" I believe in the Sun, even when it is not shining, in Love, even when I am alone, and in God, even when He is silent." [ Found scratched into a wall in Germany by someone hiding from Nazi concentration camps.]
The night of November 9- 10 is the commemoration of Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass". On that night, throughout Germany, the Nazi paramilitary, as well as German citizens, shattered glass in Jewish-owned stores, buildings and synagogues. More than 1,000 synagogues were destroyed, and 30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps. Scores of Jewish people were killed.
Kristallnacht was the prelude to Hitler's fiendish "Final Solution", during which millions of Jews were systematically exterminated throughout Europe.
In his book, "Ordinary Men, Reserve Police Battalion 101 and The Final Solution in Poland", Christopher Browning [ (c) 1992, 1998] states that between mid-March 1942 and mid-February 1943, 75%- 80 % of all Holocaust victims were killed in a massive offensive by Germany. And so, in a roughly one year period, The Final Solution was methodically carried out. This was no accidental circumstance of war; this was premeditated, meticulously planned-- and yes, it was Evil.
There are those who would claim that Evil does not exist and that the Holocaust never happened! I call these "The Deniers". And yet, in opposition to this denial, stands Christopher Browning's book, a detailed and thorough examination of indictments, pre-trial interrogations and perpetrators' testimonies from court cases against The Reserve Police Battalion 101 in Poland . The data, the history based on actual trial documents, the relentless chronicling of the numbers of victims, the locations, the methods, all set forth in this treatise -- add up to a brilliant, but disturbing portrait of a society gone mad.
I have to say that there is something about the human psyche that cannot admit that Evil exists, or that wants to explain it away. 'Well. . . . it was the Nazis who carried this out.'. . .'Well. . . . it was a different time.'. . . . 'Well. . . . Hitler was abused as a child, what do you expect?!' These are the Apologists.
I do not WANT a world where Evil exists. I do not want to see it, admit it, chronicle it. I want to look away!. . . And yet, Evil is real. We ignore it at our peril.
The most disturbing and condemning piece of the book is the assertion that those who carried out the Holocaust were "ordinary men". They were working class and lower middle class men from Hamburg, not "hardened Nazis". They had been drafted, not into Hitler's Army, but into the Order Police. AND they were regularly given the opportunity to refuse to shoot Jews!
Given that Evil is real, and that The Holocaust was largely carried out by "ordinary men", can such an atrocity happen again?
I recently had the honor of attending a series of lectures given by Avinoam J. Patt, PHd., the Philip D. Feltman Professor of Modern Jewish History at the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, University of Hartford. Professor Patt cited two experiments conducted since The Holocaust. One experiment, the Milgram Study conducted in the 1960's showed random volunteers willing to administer severe electric shocks to volunteeer "victims". Another experiment, the Zimbardo Stanford Prison Experiment, 1971, showed the shocking violence that ensued when
student volunteers assumed roles as prisoners and prison wardens, in a mock prison built in the basement of the Psychology Building. The Zimbardo Experiment, which was supposed to last two weeks, had to end early because of the violence. The devastating conclusion from Professor Patt's lecture: "Evil is a behavior of choice"!
Do you think that a series of events as degrading and shocking as The Holocaust cannot happen again? Think of Abu Ghraib and the abuse of prisoners there. Think of the My Lai Massacre. Think of The Kmer Rouge atrocities in Cambodia. Or the slaughters in Rwanda.
Now, why would a young, articulate, tech savvy professor such as Professor Avi Patt spend his life's work on The Holocaust? Isn't that a grisly and deeply depressing subject?
Because The Holocaust was not just an aberration of history. It can happen again! Because Evil can be carried out by ordinary men (and women). And because it can be prevented!
I wish and pray that all the adults in the world insist upon tolerance for those who differ from themselves. I pray for a world where all the barriers between us are broken and we can see each other as truly human, not as less than human, or as The Other. I pray that we teach our children to think for themselves and to really analyze what is happening, and what they are asked to do, before they act. I pray that we teach our children to choose love, and to see that Good CAN triumph over Evil. I pray that we come to cherish those small acts of kindness that can swell into a world-wide outpouring of Love. I pray that Evil, if it does begin to rear its ugly head, is swiftly squelched. I pray that love for our fellow man in this world becomes something far greater, and more valued, than greed for material things, or than for power or might.
At the end of his lectures, Professor Patt quoted the Talmud: 'He who saves one life, it is as if he has saved the world entire.'
[Related Posting, "Healing Gifts", May 23, 2012].
(c) The Spiritual Devotional 2012. All Rights Reserved.
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