Excerpt from Seeds of Servas by Bob Luitweiler + a review by Eve Hale
![[JPEG IMAGE]](askov.jpg)
This is the place where the Servas program was born in 1949.
|
The new people I met through my humble modes of travel compensated many times over for the
few minor hardships. They taught me what I had only known theoretically, to understand the
innate goodness and generosity of people in all countries of all races. It was no longer a
faith in human nature. For me it was now an inspiring reality, an unforgettable
experience.
At Askov and in other folk high schools which I visited, and even children's schools in
the same tradition, sometimes cramped in children's seats, listening in a strange tongue I
discovered a new meaning of education. Experiencing the teaching with what they call
"the living word" and understanding the philosophy of this unique program
changed some of my fundamental perceptions. It was a life changing experience to be a part
of this remarkable movement. Its purpose was not to fill students with facts or train them
in skills but to change them from passive observers into active community builders. As a
result they turned their society into one of the most enlightened in the world.
It was a painful struggle trying to follow the lectures with my inadequate Danish but the
students all embraced me as one of them. I could not have felt more at home. I watched the
awakening of the farm youth who had come there not to get a degree, to prepare themselves
for a better paying job or to get any other practical advancement. Unlike most youthful
students I had known in the US they were there solely to get a broader understanding of
life, of society, of literature and history.
The teachers were all inspired storytellers who brought past ages and great authors to
life. History was an adventure into the past. Special consideration was paid to the people
and social conditions of the time and place of the story. Listening made one feel the
narrator had just come from the streets of Paris during the French Revolution or had a
first hand experience in another world shaking historic event.
Then another gifted story teller introduced us to a writer with such feeling and insight
we were sure he was a personal friend. The community in which the author lived, his or her
concerns and disappointments and the conditions of the society at the time were all
illustrated by passages from the literature. I could well understand how this kind of
education motivated the students to want to know good writers and to make learning a vital
part of the rest of their lives.
As I sat among them in the classes I began to understand how this very special educational
movement had lifted farmers out of their fields and barns into, first the urgent issues of
their country, and then into becoming enlightened citizens of the world. Soon the awakened
farmers became the leaders in the country's very democratic government. Then the
cooperative movement that sprung from this education, in only a short time, became central
to the life of the country. Since the primary exports were agricultural products and these
were handled by the dirt farmer's cooperatives the folk high school "graduates"
turned their country into an exceptional economic democracy. Actually no one graduated
from these schools. Their time in school was viewed as an introduction to a long life
of learning.
The spirit of growing and sharing permeated the life. Athletics were not competitive--
tumbling for the men and rhythmic exercises for the women. We learned folk dancing and
enjoyed music appreciation and no class started without a group song.
The Danish folk high school movement is an outstanding example of a peace building
program. It generated a people centered community that had more concern for quality of
life and compassion for others in need than for gaining power and wealth. There was a
strong desire among many Danes to find alternatives to violent conflict on all levels of
society, local, national and international..
When Iceland, which was a dependent colony, wanted independence the Danes just said
"yes".
When missionaries and merchants threatened the culture of Greenland's Eskimos they were
prohibited from going there while all others were welcomed. One of the main tasks of the
Danish underground had been to spirit Jews from Germany to the safety of Sweden. During
the boycott of South African apartheid products Denmark was one of the few countries where
South African oranges could not be found.
It is not surprising that when we started Servas this ideal of peace building became
central to our purpose and so many Danes wanted to be hosts we could not accept them all.
----------
Bob Luitweiler
----------------------------------
Seeds of Servas a review by Eve Hale
1999 marks the 50'h anniversary of our beloved Organisation and our venerable founding
father, who in November
'98 celebrated his 80 th birthday, is now hard at work marking the Servas anniversary with
a small book about its
very beginnings.
He clearly paints a picture of the varying conditions in parts of Europe just after WWII.
Whilst, as he states, Sweden " the clean modem town, the cosy villages, the picturesque countryside with
hardly a car on the road,
were a cyclists paradise", elsewhere in war-tom Europe people were trying to get
their lives toge ther again and
even a typewriter was "something rare in fleeced Germany."
After describing the reason for his jour ney to begin with, he goes on to explain how his
original purpose changed
somewhat after discovering the gulf of separation that had developed between the two sides
and especially the
isolation felt by young people. As one young acquaintance put it. "Now can our German
youth, while closed into
one country, learn the meaning of democratic ways when they can never see it?'; This,
caused him to try and
think of ways to bring formerly opposing peoples together and find ways of understanding
each other.
