Dr. Marianna Masin and her late husband, Francis, emigrated from Czechoslovakia after World War II, when they were liberated from Poland’s Majdanek prison camp. Both went in as young medics: Marianna, the Jewish granddaughter of the physician to King Frederick of Prussia, and Francis, a Catholic who stayed with his bride through all the horrors of captivity. At one point, they stood in line for the gas chambers; the only thing that spared them from such a fate was that they were medics.
Somehow, while they were undergoing the worst that life can give, they heard about an East Indian philosophy. The concept of a godhead distinct from intolerable suffering appealed to them in those days saturated in tragedy. After their liberation, they resolved to come to the United States and start a new life, hopefully in the monastic community of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. I was only 13 when I first met them: she, very dark with deep brown eyes, and he, as blond and blue-eyed as a Northern European can be. They carried a profound sadness, but more than that a strength tangible, powerful, fascinating. The image burns brightly 62 years later.
But they were turned down as monastic postulants. Why? They were two incredible young people with every qualification imaginable — one could see their integrity, their intense devotion, their total nobility of character. Years later it became evident. As prominent physicians in Santa Barbara, they not only served their community day and night but also contributing vitally to advancements in medical research.