Common Sense Reborn

Remembering Auschwitz Part 4-A Final Note

(Auschwitz) had never seen a killing spree like it, with over 320,000 murdered in less than eight weeks; indeed, for sustained killing within the Nazi state the only comparable event was the scale of the initial murders in Treblinka, which resulted in the sacking of Dr. Eberl. (Auschwitz: A New History, 2005. Rees, Laurence; pg 287-288.)

For those who have found interest in what I have been sharing from the book Auschwitz: A New History, I regret to say that this will be my last entry on this subject. With Palm Sunday approaching in three days, I will be shifting my focus to concentrate on the New Testaments documentation of Holy Week. I was also given a surprising experience this last weekend: I was asked to accompany a soldier for a trip to Berlin Airport to pick up another soldier returning from a mission in Lithuania.

After visiting Auschwitz and reading this book, I have had a hard time simply forgiving the Germans for something that happened in the not so distant past. Most of the atrocities that were revealed in the book are some of the most vile acts ever inflicted on human beings. The heinous practice of gassing men, women, and children were the more humane ways the Nazi’s murdered the 1.1 million people who were deported to Auschwitz. I do realize that not all Germans were aware of the evils that the Nazis in the concentration camps were committing, and, perhaps if they had, they would not have supported such a corrupt regime. I also know it is wrong to judge the current generations of Germans for what their grandparents had been part of. But this book had put a very foul taste in my mouth for anything to do with Germany.

So being asked to go to Berlin was intriguing, mostly because I wanted to see where it had all ended. But Berlin was nothing like I expected. It was actually a beautiful, bustling city.

We arrived late in the afternoon and only had three hours to explore before the flight we were waiting for was scheduled to land. After fighting rush hour traffic, we found a place to park near the Brandenburg Gate, as this was one sight we wished to see up close. But before we headed to the gate, we swung by an impressive military monument.

The Soviet Memorial in the Tiergarten paid tribute to the Red Army for liberating Germany of the Nazi regime. The Red Army would build this memorial soon after they took over Germany. History would teach us how the Soviets would quickly go from liberators to occupiers as they divided Germany in two, with the Berlin Wall eventually running through the heart of the city.

Standing at the Wall was a surreal moment as I still remember watching the Wall fall in 1989 as a eight-year-old kid in America, and President Ronald Reagan’s famous words to President Gorbachev, to “tear down this wall!”

And within all the sites that are to see in the now thriving German capital, I insisted that we visit the “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe”. This was a strange, 2,711 concrete pillar display set up in symmetrical placement meant to create a “place of contemplation, a place of remembrance and warning”. Unfortunately, we arrived too late to gain entry to the actual memorial museum below the labyrinth of concrete pillars.

What Germany has become now is a shining example of what a democratic state can achieve through peace. I am sure their country has it’s faults still, and they will constantly struggle to shake the haunted past they created, but Berlin, (if you can push aside the thoughts of human genocide) is quite a lovely city. It should stand as a testament to Russia what they could too achieve if they laid down their arms and focused on repairing the damage they have caused in the world.

While Berlin had many gorgeous historical buildings, museums, and churches, the most inspiring building was the “New Synagogue”, which I was surprised to learn was not destroyed by the Nazi’s. This beauty was not even on our lists but we just happened by it. It was final proof that current conflicts are just temporary. The world was at the brink of destruction during World War II, but the good guys prevailed, the bad guys were defeated, and God was glorified in the midst of humanities worse moments.

While we seem to be inching toward another large scale global conflict, just take heart and know that Jesus conquered the world. He is the only path to eternal salvation, and eternity out lasts all the world’s most fantastic historical wanders and locations. Find peace in the blessed assurance of Christ that no matter how bad it gets here on Earth, Earth is not our home. Heaven is, and live your life so that’s exactly where you’ll be spending the rest of your existence.