking your life. There are many circumstances that can disrupt a person’s living situation, and offering support on any level can often have life-saving effects.
How can you give shelter?
- Share your umbrella with that poor bloke who forgot one and is hiding under a newspaper.
- Offer a couch or floor to someone in your life who might need it.
- Give to organizations that help keep struggling families afloat.
- Find a local shelter and donate some time, some food, or some comfort and charm.
Do you know of someone who offered shelter during a time of need? We'd love to help celebrate these Givers! Send the story and some images our way and we'll post them online. Email, comment below, tweet, write us on our Facebook page, send us snail mail, or send a paper airplane or Hedwig our way. We know there are amazing stories out there, and we want to hear them!