A postscript to my previous entry. Fair warning, get your tissues ready

Postscript: To dovetail onto the poignant story of the friendship between legendary American track-and-field star Jesse Owens and German long jumper Luz Long, here is the text of the last letter that Luz sent to Jesse while he was serving in the German army. It was sent during World War II and was received by Owens a year after it was sent. This would be the last communication of Long to his friend, as Long was killed during the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943.

Luz Long (left) and Jesse Owens at the 1936 Summer Olympics. The epic duel between them in the long jump was only eclipsed by the bond formed between these two men from different societies: Long, an athlete competing under the flag of Nazi Germany, a regime built on hatred and bigotry, and Owens, the 8-time NCAA Champion who dealt with the harsh realities of being an African-American athlete in a segregated society.

I truly got choked up reading this letter as it shows that the friendship between the two was quite strong, even though they had not seen each other since the 1936 Summer Olympics. In the last few years, I have started to believe that every soldier in a war is a pawn being forced to fight by a leader who would never see the front lines. Letters like this, show that even soldiers fighting for Adolf Hitler had a heart, a faith, and were made in the image and likeness of God. Nobody will like hearing me say that but it is true. Anyway, without further ado, here is the text of Luz Long's final letter to Jesse Owens (Source: Jesse: The Man Who Outran Hitler)

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 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