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It is unlikely that you missed the day of remembrance in January. The UK
media certainly drew attention to The
Holocaust.
The Holocaust is the period from January 30th 1933
when Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, to May 8th
1945, when the European sector of World War II ended. During that period
Hitler’s Nazis carried out his policy of systematic genocide, attempting
to secure a German race of ‘pure Arian stock’. This led to the
elimination of six million Jews and probably around five million Gypsies,
Serbs, Polish intelligentsia, resistance fighters, homosexuals, Jehovah
Witnesses, habitual criminals, beggars, vagrants and hawkers.
But that was
over half a century ago. Few still live who survived the German death
camps. Do we need to revive the memories of the terrible conditions and
brutalities that killed 11,000,000 people? Remembering such vicious,
indescribable evil only causes new revulsion, even hatred, to fester
within us.
Dwelling on vileness contaminates our attempts to foster international
relations. Indeed, some ask if anything in today’s world could approach
Hitler’s Final Solution of the Jewish Problem.
I
want to suggest that every time I turn my back on someone, every
time I ‘cut someone off’, every time I refuse to befriend someone,
to help them, to enter into conversation with them, I take the first step
in that Nazi process of ‘purification’. I am saying they are not good
enough . . .
Jesus
countenances no justification for such behaviour – He says:
I tell you who hear me:
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
Luke 627-28 NIV
(These are those who set themselves against me).
If I’m to love those who set themselves against me
how much the more must I love all others? |