THE NAZI YEARS
Many of you know the basics about the Holocaust, ie the fact the six million Jews were killed in concentration camps around Germany and Eastern Europe, but there is so much more to understanding the mindset behind these atrocious brutalities performed during the reign of the Third Reich. I will attempt to illustrate scenes in which the Nazis used and abused their power to rid their race of all that was "sub-human." In Hitler's publication of Mein Kampf (My Struggle, 1925), he asserts his political ideology to that of committed anti-Semitism and blames Germany's struggles upon the swift punishment incurred by other countries after WWI. To understand the crimes committed against humanity during the Holocaust, one must understand the mindset behind the leaders of the German regime. For centuries, Jews have been persecuted and murdered for numerous reasons. So why now? Why the need for the Holocaust (in the German mind) now? The Jew was not considered part of the super-human race which Hitler attempted to create. The Jew did not fit the blonde-hair, blue-eyed stereotype. The Germans believed it their destiny to further the Aryan race, which would include the concept of eugenics (detailed below) and purifying the blood, leaving no traces of any person considered to be "sub-man." Almost a Christian ideal, the Germans viewed this idea of ridding their race of any unclean thing a commandment: "As for any other nation, too, the eternal God created for our nation a law that is peculiar to its own kind. It took shape in the Leader Adolf Hitler, and in the National Socialist stated created by him. This law speaks to us from the history of our people, a history grown of blood and soil. It is loyalty to this law which demands of us the battle for honor and freedom." (The Nazi Years) Out of this ideology grew a contempt and disgust for the European Jew. One is probably familiar with the terms "Kristallnacht," "The Final Solution," and the "Warsaw Ghetto Uprising," so I have written some of the lesser known Nazi crimes out in detail (which is just as horrific as the major events of which one is aware) so that one may understand the severity of the years between 1939-1945 and why we have a holiday called "Holocaust Remembrance Day."
Told from the perspective of a German woman:
"I saw another woman with a crying baby in her
arms. One of the Gestapo was yelling at the
baby, 'Shut up! Quiet! Stop yelling!' The mother
tried to quiet the baby. She opened her blouse and
tried to breast-feed, but her baby was scared, or
cold, or in pain, because it was just crying. Then with
one movement of his arm, the Gestapo officer
pulled the baby from its mother's arms, took it by
the feet, and threw it with the head to the ground.
The baby was instantly quiet. I will never forget
the inhuman, shrill scream that the mother let
out as she jumped to reach her child." (Conscience & Courage)
"In Amsterdam they rounded up Jews, opened the
bridges and drove them into the channels to drown.
I saw with my own eyes one hundred and twenty
Jews killed...I was with my sister on an open field.
We saw the Jews forced to kneel and put their hands
up. As one by one they lost their balance - ping -
they were shot. One gone, two gone, three one,
one hundred and twenty gone. And they left them
there...And mothers cried for their babies..."
(Conscience & Courage)
EUGENICS
Eugenics is (formerly) known as the ethnic cleansing of a race, which was prevalent during the Holocaust. "All the instincts of human decency which distinguished men from beasts were forgotten, and the law of the jungle took command. If there is such a thing as a crime against humanity, here we have it repeated a million times over." (The War Against the Weak) (I must mention that the idea of eugenics originated in the United States in the late 1800s, including the Virginia states and Utah as well. The concept of Social Darwinism was taken to an extreme and only the "survival of the fittest" would remain to produce the next generations. Those who were handicapped, mentally disabled, or socially dysfunctional were eliminated to preserve the "racial hygiene." Several institutions in the United States fully supported and funded the eugenics campaign. Hitler adopted these concepts and put them to use in the concentration camps, especially at Dauchau and Auschwitz. Yes, millions were gassed in the chambers, but one also need to understand the other crimes committed against the Jews and the camp doctor, Josef Mengele, known as the "doctrinaire Nazi eugenicist", abused his genetic engineering background and inflicted pain to the Jews beyond what any of us can imagine. Mengele used twins for his experimentation. He seemed to have the perfect control group for planning a super human race. (warning: VERY GRAPHIC)
"The Reichenberg boys, mistakenly thought to be twins
because they so closely resembled each other, piqued
Mengele's interest because one possessed a singer's voice
while the other couldn't carry a tune. After crude
surgery on both boys' vocal chords, one brother lost
his speech altogether. Twin girls were forced to have
sex with twin boys to see if twin children would result.
Efforts were made to surgically change the gender of
the other twins.
One day, Mengele brought chocolates and extra clothing
for twin brothers, Guido and Nino, both popular with
the medical personnel. A few days later the twins were
brought back, their wrists and backs sewn together in a
crude parody of Siamese twins, their veins interconnected
and their surgical wounds clearly festering. The boys
screamed all night until their mother managed to end
their agony with a fatal injection of morphine.
Mengele suspected that two Gypsy boys, about seven
years of age and well-liked in the lab, carried latent
tuberculosis. When prisoner doctors offered a different
opinion, Mengele became agitated. He told the assembly
staff to wait a while. An hour later he returned and
sedately declared, 'You are right. There was nothing.'
