Life :)

I went to my neighbors house tonight for dinner. They asked me to bring Chip over to play with the kids (he was so good with them) They have 4 children and the eldest who is 7 prayed before dinner:

"Dear God, Thank you that Mrs. McNeal and that she could bring Chip with her."

Also early today while I was with Gretchen (who is 10) we had this short conversation:

Gretchen:"Rachael, some boys have very nice abs, although none in my grade do because they're all nerds."

Me: "Aren't you a little young to be talking about boys's abs?"

Gretchen: "No, not at all. I got deodorant yesterday."

Life is precious.

much love.

"If Christianity hadn't taught anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews, the Holocaust wouldn't have happened." Barnett quotes Elie Wiesel here..ouch. I have to say, I can't disagree. No one can really know I suppose, but the evidence seems to be there. Hundreds and Hundreds of years of Christian tradition taught anti-semitism without hesitation. Is it because I live in a post-holocaust world that this seems absurd? I guess not really since there are many Christians today that are anti-semitic and believe the Jews need to be converted.
Christians certainly are not guiltless when it comes Holocaust. The Church failed to resist and rescue. If only it had been more vocal early on, what could have happened? What if more Churches pulled together and did as the Le Chambon? AT least more lives have been saved. Many professed Christians campaigned for the Nazi party, worked in the camps, and even helped to murder their Jewish neighbors. It is disturbing.
I do, however, have to disagree with Arthur Cohen when he says, "For the non-jew the genocide of the Jews is an objective phenomenon which, on the face of it, by its definition appears to exclude him." It is true, Christians were not the object of genocide and I do not mean to demean the vicious attack of the Jewish people, the horrid things they endured or the meaning of their suffering. I think, however, it is important to remember there were Christians, and other non-jews who suffered in the death camps. It is important that they are also remembered. There were Christians, who, though not the victims of genocide, were the victims of injustice. Additionally, as I said before, the Christians of the time were not guiltless. They failed. I as a Christian suffer the Holocaust as any sinner suffers the guilt of the consequences of sin. The Holocaust is not only historically real for Jews, though the scars may be more physically evident through tattooed forearms and the annihilation of a population, but it is historically real for those Christians who ask themselves after the Holocaust the same questions as Jews. How do we talk of God after this? Where was God? and Why didn't more Christians do something to intervene?
I am shamed. Christians are shamed by what didn't happen and what did happen during the Holocaust. And we are more shamed because most of us cannot say confidentally that we would have acted differently.
It is not the same Burden, or pain, Jews now must carry. They were victimized ruthlessly. They were betrayed by their neighbors. They were left alone.
Christians had strength in numbers, the strength of the Gospel, but not the strength of heart to do what needed to be done, and that is our burden to carry.

The Best of a Bad Lot?

Not quite. Dietrich Bonhoeffer far surpassed most in his moral standing considering his context. Sure, he is anti-semitic in the beginning and I'm disheartened upon this discovery, but he was on the right track. Toward the end of his life I'd say he had it almost right. He was often ambivalent in his standing on the Jewish Question, but he was not ambivalent on his opinion regarding Hitler and the Third Reich.
What if more people had been like him?

Individual Behavior

I find it interesting, that whether it was a perpetrator, a bystander, or a rescuer there is not one pattern that determines what the pre-existing charactersitics of each person was that motivated them to act one way or the other. It seems that th perpetrator and they bystander both claim to have acted out of fear or duty. Fear of what may happen to them or duty to the nation or their job. I'm inclined to sympathize. But when Barnett brought up the rescuer of the resister a light bulb went on in my head and I said, "oh yea, them!" The rescuer.

The rescuer shows that we are individually responsible for our actions. Not matter what the motivating circumstance is, people can still decide for themselves. They don't have to sacrifice morality or compassion.

I do find it interesting that many of the rescuers came from homes where they were taught to think independently. I also find it interesting that the majority of those rescuers were women. Barnett suggests this is because women were treated as minorities/marginalized. I'm sure a gender study could be done on this (if there hasn't been already).

But I'm thankful to be reminded of those who did not sit and do nothing. But stood and resisted on behalf of their endangered neighbors.

After reading the first chapter of Bystanders I'm feeling, well, torn. I appreciate Barnett's provision of definitions, and this opening chapter is certainly challenging.
I am torn because I keep thinking about those in Sonderburg, who had neighborly relationships with the Jews of their community. Over night, Barnett says, some of them changed their attitudes toward the Jews whom they'd had a history of friendly relationships with. It seems that in a community such as theirs, where there was no nearby concentration camps, that as a solid group of people could have protested the mis-treatment of their neighbors. That perhaps it would have made a difference. Then I think of those near Mauthausen and I, so sadly, see myself in them. These people saw the horrors of what went on. They saw people killed. They saw them marched through their village, malnourished, mistreated, shadows of the people they once were, and they did nothing. I keep asking myself. Why didn't they do something? Then I ask, what would I have done? Then I ask, what could have been done? And then I find myself thinking like them. I detest it. I cannot go easy on them simply because I wonder if I would have become a not-so-innocent bystander. I wonder if I would have done something...anything. Would I have looked away as priosoners were brought through town? Would I have looked away from the shootings that took place in my very town?
They were afraid. I know I would have been afraid.

