Now 80 years after the end of World War II, Europe’s Jewish population has not yet recovered to pre-Holocaust numbers. The magnitude of the evil against the Jewish people cannot be exaggerated.
Unknown by most and forgotten by others is Holocaust Remembrance Day. On the Hebrew calendar Holocaust Remembrance Day was Monday, May 6, 2024. The date moves within a small window and corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The 2025 Remembrance is April 24. Earlier this morning, President Joe Biden delivered the keynote address in keeping with every president since 1993 when the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened.
The website for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is a fascinating collection of stories, photographs, videos, and online tools for learning what happened when Adolph Hitler and The Third Reich concocted The Final Solution which delivered to Europe the systematic murder of six million Jews. Now 80 years after the end of World War II, Europe’s Jewish population has not yet recovered to pre-Holocaust numbers. The magnitude of the evil against the Jewish people cannot be exaggerated. Genocide is the only appropriate description of what happened as many watched in horror but did not act.
One Family's Bravery
Brenda’s family acted. Her mother was a young girl at the time living in the east of The Netherlands near the German border. Her mother’s parents hid Jewish refugees in their home as Nazis patrolled the villages and countryside seeking whom they may devour. Brenda’s grandfather was sent to a work camp when the Nazis discovered her family was hiding Jews in their well.
Never Forget
Few of us can remember those days because most of us were not yet born. Those few still living were mere children when the world was on fire from 1933-1945. The Jewish hatred on display at the University of Minnesota and St. Olaf University is the local expression of what is happening on college campuses across the country. Those who remember wonder if the current generations know anything about the horrors at Auschwitz, Dachau, Flossenburg, Krakow, Neuengamme, Warsaw, or any of the 1,000 concentration camps erected for the purpose of eliminating Jews. Shockingly, there continues to be a growing populus that embraces Holocaust denial.
What Should Christians Remember?
Remember: the extreme darkness of the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9). The Bible makes no attempt to soften the human capacity to do evil both individually (Genesis 4:8) and nationally (Matthew 2:16). The reader cringes when reading the biblical accounts. We also cringe when we witness the darkness of the human heart in the present, but we should not be surprised. In God’s common grace he restrains some evil (2 Thessalonians 2:7). I shudder to imagine what we would do to each other if he did not.
Remember: human advancement cannot and will not solve the problem of the darkness resident in the human heart. In a 1997 speech about the Holocaust, Justice Antonin Scalia said, “The one message I want to convey today is that you will have missed the most frightening aspect of it all, if you do not appreciate that it happened in one of the most educated, most progressive, most cultured countries in the world.” The human heart cannot be improved; it must be reborn. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can do this.
Remember: the potential to do nothing in the face of evil. About danger or evil situations most say something like, “If I was in that situation, I would not let that happen.” I hope that’s true, but I do wonder if we would. God grant us grace to be as bold as lions when evil shows its ugly face.
Remember: the possibility to act courageously in the face of evil. It is not a mere literary device when the Bible describes Christians as soldiers fully armed for battle (Ephesians 6). Our Lord outfits with armament and deploys us into conflict to fight against evil emboldened by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
Remember: the sacrifices to liberate Jews and their supporters from concentration camps. Nearly 200,000 Americans were killed in the European Theatre. Those boots on the ground were there to stop Hitler and to free Jews and other captives. The price for liberty was the blood of the Allied Forces led by the men of the U.S. Army and its infantry divisions. Some gave all to free many.
Remember: Christians reject antisemitism in all its expressions. We follow a Jew. His name is Jesus. He comes from Nazareth in the north of Israel. Jewish religious leaders declared him a blasphemer and demanded his public execution. The occupying Roman authorities ordered his crucifixion, and Roman soldiers carried out the murder of our Lord (Acts 4:10; 7:52). This Jew rose from the dead and will return to his people and to his throne. We read a book written almost exclusively by Jews and order our lives around its teachings believing the book is the very Word of God. The book teaches us God loves the descendants of Abraham. He is their Father, and they are his sons and daughters. They belong to him, and he has brought us who follow Christ into their ranks as his children. We love those whom God loves and stand tall against all demonstrations of hatred toward Jews.
As always, thanks for reading, and I welcome your feedback and any suggestions you might have for an upcoming Lunchtime Musing.