Lipsticks at Bergen-Belsen

Earlier this year I read a wonderful book called One Mind by Larry Dossey M.D. The book’s subtitle is “How our individual mind is part of a greater consciousness and why it matters.” One of the stories Dossey includes to support his premise had me in tears … have you ever heard of the shipment of lipsticks delivered—origin unknown—to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp shortly after its liberation in 1945?

Tragic legacy: Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany.

In April of that year, British troops liberated the camp. The horrors they witnessed are beyond comprehension: 40,000 prisoners in 200 huts and 10,000 bodies (including, somewhere, the gifted young diarist, Anne Frank). The hardened troops, as Dossey recounts, “cried like babies” but got to work. By the end of the month, food had arrived and survivors were receiving treatment.

Anne Frank

British Lt. Colonel Mervin W. Gonin described what happened next in his diary: “A very large quantity of lipstick arrived. This was not at all what we men wanted, we were screaming for hundreds and thousands of other things and I don’t know who asked for lipstick. I wish so much that I could discover who did it, it was the action of a genius, sheer unadulterated brilliance,” he marvelled. “At last they could take an interest in their appearance. That lipstick started to give them back their humanity.”

This moving story not only illustrates the “kind of breakthrough that can occur when minds unite in the Great Connect,” as Dossey writes in One Mind, but it also reminds us of how a small “luxury” like lippie can help lift the spirits of a woman in need. Charities including The Beauty Bank understand this, and put together gift bags of toiletries for people escaping situations of domestic violence.

As Nat and I plan events and workshops tying in with the launch of Awaken and our Awaken Sisterhood initiative, we’re resolved to support this life-changing local charity in any way we can. Wishing you a beautiful weekend.

Our new book, Awaken: The Search is Over.