She remained in Myanmar even while her husband was dying, refusing to abandon her fight for freedom.Д«ut where is Aung San Suu KyiвЂ™s moral commitment today? Like Miep Gies and Carl Wilkens, Aung San Suu Kyi stood up. But they were afraid, or complicit, or uncaring. There was a long descent into the hell of the Holocaust from 1933 to 1941, a time when that descent could have been stopped вЂ“ IF people had stood up. Would we be so courageous? Would we stand up? Fred Amram, a Holocaust survivor who lives in Minneapolis, reminds us that Hitler took power in 1933 and Auschwitz didnвЂ™t begin operating until 1941. We would have been like Carl Wilkens, the only American to remain in Rwanda during the genocide, who saved hundreds of lives despite great peril to himself. We would have been like Miep Geis and brought food to Anne Frank and her family, sequestered in that attic for 25 months, knowing that discovery would mean our certain death. We like to believe that we would do what is morally right in the face of hardship or the danger to ourselves. I often have wondered what I would have done in her position. Tragically, the tape arrived in London two days after his death. She wore a dress in his favorite color, put a rose in her hair, and made a videotape to share final words with him. She announced that she would not leave her country and her people. She knew that the government wouldnвЂ™t allow her back if she left. Instead, the government urged Suu Kyi to leave Myanmar to visit him. The Myanmar government wouldnвЂ™t give him a visa to come to Myanmar, despite appeals from world leaders including the Pope and President Clinton. In 1999, Suu KyiвЂ™s husband, who had remained in London with their two boys, was gravely ill with cancer. Many countries imposed economic sanctions against the country because of her arrest and for the ruling juntaвЂ™s ongoing human rights violations. Aung San Suu Kyi, still under arrest, became an iconic symbol of martyrdom for democracy. Myanmar came under international pressure to let the rightfully-elected people join the parliament. Had they been seated, Suu Kyi probably would have become the prime minister. But the military would not let the elected candidates take their positions. Aung San Suu KyiвЂ™s party, the NLD, National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory.

In 1990 there was real hope for change when the military government allowed elections. Forty years later, Aung San Suu Kyi became the countryвЂ™s standard-bearer as she formed a political party and her pro-democracy efforts gained ground.Дuring this time, she married Michael Arias, a British citizen, and they had two sons. Her late father had negotiated the countryвЂ™s independence from Britain and was assassinated in 1947 for his advocacy of freedom. Holocaust Memorial Museum, for her determination to bring freedom to her people.Д«ut in 2018 the Museum revoked its award and people called for the Nobel Peace Prize to be revoked as well.

She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and awards from many other organizations, including the U.S.

She was a hero to me, and, indeed, to most of the world.

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