An authentic hero is one that succeeds in two areas: courage and humility. I can think of countless other qualities that might factor into the idea of heroism, but these qualities seem most important. Indeed, The Courage of a Just Man is an often-used subtitle for this movie. Georgio Perlasca possesed the qualities of courage and humility, as compared to other heroes of the present and the past. A hero must have the courage to admit that he or she was wrong. Though the need for this admission may not arise in every case, I am more likely to view the person who can admit to personal faults as a hero. Both Saint Paul and Georgio Perlasca were able to do this. St Paul was previously a Pharisee (Saul) who had persectued Christians (Blue Guide, 477). When he converted suddenly to Christianity, Paul had to admit to his faults. His history as a persectuor of Christians would always trail behind him, but he had the courage to move on. Paul realized his wrongs and then did the hard thing; he admitted his wrong by completely re-orienting his life around the Christian community he had once persecuted. St. Paul is credited for the universal nature of the church; he first realized the importance of preaching to Gentile people, or non-Jews (477). Just as St. Paul had the courage to admit his wrongs and turn his life around, so did Georgio Perlasca, who had previously fought on the side of the Fascists on two occasions. Perlasca heroically moved past his former self and aligned himself with the Jews when he impersonated the Spanish ambassador.
Courage can also be seen as the ability to put one's life on the line for others. If one risks potential suffering for the benefit of other people, it is a courageous act. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a modern-day example of this acceptance of personal suffering to protect others. Though King knew that his revolutionary ideas about civil right for African Americans were dangerous for him to espouse, he surrendered personal wishes to help a group of people. "He lived with danger and had premonitions of an early death, but he carried on, firm in the faith that he was meant to" (ppu.org). This persistence with a dangerous way of life to help others resulted in his assassination. In the same way, Georgio Perlasca put his own life on the line to help the Jews with forged documents during World War II. Perlasca was militarily savvy; he could have ignored everyone else and saved himself, but he stayed and sacrificed himself every day. Each letter that he wrote for a Jewish family to help them to escape only increased the danger to his person. Luckily, Perlasca did end up escaping, but not after years of witnessing intense suffering from his vantage point.
A hero must have humility, that is, the goodness to perform deeds without recognition. Mother Teresa is a famously-cited example of this humility for her work with the poor of Calcutta, India. She tirelessly saw the face of God in every person, but did not expect a reward for it. Similarly, Georgio Perlasca did not even tell people the good deeds that he did during the war. He wrote down his story and sent one to the Vatican, one to the Spanish government, and kept one in his coffee table drawer. Not even his family knew of his heroism. This is a true hero for me.
Heroes in my eyes notably exhibit the qualities of courage and humility. However, one does not have to face a large-scale problem to be a hero. Small problems of the community can be resolved with heroism. The challenge is for all of us to emulate these heroes in our daily lives.
http://www.ppu.org.uk/learn/infodocs/people/pst_mlk.html
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