9
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1:13-15)
As I walked through Auschwitz, I felt
a weight that made each step heavier, each breath slower, and my mind acutely aware that I was standing on the grounds where millions of people lost their lives. I could not fathom that these ruins were once where people went to die, where entire families—men, women and children—who thought they were being resettled were led to their last moments on the floors of gas chambers. My God. My mind didn’t want to face the reality that where we were standing was a place of such horror, such insidious violence and evil. How could an entire nation of people allow this and become complicit? This was the question that rang in my mind throughout the duration of my FASPE experience. As we neared the end of the trip, a semblance of an answer began to emerge for me (not that I have an all-encompassing answer to explain this evil). I began to think of how seeds are planted, grow, and become the manifestation of what lies in the Sower’s heart. Seeds of grace can sprout into love, life, and unity. Seeds of hate sprout into death and destruction. The prophet Jeremiah writes in chapter 17, verse 9, “The heart is deceitful above all things. And desperately wicked; who can know it?” Here the prophet tells us clearly: we all carry the capability to perpetrate injustice. We must be sober and vigilant regarding our tendency to preserve ourselves. And this impulse toward self-preservation only intensifies in uncertain times, times of expediency in which there is not only justification for preservation but also gain.
For Germany, losing World War I was an embarrassment. As the United States experienced the Great Depression, Germany also bore harsh economic conditions. There was a sense of humiliation and defeat looming over the nation. Hitler preyed on these feelings of humiliation, defeat, and economic anxiety. He used the Jewish people as a scapegoat, blaming Germany’s loss in the war and economic downturn on them. In times such as these people will look at the scapegoat presented to them, and whatever seeds that have been planted in their hearts will begin to sprout and reveal themselves. The Nazi regime gained support and stability by defining groups of "others" and excluding them from the national community: political opposition, critical intellectuals, and ethnic minorities, including and especially, the Jewish people. In the course of the 1930s, it either co-opted, marginalized, or incarcerated anyone who potentially had the power to oppose it. This structured and intentional campaign to capture public opinion through fear, death, destruction, anger, and hate successfully gave Hitler the approval he needed from ordinary citizens to begin carrying out his agenda, pushing the “other” out of German society. The enemies of the regime were imprisoned for shorter or longer periods in concentration camps. The first ones were established shortly after Hitler took power in 1933. From 1940, the regime established six killing centers targeting mental patients and people with disabilities.
A few days before our visit to Auschwitz, we went to a site in a town called Brandenburg, where the first murders by gassing took place as a part of Aktion T4,
a Nazi “euthanasia” program. This site was located in the middle of an ordinary town, surrounded by homes and shops. How could anyone turn a blind eye to this?
I wondered: did they see the smoke rising and smell the ash of burnt flesh entering their backyards? Did the presence of suffering not disturb their morning tea? Again, I ask the question: how could anyone allow this to happen? Imagine if the townspeople rose up, walked over and demanded these gross violations of humanity cease. Imagine if instead of allowing Hitler to play off their suspicion and fear, the people of Germany collectively decided to rebuke him and vowed to protect the very people he sought to kill. How many lives would have been saved? How many families would
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1:13-15)
As I walked through Auschwitz, I felt
a weight that made each step heavier, each breath slower, and my mind acutely aware that I was standing on the grounds where millions of people lost their lives. I could not fathom that these ruins were once where people went to die, where entire families—men, women and children—who thought they were being resettled were led to their last moments on the floors of gas chambers. My God. My mind didn’t want to face the reality that where we were standing was a place of such horror, such insidious violence and evil. How could an entire nation of people allow this and become complicit? This was the question that rang in my mind throughout the duration of my FASPE experience. As we neared the end of the trip, a semblance of an answer began to emerge for me (not that I have an all-encompassing answer to explain this evil). I began to think of how seeds are planted, grow, and become the manifestation of what lies in the Sower’s heart. Seeds of grace can sprout into love, life, and unity. Seeds of hate sprout into death and destruction. The prophet Jeremiah writes in chapter 17, verse 9, “The heart is deceitful above all things. And desperately wicked; who can know it?” Here the prophet tells us clearly: we all carry the capability to perpetrate injustice. We must be sober and vigilant regarding our tendency to preserve ourselves. And this impulse toward self-preservation only intensifies in uncertain times, times of expediency in which there is not only justification for preservation but also gain.
For Germany, losing World War I was an embarrassment. As the United States experienced the Great Depression, Germany also bore harsh economic conditions. There was a sense of humiliation and defeat looming over the nation. Hitler preyed on these feelings of humiliation, defeat, and economic anxiety. He used the Jewish people as a scapegoat, blaming Germany’s loss in the war and economic downturn on them. In times such as these people will look at the scapegoat presented to them, and whatever seeds that have been planted in their hearts will begin to sprout and reveal themselves. The Nazi regime gained support and stability by defining groups of "others" and excluding them from the national community: political opposition, critical intellectuals, and ethnic minorities, including and especially, the Jewish people. In the course of the 1930s, it either co-opted, marginalized, or incarcerated anyone who potentially had the power to oppose it. This structured and intentional campaign to capture public opinion through fear, death, destruction, anger, and hate successfully gave Hitler the approval he needed from ordinary citizens to begin carrying out his agenda, pushing the “other” out of German society. The enemies of the regime were imprisoned for shorter or longer periods in concentration camps. The first ones were established shortly after Hitler took power in 1933. From 1940, the regime established six killing centers targeting mental patients and people with disabilities.
A few days before our visit to Auschwitz, we went to a site in a town called Brandenburg, where the first murders by gassing took place as a part of Aktion T4,
a Nazi “euthanasia” program. This site was located in the middle of an ordinary town, surrounded by homes and shops. How could anyone turn a blind eye to this?
I wondered: did they see the smoke rising and smell the ash of burnt flesh entering their backyards? Did the presence of suffering not disturb their morning tea? Again, I ask the question: how could anyone allow this to happen? Imagine if the townspeople rose up, walked over and demanded these gross violations of humanity cease. Imagine if instead of allowing Hitler to play off their suspicion and fear, the people of Germany collectively decided to rebuke him and vowed to protect the very people he sought to kill. How many lives would have been saved? How many families would