Pilot - ✨Brightest stars in the darkest times. ✨

In 2026, I want to tell stories to remind us that even in the darkest chapters of humanity, light never disappears. It is carried by unexpected actors who choose care when cruelty or worst indifference was the norm.

I begin with the lived experience of Hans Steiner and his family. Fleeing Nazi persecution, they escaped from Vienna to the Philippines. Years later, while I was living in Vienna, after reading the book, I met his daughter, Ruth Steiner. She trusted me with her father’s diaries, their collection of relevant newspaper articles, and the background to his book Nie wieder Wien.

Reading them filled me with Filipino pride. The #Philippines was among the few countries that opened its doors to Jewish refugees. There were many bright stars: President Manuel L. Quezon, who even donated his private land to host refugees. An immigration officer, a nephew of the controversial President José P. Laurel, who helped the family find a home upon arrival in Manila. And his colleagues at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where Hans found work, safety, and dignity.

The Philippines has a long tradition of accepting refugees, from Jewish, Iranian, and Vietnamese communities to Rohingya, Syrians, Palestinians, and Eritreans, even though state assistance has remained limited and protection often relies on international support and self-reliance.

Where state assistance is limited, I have seen refugee protection in the Philippines sustained by civil society, churches, universities, and international partners, quietly turning humanitarian values into everyday acts of care.

Years later, when I visited Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, I learned how exceptional the Filipino nation was. I encountered several stories documenting how Filipinos and the Philippines showed care despite enormous pressure and risk, and how more Jewish refugees were actively invited when most doors around the world were closing.

During the Japanese occupation, the Steiner family had to flee once more. Again, Filipinos helped them survive. After the war, they stayed in the Philippines before eventually returning to Austria.
One moment Ruth shared with me has never left me. She told me that whenever she was on a plane, just minutes before landing in Manila, she felt a deep sense of homecoming.

This post marks the beginning of a series. Throughout 2026, I will share stories of individuals, communities, and places that chose care over fear, solidarity over exclusion, and humanity over indifference. Not to romanticize the past, but to remember what is possible and what responsibility looks like in dark times.

Because history does not only ask us what went wrong.
It also asks who chose to care, and why that still matters today.

#BrightestStarsInDarkTimes #Care #Humanity International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance