Victor Frankl (1905-1997), author of Man's Search for Meaning and founder of logotherapy, a field of psychotherapy based on finding meaning in life, writes about his encounter with this mitzvah just before World War II.
Having just gotten word that his visa to leave war-stricken Europe had arrived, Frankl found himself torn between taking the opportunity and staying to care for his older parents. Very much stressed by the decision, he decided to put it on hold and wait some sort of sign from Above for guidance.
When he got home that day he saw his father sitting at the table and noticed a big block of stone resting on the table. "What's that?", he asked. His father told him he found it at the site of a nearby shul that had been destroyed by the Nazis. "It has on it", his father told him, "a reference to one of the 10 commandments". Victor asked his father which one. "The 5th one, to honor one's parents".
He had found his sign.
His book is difficult to read, as all Holocaust books are, and is really insightful.
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