The second article that Reader’s Digest published was written by Albert and appeared in the same issue. Albert titled the article “Your Second Job” and used it to call people to look for opportunities in their lives to have a second job. In the article he explained,
What the world lacks most today is men who occupy themselves with the needs of other men. In this unselfish labor a blessing falls on both the helper and the helped. Without such spiritual adventures the man or woman of today walks in darkness. . . . What is the remedy? No matter how busy one is, any human being can assert his personality by seizing every opportunity for spiritual activity. How? By his second job; by means of personal action, on however small a scale, for the good of his fellow men.
By October 1949 Albert was Le Grand Docteur back in Lambaréné, once more overseeing the hospital and staff. He had taken a large supply of sulfone drugs back with him and dreamed of eliminating leprosy around Lambaréné and the riverside villages of the Ogowe. News traveled fast. Within months sixty people suffering from leprosy were lining up for weekly shots of the sulfone drugs. Albert also broke ground on the leprosy village at a site a seven-minute walk from the hospital. Temporary bamboo huts were erected while Albert gathered the materials to build permanent structures on the site. Hearing of the new village, more people with leprosy arrived, some from up to 250 miles away. By the end of 1953, over three hundred people were receiving treatment for leprosy.
Albert was desperately trying to find a way to get better housing at the leprosy village when he was notified he’d been awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for service to humanity. During the selection process for the prize in 1952, the Nobel Committee had decided that none of that year’s nominees met the criteria Alfred Nobel had laid out, and so they did not award the peace prize. A year later in 1953, after the selection process, the committee ended up with two suitable candidates for the prize. The committee decided to retrospectively award the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize to Albert. Not only was it a distinguished honor, but also it came with a cash prize of $30,000, all of which Albert immediately donated to building a better leprosy village and a radiography building.
Albert traveled to Oslo, Norway, where Hélène joined him. On November 4, 1954, he gave his acceptance speech for the peace prize in the presence of King Gustav of Norway. Albert’s address was titled “The Problem of Peace,” and he ended it by saying, “May those who have in their hands the fate of nations take anxious care to avoid whatever may worsen our situation and make it more dangerous. And may they take to heart the words of the Apostle Paul: ‘If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.’ His words are valid not only for individuals but for whole nations as well.”
The following evening Albert and Hélène stood side by side on the balcony of the town hall as hundreds of university students honored them with a candlelight procession. It was a magical moment that Albert would never forget. LIFE magazine featured a story on Albert Schweitzer titled “A Man of Mercy,” accompanied with photographs by renowned photographer W. Eugene Smith.
A month later, Albert headed back to Lambaréné with what he considered the true prize—five tons of equipment for the leprosy village. Hélène didn’t return with him. In December 1954 she had heart problems and decided to stay a little longer in Europe with Rhena and the grandchildren. She arrived back in Lambaréné in January 1955 in time to celebrate Albert’s eightieth birthday on January 14. Eleven days later, Hélène celebrated her seventy-sixth birthday.
The following August Albert and Hélène returned to France to spend the fall in Alsace. Albert also traveled to London, England, where on October 17, 1955, he was awarded the Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. Albert was the ninety-ninth person to be awarded the honor since its inception in 1902. Albert also dined with British Prime Minister Anthony Eden at his official resident at 10 Downing Street and accepted an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University. By now he’d lost count of the number of honorary degrees that had been conferred on him.
As usual, Albert didn’t stay away from Lambaréné for long. He returned before Christmas, and Hélène joined him there in January 1956. By now Albert was aware that his wife was very frail and ill. The woman who’d once worked so energetically by his side lay listlessly on a sofa on the veranda, watching the comings and goings of the hospital she had helped found. What little energy she had, she spent helping Albert prepare a speech titled “Peace or Atomic War.” Albert had become increasingly concerned about atomic war. He’d seen the horrific pictures and movie clips of the utter devastation and death that had occurred when the atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II.
Throughout his life Albert had witnessed firsthand how fickle world leaders were when it came to war. He hated to think what might become of humanity if people had the potential to push a button and destroy entire nations as they had destroyed cities in Japan. As a result, he felt he must speak out on the issue. Albert’s speech was broadcast worldwide by radio on April 23, 1956. He ended it with a plea. “The end of further experiments with atom bombs would be like the early sunrays of hope which suffering humanity is longing for.”
The following month Hélène decided she needed to return to the cooler climate of Europe if she was to have any hope of living longer. As Albert said goodbye to her on May 22, he realized it could well be his final goodbye to his wife. Hélène and the nurse accompanying her on the journey traveled by road to Brazzaville, where they boarded an airplane and flew to Paris. This made the trip astonishingly fast.
Hélène Schweitzer Bresslau died on June 1, 1957, of heart disease. Albert received a telegram in Lambaréné from Rhena giving him the sad news.
Albert arrived in Switzerland a month later. He collected his wife’s ashes and returned to Africa. On the hospital grounds in Lambaréné, Albert buried Hélène’s ashes beneath a cross he had carved. While he was at it, he carved a matching cross for himself.
At eighty-two Albert was still in robust health, though he no longer supervised patients every day and filled in on hospital rounds only when it was necessary. The hospital’s sprawling gardens and orchards were now Albert’s pride and joy, and he found great satisfaction tending them.
Although he’d given up traveling, Albert still retained an active interest in world affairs. He was particularly supportive of the movement to ban the more powerful atomic weapons now being tested, and he regularly corresponded with Albert Einstein on the matter.
Before his ninetieth birthday on January 14, 1965, Albert invited his daughter to join him. He and Rhena shared the same birthday but were seldom together to celebrate it. Rhena arrived at Lambaréné in time for the joint celebration. Albert was proud of his daughter. Rhena had returned to school to become a laboratory technician, and she had agreed to stay at Lambaréné and supervise the laboratory.
Albert remained in good health until late August, when he began tiring easily. With Rhena at his side, Le Grand Docteur died peacefully in his bed at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 4, 1965. His final words were “There is still much work to be done.”
Dr. Albert Louis Philipp Schweitzer’s body was wrapped in cloth and lowered into a grave beside Hélène. Many hands spread palm leaves over him before his body was covered with dirt. It was the same dirt from which he had extracted massive roots; dirt into which he had hammered piles and planted trees, and which he had cleaned off the bodies of thousands of patients over the years. His body lay at rest exactly where he wanted it, in a simple grave in the place where he had served faithfully for fifty years.
“The only thing of importance, when we depart, will be the traces of love we have left behind.”
—Albert Schweitzer
