Last time, we discussed the unlikely friendship between long jumpers Jesse Owens and Luz Long. Owens, a black man from America, and Long, a white man from Germany, had become fast friends during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Following the Games, the two remained in contact by exchanging handwritten letters (remember those days?).
Long wrote his last letter to Owens while stationed in North Africa as part of the German Army during WWII. Here is that letter.
I am here, Jesse, where it seems there is only the dry sand and the wet blood. I do not fear so much for myself, my friend Jesse, I fear for my woman who is home, and my young son Karl, who has never really known his father.
My heart tells me, if I be honest with you, that this is the last letter I shall ever write. If it is so, I ask you something. It is a something so very important to me. It is you go to Germany when this war is done, someday find my Karl, and tell him about his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times were like when we not separated by war. I am saying—tell him how things can be between men on this earth.
If you do this something for me, this thing that I need the most to know will be done, I do something for you, now. I tell you something I know you want to hear. And it is true.
That hour in Berlin when I first spoke to you, when you had your knee upon the ground, I knew that you were in prayer.
Then I not know how I know. Now I do. I know it is never by chance that we come together. I come to you that hour in 1936 for purpose more than der Berliner Olympiade.
And you, I believe, will read this letter, while it should not be possible to reach you ever, for purpose more even than our friendship.
I believe this shall come about because I think now that God will make it come about. This is what I have to tell you, Jesse.
I think I might believe in God. And I pray to him that, even while it should not be possible for this to reach you ever, these words I write will still be read by you.
Your brother, Luz
Luz died on July 14, 1943 from wounds incurred during the Ally invasion of Sicily. In 1951, Owens returned to Germany and located Luz’s son, Karl. Later, when the son married, Owens was his best man. Hatred divides. Love unites. And love wins. –Dave
“…put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” (Colossians 3:14)
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