His Danish friends couldn't help but think of him as a "fantast" wild dreamer
but this did not deter him and he
continued to pursue his ideals as given him by his "Quaker mentors - a view into the
soul of mankind."
He is, however, the first to admit that had it not been for the dedication and hard work
of a number of people
involved in reconciliation organizations, workcamps for peace and other 'institutions ,
his dream might never have
materialised. He gained much experience in various European countries by meeting and
working with the leaders
of these and anti-war groups and goes on to tell of the first countries to form Peace
Builders (as Servas was first
called).
Also important were 'chance' meetings whilst travelling, like the one with the misinformed
young American who
"told me at great length how terrible the Socialist Swedish government was in his
strongest reactionary terms,"
when in fact, "at that time there was almost no country in Europe which cared more
for the working people." Or
even more so the Communist who "told how he won the sympathy of his SS officer while
a prisoner in a
concentration camp", thus causing Bob to remark that "Servas was helped,
knowingly and unknowingly, not only
by dedicated pacifists but also Communists, Socialists, an Anarchist and Nazis" -
people of widely differing
outlooks.
'Some important contributors , like "Gertraud Hertling, a German student in a
volunteer workcamp for peace near
Stockholm, who sowed the first seed of Servas", together with her father, "a
dedicated teacher and fellow idealist
who had started youth groups" and "was determined to make Servas work in Germany
despite lack of housing
......... etc - as well as Esther Hartland in the US who though in her late seventies and
living on a small pension
"squeezed her small income so as to cover the cost of stamps and stationery" for
the many letters she typed,
wrote and posted for the "open doors" as she liked to think of Servas ; all
these and others are fondly recalled with
details of their outstanding achievements in helping to make Servas a reality.
Though it seems somewhat amusing in retrospect, his arrival in England after having lost
his passport, was
anything but pleasant, largely due to the unfriendly treatment by British officials who
couldn't understand his
motives and tended to view him as a possible Communist spy. Even his own country's
officials were very
suspicious and seemingly hard-hearted and "accused me of having sold my
passport". Fortunately, however,
"after some fifty people wrote to the US State Department on my behalf, I got a new
passport".
During his 61 month stay in Birmingham, England which he remembers as.' "one of them
high spots of my life",
after "discussing methods and systems" with firm believers in the cause of
Servas, he succeeded in writing the
first handbook for national secretaries. Of considerable help in thi's endeavour was
Connie Jones. Indeed, as he
points out, "the format, slightly modified, is being used..." today.
Thereafter, on getting his new passport he gained permission to go on to India, making
some good contacts for
Servas in France, Austria, Greece ...... Turkey and also Israel , where he "connected
with a gem, a violinist in the
Israel Symphony orchestra who led Servas there for many years."
His further'travels were much complicated by the fact that he had an Israeli visa with
which he could not travel
through Arab countries. So he had to go instead to Cyprus where an English official gave
him a visa for Kuwait,
but "no guarantee the Kuwaitis will let you in." They did, however, giving him
no problems regarding red tape. In
contrast he recalls the kindness and friendliness of the Islamic pilgrims returning from
Mecca with whom he spent
several days and nights on the boat sailing there. He marvels that they "did not dump
me into the Indian Ocean
..... not because I intentiony insulted them or did something they asked me not to do. My
sin was taking pictures of
the families... " for "pictures are the equivalent of worshipping images,
prohibited by their sacred books... I guess
they were used to naive Western vagabonds because they treated me with the same respect I
tried to show
them."
On arriving in India he describes some of his travels and encounters and how fruitful his
time spent there was for
Servas.
Then, after receiving a letter from his English friends, he cut short his planned journey
through Burma, S.East
Asia, and on to Japan, to return to England where he was to attend the first International
Servas gathering and in
his own words, "we agreed on the name *Servas in Espetanto. The idea was we would see
ourselves as
servants of Peace and Justice." But the name was just the beginning. Where would they
go on from there ......?
* Changed because during the cold war the name of Peace Builders was considered rather
suspect and the
name of Servas seemed more neutral.
Eve Hale
You can contact Bob at:- P 0 Box 28808, Bellingham, WA, 98228, USA
Ph: 360 714 1 043 e-mail: gentil@steadi.org