3.08.2006
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Telling the story
Every once and again I come across a story that resonates with God's eternal mysteries. Case in point: the Holocaust. Which is being denied as having ever taken place by Islamists and others, primarily to forward their hatred of Jews.
I don't know why God would, at the same time, maintain His covenant with the Jews (which I believe He does) and yet subject them to the Holocaust. All I know for certain is that it did happen, and that it, among other things, led to the foundation of the modern state of Israel.
Well, as I wrote, I don't really know, and all I can do is accept God's will. One lesson is that the Holocaust stands as yet another reminder, as if one were really needed, of the fallen nature of mankind. Satan surely was in charge, acting through the Germans, Austrians, Poles, Ukrainians, and others who willingly went along with and enabled the mass slaughter.
Yet God also saves, and allowed some to survive so that they could tell the story of the horrors inflicted on God's people Israel. One such story, and an emotional reunion of one American soldier and the man he rescued, is here.
The man who was liberated is Lou Dunst, who related that he begged God: "Please let me live – if for nothing else than to tell my story." Lou Dunst is not alone; many others have survived, and, by the grace of God, told their story.
God listened to Lou Dunst. As for those millions who were killed, I pray that He received all the victims of the Holocaust and, as predicted in Revelation 7, they have been sealed in His glory.
I don't know why God would, at the same time, maintain His covenant with the Jews (which I believe He does) and yet subject them to the Holocaust. All I know for certain is that it did happen, and that it, among other things, led to the foundation of the modern state of Israel.
Well, as I wrote, I don't really know, and all I can do is accept God's will. One lesson is that the Holocaust stands as yet another reminder, as if one were really needed, of the fallen nature of mankind. Satan surely was in charge, acting through the Germans, Austrians, Poles, Ukrainians, and others who willingly went along with and enabled the mass slaughter.
Yet God also saves, and allowed some to survive so that they could tell the story of the horrors inflicted on God's people Israel. One such story, and an emotional reunion of one American soldier and the man he rescued, is here.
The man who was liberated is Lou Dunst, who related that he begged God: "Please let me live – if for nothing else than to tell my story." Lou Dunst is not alone; many others have survived, and, by the grace of God, told their story.
God listened to Lou Dunst. As for those millions who were killed, I pray that He received all the victims of the Holocaust and, as predicted in Revelation 7, they have been sealed in His glory.
posted by John Luke at 8:01 PM
Welcome. My name is John Luke Rich, (very) struggling Christian. The focus here is Christianity in its many varieties,
its fussing and feuding, how it impacts our lives and our society, with detours to consider it with other faiths (or lack thereof).
3 Comments:
6 million Poles were slaughtered by Nazi Germany: 3 million Christian Poles and 3 million Jewish Poles. That doesn’t even count the Jewish and Christian Poles who were simultaneously slaughtered by the Soviets.
Ever wonder why so many Jewish people choose to reside in Poland? It is because Poland offered a safe haven for Jews while the rest of Europe persecuted them. That for some 800 years.
Poland was the only country in which the Nazi German penalty for helping a Jewish person was immediate death. The Poles have the largest number of persons noted as righteous gentiles at Yad Vashem. Poland was the country that brought the Holocaust to Roosevelt's and Churchill’s attention - and they choose to do nothing about it.
I would hope you would research your history a little better...
Poles anti-Semites? In the past, yes, generally.
The proof for me includes the almost total lack of support from the partisans for the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto. Which raises this question: if the Poles were so enlightened, why, in the mid-twentieth century, were there Jewish ghettoes to begin with?
I don't single out the Poles and certainly not all Poles. Except for this: My "research" includes my family history. I was born Jewish, and my mother's people were from Lodz, Poland. The Poles may have been hospitable to a point, but they also included some of the worst anti-Semites on the planet. Jews in Poland lived apart. They tended not to assimilate, for good reason, in marked contrast to our experience in Germany.
As for those "righteous gentiles", there are the righteous among any group. Proves nothing.
My post could have included all of fallen mankind, since those who believe that such persecution was only possible in Europe haven't read their Scripture -- None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God (Romans 3:10-11).
As for the notion that Roosevelt and Churchill chose to do nothing, that was wrong, but hardly unexpected from Roosevelt. As for Churchill, well, England had never really welcomed the Jews to begin with. And formally expelled them more than once.
In regard to ghettos, they were established by the Germans. See Establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto from the Jewish Virtual Library - resourced based on Yad Vashem.
In the countryside gentiles and Jews tended to live apart. Jews generally in Shetels. They did however interact and trade.
The disintergration of Polish-Jewish relationships had a lot to do with the Russification and Germanification that took place during the partitions of Poland. Lodz was particularly German.
Generally those who subject others set people against eachother in order to maintain control (Austria-Hungary, was famous for this).
You might also wish to research the Polish Underground's 'Zgoda' organization which was specically charged with providing assistance to the Jewish populace/resistance.
You paint with an awfully broad brush. You say you don't single out Poles, but there they are right out in front with the Germans and Austrians. I do not believe it is historically accurate or warranted.
I am pretty certain you could find some of the worst anti-Semites right here in the good 'ole U.S.A., just as anywhere else - as you say. It's sad and unfortunate and must be challenged - just as we challange that thinking in Islam.
By redirecting focus we tend to miss the source of evil - as many did before WW II so too today.
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