Tuesday, October 23, 2018

The Resistance Leader

You have to fight for your freedom and for peace. You have to fight for it every day, to keep it. It’s like a glass boat; it’s easy to break; it’s easy to lose.

–Joachim Ronneberg

Ronneberg was the leader of the Norwegian commandos who destroyed the heavy water plant at Telemark in February, 1943, dealing a blow to the Nazi nuclear program. He died this week at 99.

All nine of the men who were part of that mission had trouble adapting to civilian life after the war:
It was very hard on them, almost to a man. They had lived underground under constant threat for years on end, many of them in isolation. So, when the war ended, it was tough on them. They took it in different ways. Some went to the woods and found solace there; Knut Haugland joined the Kon Tiki expedition, lived on a raft, and found peace there. Others found it in drinking; and others never found it. The sacrifices they made and the hardships they endured affected them for the rest of their lives.

1 comment:

Mário R. Gonçalves said...

Those were critic, dramatic times when the fight for freedom was crucial. When the nightmare ended and peace and freedom were conquered, it's not supposed to keep that fighting, radical state of mind. It's supposed to rest and live quiet, normal lives, that was what they fought for.

We are not living under a threat to freedom right now, on the contrary, more and more freedom continously expands through the globe. In European eastern countries, people recently conquered their own freedom. Serbia, Estonia, Ukraine, lived under dictatorship few years ago. The degree of freedom varies, some may be unhappy with their degree of freedom, but in a wide perspective it's expanding. I do not think there is any reason to cry out for freedom on the streets anywhere except where they can't - that's Russia, Korea, China, Iran...