"Sophie's Choice" and the Logic of Sacrifice

I saw a promo for the movie “Sophie’s Choice” the other day. This brings to mind what I call the logic of sacrifice, of -at that moment -choosing the lesser of two inescapable evils.

It is the story of a holocaust survivor played by Meryl Streep, who when entering Auschwitz with her two children was presented with a horrific choice. (thus the reason for the title of the movie) Sophie, at the point of the gun of a German guard, is forced to choose between which of her two children is sent immediately to the Nazi gas chambers and die. Sophie initially replies that she can’t choose, but the guard then demands that if she does not, he will kill all of them right there. Sophie makes her choice.

What a horrific predicament! The audience has no anger for Sophie, but just sympathy. The actual behavior she presents is completely counterintuitive and beyond the scope of any normal behavior. Sophie chooses to have one of her children killed!

Without witnessing the threat on film, when seen solely from the view that one child was chosen to be killed by her mother, our reaction is- “oh my god, who would do that!?” Without seeing the presentation of the threat of certain death to the rest of the family, such behavior is absolutely unbelievable.

Under such a circumstance what would you do? What would all of your family do, to save yourselves? Would you sacrifice one member to save the rest from certain death? Would you lie? Would all of you lie?

When looked at in complete context what Sophie thought she was doing was choosing to save her other child and herself. She chose the lesser of two inescapable evils, doing something completely against a mother’s instinct, and completely against decent human impulses, for the benefit of the rest.

When looked at from the viewpoint of someone in that situation, what Sophie chose makes perfect sense and follows a perfect logic.

Sophie had no idea from previous experience that the choice before her was merely a phantom- the presentation of a false reality. We know in retrospect that the Germans killed everyone they could at Auschwitz. Armed with this knowledge, Sophie’s actual choice may have been different.

Armed with the knowledge that the possibility of safety for the other members was a lie, Sophie could either hope that all wouldn’t be killed and choose one of her children as she did, or Sophie could see that the death promised was actually the truth, and that it was, in actuality, promised for all. With this knowledge Sophie could choose to stand up to them. In the movie it was presented in a way that Sophie didn’t- and couldn’t- know that the latter option was available.

This is the logic of sacrifice that applies to all of us, of choosing completely counterintuitive behavior in the face of inescapable evil. It is the choosing of the lesser part of two inescapable evils, because of the threat of certain death, for the benefit of the rest.