Isaac Relkin

The man who inspires me most isn't famous, but his story is unforgettable. Isaac Relkin, my great uncle, suffered through a series of terrible events, but despite the pain and trauma he experienced, he always found a way to forgive, a way to let go, and a way to make his world a better place. Isaac was drafted as a sniper for the Russian army during World War II. In his fight against the Nazis, he, like all Russians, loved and lost people closest to him. He never told me about any aspect of the war. Everything I heard, I heard from my mother, who heard it from his wife. 

During the siege of Leningrad, his best friend, along with his captain, were shot on the battlefield. Isaac's captain forced him to abandon his best friend and save him instead. At the time he also learned that his fiancee was killed in the concentration camps in Belarus. Out of dread and in rage, my uncle fought on the front as though he had nothing to lose. For the Russian army, he was the ideal soldier. My uncle was one of the first to receive a Russian medal of honor. At the beginning of the war, badges of honor weren't given out that often. Only when casualties mounted, when morale needed to be high, did the generals become more lenient with commendations. I am not sure how much my uncle cared about the award, only that his commendations were lost to history after his death, an unfortunate microcosm of the tragedy of his life.

After the war ended, my uncle was at a spiritual impasse. Though he hated the Nazis like the rest of Russia, he did not know how to feel about Germans as a whole. Despite all the trauma and pain that they inflicted on him, his friends, his family, and his lovers, he found a way to forgive the atrocities. He did so because he understood how many of the soldiers weren't Nazis. In the war, he mostly fought brainwashed children and some Nazis. He recognized the differentiation when his squad made it to Berlin. And just like that, my uncle turned around.

The rest of my uncle's life was about rebuilding much of what he lost. He took the challenge literally. He built his own house, for him and his wife, and the members of the family which survived the war. Over time, the rooms filled up with nephews, nieces, and in-laws. He couldn't be happier. Isaac even built a well so that the relatives didn't have to walk to town for water. He was more than happy to let the neighbors take their fill as well. My mom was there: she saw and reaped the fruits of Isaac's labor, fruits he enjoyed only if he shared them.

Isaac Relkin is not my hero because he killed Nazis or built houses. He is my hero because he understood how to move on from the pain and help protect his community from it. He could adapt and survive the worst humanity has to offer without sinking to the lowest level. He saw the worst of humanity, which made him one of the greatest people you could know.