It seems the Nazi party backed away if there was too much protest. What if everyone protested? I wonder if more in Sonderburg would have done more if they'd seen what those in Mauthausen saw? Or perhaps they would have done less out of fear. Those 12 jews left in Sondergurg in 1939 perhaps would not have received food, and letters, and support from their neighbors if those neighbors saw what Mauthausen saw...I don't know. I hope I would have done something.

Martin Niemoller

(one of those guys is supposed to be Martin Niemoller although I'm not sure which)
The thing I have to recognize about Niemoller...and really all of the theologians and pastors involved in the Confessional Chruch, is that he was a product of German Nationalism. The idea behind the German Evangelical Church's collaboration, really did not have much to do with speaking out against Germany, only speaking out against the absurdities of the German Christians. So I find it disappointing that he doesn't so much speak out against anti-semitism. But he does in a sense speak out against the Nazi government. When meeting with Hitler and a few others, attempting to have the Reich Bishop removed from Power, Hitler accused them all of being disloyal and Niemoller said to him, "Neither you nor any power on earth can remove the responsibility placed on us by God to care for our people." OOOOHhh it gives me chills. Especially having hindesight, knowing the effects of Hitler's regime on the whole of history, it's amazing Niemoller said what he said. And I'm thankful for it. Thankful to know someone spoke against Hitler. Niemoller certainly served his time spending 8 years in a concentration camp but it's a great story. I also love Conway's quote on page 546 about how Niemoller's view on war and nationalism changed. Where before he venerated fighting for one's country, he became anti-violence after his time in the concentration camps, and Conway says this, "rather now affirmed that dying for one's country must be changed to living for all mankind."

I think what's been most haunting about learning this Germany history is learning about the level of German's nationalism. How it was all about Germany, and Germany's place in history, instead of concerning itself with humanity. It's so egocentric and I see some of that in Americans. Perspective is a bitch.

Barmen, Asmussen and Heim

All of this reading starts to get overwhelming. There's so much of it, and then when it's time to journal there's so much to say, and so much I'm thinking that I'm never really sure what exactly to put down.

So some positive thoughts first.
Reading about the German Evangelical Church was so baffling that I have to say, reading about the Confessional Church seems refreshing. It is good to know that there were Christians in the 30s that refused to go along with the charades of the German Church...throwing out the Old Testament, calling Jesus aryan, it was all so absurd and I'm glad there were those willing to see it as such. I am pleased they saw the "German Christians" as a threat, as the Barmen constiution says under Article 2. "This threat consists in the fact that the theological basis in which the German Evangelical church is united, has been continually and systematically thwarted and rendered ineffective by alien principles, on the part of the leaders and spokesmen of the 'German Christians' as well as on the part of the Church Administration." AMEN.

I also find Heim's argument against the German Faith movement interesting. It's kind of hard to follow, but essentially he's saying Hauer (on the Side of the German Faith movement) is essentially giving no liability to mankind in regards to moral responsibility. So I'm pleased that there was willingness to both speak against the German Faith Movement and the German Christians. Especially becuase it could enable others to see the German Evangelicals as traitors or anti German. I'm sure that was a huge risk and I find it somewhat encouraging there were those willing to make the risk.

So I also like Heim's article because it seems to speak against what I do not like about Asumssen. Yes, Asmussen speaks against the German Christians and is in support of the German Evangicals (bravo for that) but he seems to say that man can not be expected to make proper moral judgement and therefore all should be left to the judgement of God on the day of judgement (p. 263). It's like an anti-call. It's a call to do nothing. What's that famous quote?..." all that evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing"..something to that effect. Asmussen's quote seems so...anti church? anti-gospel? not of Jesus? I'm not sure what but definitely not correct? Perhaps if more people did something in 1934 less would have died later?

Which leads me to the negative aspects of what I read in these three articles...and that is that there is no objection to the anti-semitic actions of both State and the Church. So, I'll bite. 100s of years of German tradition and 1000 plus years of Christian tradition cultivates anti-semitic attitudes in both state and church populace. I've now read the history, I know the delicate emotional state World War I had on Germany. So I understand, in a sense the anti-semitism. At least I understand where it comes from. But there is a difference between understanding and justifying something. The anti-semitism of the 1930s in the church is not in anyway permissable. Sure I have hindesight and I live in another culture blah blah blah. But in no way does tradition justify hateful prejudice against jews (or any group of people for that matter). I am disappointed that the Confessional Church did not more verbally speak to that. The Bible is there. Jesus is there. Consciences are there. There are no excuses for hatred.