Radical Sabbatical - Day 3

Saturday, Jan 5, 2013

Saturday was our day to “wander all over downtown DC” day.  Our first stop was the US Holocaust Museum.  My son Chandler and I had visited the Dachau concentration camp several years ago, but this was my first visit to one of the several museums.  It was a sobering experience.  The tour took us through pre-war Germany, the conditions that ushered Hitler into power, and then stepped us through the sequence of events that led up to the “final solution.”  Tammy and I took away several things from the experience.

First was an eerie parallel to the times we are in today.  Economic hardship, a dysfunctional government, general disillusionment of the people, which led to an opportunity for a leader, namely Hitler, to set up a “straw man” enemy, someone that the Germans could blame their problems on; the Jews. (sound familiar?).  The parties of the Parliament weren’t able to find consensus on any matter, so Hindenburg had to rule by presidential decree. All of this created a situation where the people longed for a leader that would be able to get things done, even if it cost them a little freedom.

Second was the cold hard fact that mankind is capable of committing terrible evil, and I’m not just referring to Hitler and his top commanders.  There were thousands of people who joined in with the Nazi regime to kill not only Jews, but anyone they deemed “unfit.”  The Nazi’s organized “mobile killing squads” that roamed the towns of the newly conquered countries, rounded up people by the thousands, led them outside of the towns, then killed them. These mass killings required great manpower to gather people, corral them, shoot them, and then dispose of the bodies.  I had to stop and wonder, how was it that regular everyday people could take part in such things?

The third takeaway was the response of the church.  Churches throughout Europe were mostly silent while Jews were persecuted, deported and murdered. In Nazi Germany in September 1935, there were a few Christians in the Protestant Confessing Church who demanded that their Church take a public stand in defense of the Jews. Their efforts, however, were overruled by church leaders who wanted to avoid any conflict with the Nazi regime.  I think this quote from Rev. Martin Niemoller sums it up well:

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me."

- Rev. Martin Niemoller in 1946

The most riveting exhibit in the entire museum was the collection of the victims shoes.  I suppose when you murder millions of people, you end up with millions of articles of clothing, glasses, and other personal belongings.  What to do with all those shoes?  When the death camps were liberated, the Allied forces discovered huge piles of shoes, millions of shoes.  Shoes packed in rail cars, shoes piled in warehouses. Some of these shoes have been placed into the Holocaust Museum.  It was hard to look down at those shoes, and consider that each pair of shoes belonged to someone who was put to death simply because they didn't fit the mold of the Nazi society.

At the end of the tour Tammy and sat and prayed for God to forgive us as a race for the horrible things we have done.

Oh, one last observation:  For the entire four hours we spend in the museum, no one uttered a single word.  Not one word.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” - Edmund Burke 

Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. – James 4:17

Pastor Clay & Tammy