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Meanwhile: How Tom Luke said 'never again'

By Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor Under-
Collection of shoes...
Secretary-Generalfor
Auschwitz death camp
Communications and Public
Information, speaks at a
candlelight vigil in memory of official, sworn to uphold the
the victims of the Holocaust rights of its member states.
The ideals he was defending
IV henever I think of were those of the United
Auschwitz - or Birkenau, or "Arbeit machtfrei" main entrance Auschwitz Nations Charter, drawn up by
Mauthausen, or Theresien men and women for whom
stadt, the names that, in this remain behind bars. With his values and principles of the "never again" was more than a
season of Holocaust remem- father, his sole surviving United Nations were his own; slogan.
brance, are coming back to relative from an extended clan they had been forged in the
haunt us from 60 years ago - I of over 60, Tom escaped from same crucible. The work he Tom is retired and lives in
Czechoslovakia. In 1949 the
a
think was doing for the UN was to Geneva with his wife. He says
of
retired Australian United pair migrated to Australia. ensure that what happened to he is mildly disillusioned with
Nations official called Tom millions like him could not humanity, and so pleasantly
Luke. Tom's next decade was spent happen again. He toiled for surprised by the acts of
supporting himself through refugees because he had been courage and decency of which
Tom wasn't born Australian, manual labor, acquiring an one himself; but the lessons of human beings sometimes
and he wasn't born Tom Luke. education and a new identity. his life went beyond that. He prove capable. His biggest
He was born Tomas And when the time came to could not abide racism of any challenge, he adds with a
Lowenbach in 1926 into a decide what profession he sort. smile, is learning to live with a
bourgeois Jewish family in would devote his learning to, deteriorating body. He never
Hronov, in what was then he joined the organization that Nor could he abide tyranny or mentions the years when his
Czechoslovakia. When the had emerged, like himself; the abridgment of the demo- challenge was learning to live
Nazis occupied his country, from the ashes of war and cratic freedoms he had had to at all.
Tom was expelled from school holocaust
flee his country to enjoy.
the United
and put to work as a laborer. In Nations. While in Mauthausen he had When the United Nations
1942, with his parents and repeatedly been saved from commemorated the 60th
little sister, Tom was sent to When I first met Tom, he was certain death not by a fellow anniversary of the liberation of
the concentration camp of more than halfway through a Jew but by a Czech political Auschwitz, Tom's health
Birkenau
28-year career with the UN
Theresienstadt. prisoner, a former primary would not permit him to travel
followed; then Auschwitz, working for developing coun- school teacher. to New York for the ceremony.
where his mother and sister tries and then for refugees. He could not have stood at the
were murdered; finally, in Slight of build, good-looking, That basic human decency event, but what Tom Luke
January 1945, the death march with a quirky sense of humor, was a powerful example in stood for is embedded in the
to Mauthausen, when meticulous about his work, he itself; but it also confirmed his foundations of the UN.
Auschwitz was evacuated by did not strike me as someone admiration for political dissi-
the retreating German Army. who had endured unimagina- dents anywhere. He made Shashi Tharoor is Under-
for
Exhausted, sick, several times ble horrors. But one day I saw contributions to Solidarity in Secretary-General
close to death, Tom survived. him in his shirtsleeves, the Poland, traveling there Communications and Public
privately in the early 1980s to
indelible Information
blackish-green
When the American soldiers numbers of the concentration see how he could help. When
liberated him, Tom began a camp inmates tattooed on to Vaclav Havel began his velvet Reproduced by permission of
two-year stint in various his arm. Gradually - for Tom is revolution in Prague, Tom, at the author
hospitals, battling for his life. a reticent man - I pieced great personal and professio-
He won, but normal life would together his story. nal risk, smuggled printing
not last long; in 1948 the and publishing equipment into
Communists seized power and He did not like to tell it. For Czechoslovakia to aid the
within weeks tossed the out- him the past was only relevant underground press there. He
spoken idealist in jail. This as a guide to the future, as saw no contradiction with his
time Tom had no plans to instruction and warning. The role as a United Nations
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