Auschwitz: 60 Years Later

The past few weeks I have thought a lot about the Nazi extermination of the Jews in Europe. It was prompted by a book sent to me, on my request, from a former pastor of my childhood church in the Cave Hills of South Dakota. I had previously read Pastor Wayne's book of his childhood and life, and one he translated into English from Finnish written by his father. Now I have the one written by his wife. All are great treasures and I appreciate reading and re-reading them.

"In the Shadow of the Swastika" tells of young Erika, and opens this way: "Located on both sides of the Elbe River, Dresden is the capitol of the Free-State of Saxony, a province of Germany. It was a city of rare beauty whose buildings in rococo and baroque style had won world renown. Nightly performances were the rule both at the large playhouse and at the opera with its exquisite building. There were parks and fountains, a zoo, and a circus as well as many very beautiful castles. The collections in the museums were breath-taking. Truly, Dresden was a city of art and culture. this is where I was born on June 1, 1927,...."

Erika's father was Jewish. The reading of it gripped me with dread and fear. How beautifully this tragic event was written. "Hitler's ascendancy to the chancellorship affected people I cared about, and I mourned theloss of these friends for years. However, I could never tell anyone how I felt." Her memory for events, places and individuals is remarkable.

Simultaneously, PBS ran a six hour series on Auschwitz. It was doubly horrifying. Sometimes it was so difficult to absorb, I had to tape the second hour of the presentation to watch a different day.

February 4th was the birthday of one of my heroes, Diedrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian in Germany who took part in the plots being planned to assassinate Hitler. He was arrested, imprisioned, and eventually hanged following the failure of the assissination attempt. Prior to his imprisonment he was involved, with others, in setting up the Confessing Church, an underground group opposing the Nazis. Many of these leaders were sent to internment camps.