After a brief silence, Mengele acknowledged, 'Yes,
I dissected them.' He had shot both in the neck and
autopsied them, 'while they were still warm.'"
Today eugenics is known as genetics. However, there is still some debate as to where to draw the moral and ethical boundary. To what extent and when does this practice become immoral? We do have scientists around the world dedicated to fighting disease and finding cures - just how they conduct their experiments can become a moral dilemma if not taken with caution.
THE RESCUERS
"The hand of compassion was faster than the calculus of reason" was penned by one rescuer (of Jews). I often ask myself these questions: Would I lay down my life for the life of another? Would I allow a Jew to step across my doorstep into my home, knowing that if I got caught, we would both be shot? Would I have enough compassion to allow the endlessly sought-after Jew into my home, knowing the consequences? Would I have enough courage? Would my conscience allow compassion to take over? These rescuers did:
"Six-year-old Annie P.'s stepfather told her to let
certain strangers into her Bussum, Holland,
house after curfew. Her stepfather, noted in this
suburb of Amsterdam for his black roses, was a
horticulturist who was hiding twenty-five Jews on
various parts of his nursery property. Annie was
never directly told that her family was sheltering
Jews, but she figured it out. So did her step-
father's pro-Nazi neighbors. They noticed that
the huge amount of garbage Annie's family
threw out was too much, even for a family with
twelve children. The neighbors reported their
suspicions to the Germans, who raided Annie's
house regularly. One one of these occasions, the
officer in charge was particularly frustrated by
still another fruitless foray by his troops. He questioned
Annie: Did she know where the Jews were hiding?
Annie said nothing. The German threw her down and
kicked her again and again. Still Annie said nothing.
She kept the secret. The Jews survived the war, but
the vicious kicking Annie received damaged her
spine. Years and a number of unsuccessful
operations later, she lost the use of her left leg and
required a brace." (Conscience & Courage)
Would you have been able to keep quiet like Annie did?
"In the case of Romaulda Ciesielska, she found Nazis
rounding up Jews in the square, providing them with
spades to dig their own graves in the forest. Ciesielska
first walked away casually, then ran straight to the Jews
in hiding [at her home] to warn them. There was no
time to flee, and the Jewish woman looked too Semitic
to slip past. Ciesielska ordered the Jewish woman into
bed and told her to pretend she was dying. She placed
a towel over the woman's head, a cross in her hands,
and candles at her sides. Ciesielska grabbed the
peasant's apron and tied it on the daughter, who was
commanded to kneel at the bed and start weeping.
She ordered the peasant woman outside to feed the chickens.
When the Gestapo arrived Ciesielska told them in
German, 'Please be quiet, there is a dying woman
here.' The Germans took one look and left."
(Conscience & Courage)
Would you have had the creative mind to do what Ciesielska did?
Helmuth Hubener, LDS boy, aged 17 and youngest opponent of the Hitler regime, was executed (at the guillotine) for treason on October 27, 1942. His crime: speaking the truth. Three years earlier, he had started listening to the BBC Broadcast (illegally) and writing anti-Nazi pamphlets, which were eventually distributed to not only the surrounding towns of his hometown of Hamburg, but surrounding countries as well. His pamphlets were intended to prove how distorted the Nazi propaganda and other indoctrination proved to be. By the time he was arrested and executed, Helmuth had influenced hundreds, if not thousands of people, to disbelieve and separate themselves from Hitler's loyalty (all done in secret, of course). He lost all civil rights in prison, ie no bedding and minimal food.
Would you have had the courage to do what Helmuth did?
LEARNING FROM THE HOLOCAUST THROUGH THE LENS OF THE GOSPEL:
You are probably wondering how I can connect the Holocaust to the gospel. We can use the gospel in this context to learn how to treat people and not repeat our own or history's mistakes. If we act in the place of the Savior on behalf of our brothers and sisters, I highly doubt that we will be tempted to do what those did during this dark time period of history. I will always try to remember who I owe and act in accordance to that. I like the phrase, "Remember that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." Let's never suppress a generous impulse - or a righteous impulse. No matter how little or big our crimes are, we are all in need of mercy. Jesus atoned for all of our sins and I'm sure that He wept uncontrollably for those who committed these disgusting crimes. (I almost wept uncontrollably just writing out these graphic stories, especially the ones with the mothers....) We all have trials, some much more difficult than others. As we willingly submit our burdens to the Lord and place all that we have upon His altar, we will be blessed and have more faith to emulate His ways.
OTHER RESOURCES:
SHOAH Foundation (http://college.usc.edu/vhi/?gclid=CIqsipexgKECFRP_iAodXwQLzw)
Maus Comic Books (by Art Spiegelman)
Life is Beautiful (movie)
The War Against the Weak, by Edwin Black
Conscience & Courage by Eva Fogelman
The Nazi Years by Joachim Remak
The Nazi Years by Joachim Remak
That's such an interesting post Haley! I found it very educational and informative. Thanks for sharing your interests and passions. What a terrible thing that it was, and we can only hope that it is not allowed to happen again to any race. Love you!
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