In the beginning of the Second World
War, a bunch of Nazi soldiers broke into a house in Austria. They took the adults away
separately, and the two children—a thirteen-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy—were
taken to a railway station. As they waited along with other children for the train to arrive, the
boys started a game. Oblivious to what lay in store, they started playing, as children are wont
to do.
A cargo train arrived and the soldiers started packing everyone into it. Once they were in,
the little girl noticed that her brother had forgotten to bring his shoes. It was an Austrian
winter, a bitter one.
Without shoes, you could lose your feet. The girl lost her temper.
She
shook her kid brother, boxed his ears, and abused him. “You idiot! Don’t we have enough trouble on our hands? We don’t know where our parents are, we don’t know where we’re
going! And now you go and lose your shoes? What am I supposed to do with you?”
At the next station, the boys and girls were separated. And that is the last that the brother and
sister ever saw of each other.
About three and a half years later, the girl came out of the concentration camp. She
discovered she was the only one alive in her family. Everyone else had vanished, including
her brother.
All that remained was the memory of the harsh words she had uttered the last time
she had seen him alive.
That was when she made a life-changing decision: “It doesn’t matter who I meet, I will
never speak to them in a manner that I regret later, because this meeting could be my last.” She
could have spent her life in defeat and remorse, but she made this simple decision, which
transformed her life phenomenally.
She went on to live a rich and fulfilled life.
War, a bunch of Nazi soldiers broke into a house in Austria. They took the adults away
separately, and the two children—a thirteen-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy—were
taken to a railway station. As they waited along with other children for the train to arrive, the
boys started a game. Oblivious to what lay in store, they started playing, as children are wont
to do.
A cargo train arrived and the soldiers started packing everyone into it. Once they were in,
the little girl noticed that her brother had forgotten to bring his shoes. It was an Austrian
winter, a bitter one.
Without shoes, you could lose your feet. The girl lost her temper.
She
shook her kid brother, boxed his ears, and abused him. “You idiot! Don’t we have enough trouble on our hands? We don’t know where our parents are, we don’t know where we’re
going! And now you go and lose your shoes? What am I supposed to do with you?”
At the next station, the boys and girls were separated. And that is the last that the brother and
sister ever saw of each other.
About three and a half years later, the girl came out of the concentration camp. She
discovered she was the only one alive in her family. Everyone else had vanished, including
her brother.
All that remained was the memory of the harsh words she had uttered the last time
she had seen him alive.
That was when she made a life-changing decision: “It doesn’t matter who I meet, I will
never speak to them in a manner that I regret later, because this meeting could be my last.” She
could have spent her life in defeat and remorse, but she made this simple decision, which
transformed her life phenomenally.
She went on to live a rich and fulfilled life.