A Book Called Beautiful Souls Elita Sohmer Clayman

I was impressed with a column in the Sunpapers today, July 12^th, written by Dan Rodricks. In it, he writes about a book by Eyal Press titled Beautiful Souls. The book is about four ordinary people who he calls beautiful souls for what they did for humanity.They resisted bad things they saw happening in their space and they showed they had a conscience and intense courage to right the wrongs they viewed.

They were what we call now whistleblowers, but for more horrific acts that were happening. Instead of being rewarded, they lost everything. One was a state police officer in Switzerland when there were tight immigration that went into effect and he helped save hundreds of Jewish people who were refugees and got them to safety. His name was Paul Gruninger and he lived in poverty at the end for what he did in aiding these people.

There were many others and Eyal Press writes about three more of them and the rest of their stories. They were not compensated or honored. Actually the opposite occurred.

This happens in this country when whistleblowers catch an act and they in turn become the victims and wind up losing their jobs for telling on these facts. The victor becomes the victim and they lose their jobs and find it hard to obtain another job.

I know of a person that saw something wrong being done in a medical office. She informed one of the associate medical people there who also was an employee, not an owner. This person informed the owner and he blasted the person who did the horrific thing and told her he would be watching her. Again, recently, the same lady heard the bad one blasting a patient who she did not like to a new employee and the other again told the associate worker who in turn told the owner of the medical practice. He hollered at the bad one and told her she is on probation. Big deal, she should have been fired after the first incident. The whistleblower than after the first incident got kind of ostracized by the other workers for being just that- a whistleblower. She did not care, she went about and did her work efficiently and knew she did the right thing in relating the wrong things.

When I worked in a printing plant office sixty years ago, we had an incident like that. There was a soda machine and the cost for one was a dime. So at night, while the men were working overtime and making extra money, they would take time out and take a penny and use the printing drill to drill the penny into a size of a dime. Then they got the soda for a penny. Well, when the soda machine salesman came in to rid the machine of the coins and refill the bottles or cans of soda again, he called it to the boss’s attention. Again, the next week they found the same situation. There was no whistleblower then, because all of the five men working those nights were always the same ones. After the second event, he called all five in and each one denied he had done that and so he fired all five of them and the word spread through the plant and it never happened ever again.

Once, I was like a small whistleblower in a different situation. I was using a pediatrician for my children and we really loved this man. He had been inflicted with Polio when young, beat it and walked with a slight limp. One day, I called up to question an invoice and I did not want to get it for free, just wanted an explanation of the charges. There was no insurance then, we all paid a bill for the doctor’s services at the end of the month. She told me, forget it, I will write it off, I said I only want an explanation, she said forget it. I did not like that response, so a friend of mine said she would call up and question something too and between us, we would note what this woman was doing. She did and she said the same thing to my friend that she would write it off and both of us did not have to pay for the services. I did not like that, because he had performed his duty as a doctor and I wanted him to be paid. So I called the office and asked for him to return the call and he did, thinking I wanted to question him on an illness of the child. I told him and he thanked me and then I heard that they took an audit and she had done that many times. It seemed it was easier for her to write it off, rather than type a new bill and an explanation of the charges. What a fool for an employee. When I went back with my child for a visit, he thanked me and told me she had done that silly and stupid thing for hundreds of patient bills when they called up to ask for an explanation of the charges. They resubmitted all the bills and she was gone from there shortly.

So I was a whistleblower, but I did not suffer and become the victim. My doing was only a small happening compared to all these others mentioned. I was doing what I knew was proper for a decent person who was losing his income. The invoices in those days for a visit were about nine dollars plus a shot if it was given.

Eyal Press’ book Beautiful Souls is one to read and to still believe that there are good people who do good things to help others and even though they unjustly suffer which is unfair; it shows that sometimes, we have to believe in what we think is right and try to ‘right’ it. We or they should not be penalized. Once in a dental office I went to thirty years ago, there was an x-ray dental machine and every month it had to be cleaned a certain way, so the results would come out correctly. A young woman had this as her job and she did it in her lunch hour when the office was closed and no one was there for that hour. Then she had her lunch time the next hour. They finally realized she was not cleaning it and having the extra hour to herself. The dentist fired her when he saw the test results were off. She did not deny it, but she sued him and he did not want the stigma, notoriety, talk that he had dismissed someone for not cleaning a piece of equipment plus lawyer’s fee to defend him. So I heard, he offered her the job back and some compensation. She took the money and never returned to work. There was no whistleblower then, just keen observation on the machine not working well. He caved in to her pressure, because she said he fired her unjustly, she had cleaned it and he was blaming her for its malfunctioning.

Eyal Press’ book is about excellent souls who showed themselves to be above being afraid and in turn may have lost out in finances, but they had their beautiful souls to comfort them in knowing what they did was for humanity. These people so many years later, whether alive or dead should be honored for who they are.

Irena Sendler of Poland saved thousands of children who would have gone to their death during the Holocaust and she was finally honored several years ago by the public in Poland for her godly deeds.

These beautiful souls and Irena Sendler are valorous, courageous and bold folks and we should reward them with our love of their spirit for all mankind. Their stories should be repeated for all to revere their names forever. Children should be taught about these beautiful souls in school as part of social studies or any other name given to it. Beautiful souls are indeed as Ovid said “souls are a god within each human breast.”