“Unfortunately, the mod linked back to your previous posting of the story and I was confronted with some truly horrifying responses to your story.”
I saw those responses, and to be honest, I feel the posters really don’t have a clue about how to act in relation to non-Jews. Any act of kindness that we show to a non-Jew is of benefit, if only because it makes US better people, just through the act of doing something nice for another person. Kal V’chomer it is a good thing when the non-Jew clearly recognizes that his benefactor is a frum Jew. My belief in this was validated even further by the fact that Hashem chose the similar type of people whom my husband helped to be the vehicle for our s’char mitzvah by helping him in turn.
There is a story told (not sure if it is true or just told as an object lesson) about a Jew who lived next door to a German in Germany. They were not friends, but every day when the saw each other outside, the Jew would smile and say, “Good morning, Herr Schmidt” (I am not sure of the names, so I am making them up), and although clearly ill at ease, Herr Schmidt would nod his head, “And to you, Herr Goldberg.” This went on for a long time, with neither man taking the relationship further than this daily civil exchange. Then came the Nazis, and Herr Schmidt became an SS officer. Herr Goldberg and his family were taken away and were taken off the trains at the camps as the SS was sending people to the left or the right. Herr Goldberg’s family’s turn arrived, and the officer looked up about to flick his hand in a dangerous direction, when Goldberg suddenly said, “Good morning, Herr Schmidt.” SS Officer Schmidt, without missing a beat, said, “And to you, herr Goldberg, ” and motioned him and his family to life.
Chas v’shalom, that we or any of our loved ones should ever need to depend on the “chessed” of such a man as Schmidt. But the fact is, Hashem wants us to show kovod habrios, not merely kovod ha yehudim. That is how I was raised, and I have never regretted being a mensch “even” to a non-Jew.