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Christians Must Remember
the Holocaust!
A Plea from Christians . . .

Jews all over the world commemorated YOM HASHOAH, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on April 30th. But do Christians remember that insane night of death camps, gas chambers, crematoriums, smokestacks belching the horrible stench of burnt flesh...that sadistic night during which 6 million Jews were slaughtered?

The word "holocaust" primarily denotes a sacrificial offering that is wholly consumed by fire. Monstrously evil men contrived that diabolical Nazi ideology—the destruction of the Jewish people is a necessary sacrifice to solve the economic ills of Germany and Europe. This Jewish massacre was unprecedented in numbers and purpose. Though many other people were tragically affected, the Nazi "solution" was aimed at exterminating a particular family of man...a single bloodline, a single gene pool. It was genocide.

Why are many Christians uncomfortable that the Jewish community keeps insisting that we remember something that happened fifty years ago? Some Gentiles are so disconcerted that they are driven to rewrite history denying the holocaust ever happened. But their "revisionist facts" are exploded as fast as they are manufactured. Perhaps their own latent anti-Semitism motivates them to forget or deny the Holocaust. After all, who were the actors in that nefarious drama?

Who informed on their Jewish neighbors? Who charged into Jewish homes...knocked on false walls...dragged out terrified families? Who pulled the beards of old men...violated young Jewish women...demeaned poor bewildered souls in every conceivable way and herded them into cattle cars? Who stripped innocent crowds of their clothes and their dignity forced them naked into mass shower rooms and turned on the gas as pandemonium filled the rooms? Who ordered bodies to be stacked in huge pyres like cords of wood? Who fired the furnaces? Who were these predators of human life? For the most part they were professed Christians who celebrated Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. On Sunday they worshipped in cathedrals and churches. But during the week, they engaged in one of the most heinous crimes ever perpetrated against humanity. Christians must not forget the Holocaust—because Christians were there too.

The Holocaust is an indictment of so-called Christian Europe. Both Catholic and Protestant sociologists observed that the Nazi extermination of six million Jews was impossible without the active cooperation of the public. The suppressed Gentile anti-Semitism surfaced in that atmosphere of self-preservation. Although some Christians objected, thousands of professed Christians turned informant or cooperated in a thousand indirect or silent ways.

The Holocaust could have been stopped. Hitler could have been halted. Hitler would have been paralyzed if Catholics and Protestants refused to cooperate with the Nazis. Bible Students in Germany did refuse and suffered the consequences. Being a small minority, they ended up in prison or were put to death themselves.

"We must never forget," observed Christianity Today (March 9, 1992), "that anti-Semitism had its roots in the theology and practice of the Christian church, from the writings of the early Church Fathers [100-350 C.E.] through the Inquisition, even in the comments of Martin Luther." The Church Fathers taught that as "Christ killers," the Jews must be kept in degradation as living witness to the truth of Christianity. Also the Land of Israel, they felt, should be rendered a desert and the Jews forbidden to go to Jerusalem. This was confirmed by Saint Thomas Aquinas, the most authoritative thinker of the Roman Church. As a consequence, popes, cardinals, bishops and priests who initiated anti-Semitic acts saw themselves as carrying out Christian teaching.

Hitler told German Bishop Berning and Monsignor Steinman that he was merely going to do to the Jews "what the Church had done for 1,500 years." Hitler also took great satisfaction in quoting Martin Luther's vicious anti-Semitic statements.

Timed to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of Jews from Spain (April, 1992), the Swiss Catholics issued a nine-page declaration that said in part, "Through misguided preaching and catechisms, the church contributed to the creation of the climate that allowed the murderers of the Nazi regime to carry out their crimes against the Jews."

By 1942 leaders of the Christian West were well aware of the Holocaust. The Vatican was counting on the Nazis to defeat atheistic Communism, therefore, made no public outcry (La Popessa, Paul I. Murphy). The Protestant Churches were little better. Thank goodness, individual Christians did speak out. But where was the International Committee of the Red Cross that was supposedly investigating the Nazi concentration camps? Following a six-year study of 350,000 Red Cross documents, Swiss Professor Jean Claude Favez wrote in his book, Silent Witness, "The ICRC knew what was happening, that is quite clear. It did not dare confront the Germans." The ICRC in a statement to the Jerusalem Post (August 31, 1988) admitted that it could have saved more Jews from the Nazis.

The delayed condemnation and action of the British and U.S. governments was feeble indeed (The Abandonment of the Jews, David S. Wyman). Jews were being brought to death camps by train. The U.S. refused to target any railroad tracks leading to the death camps while carrying out bombing missions on nearby areas.

For several years U.S. newspapers hid the facts of the Holocaust by burying them in small vague articles in the back of the paper (Beyond Belief, the American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933-1945, Deborah Lipstadt).

After promising in 1917 to provide a national homeland for the Jews in Palestine, Britain in 1939 shut the doors of Palestine to Jewish immigration. Jewish refugees jammed on dilapidated ships were turned back to the death camps of Europe or perished at sea.

In 1938 four polls showed that up to 85% of the American public was opposed to increased immigration quotas which would have allowed Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany. On May 13, 1939, a refugee ship, The St. Louis, sailed from Europe with 937 Jews—destination Cuba. Arriving there, they were refused entry. For 36 days The St. Louis sailed to every port in the free world including the United States. No room was made for the Jews either in the United States or anywhere else in the free world. The ship was ordered back to Germany and the weary cargo to their doom in the death camps. The U.S. "Closed Door Policy" to the Jews remained essentially the same for the duration of WW II.

As incredible as it might sound, Nazi war criminal hunters and U.S. government officials claim that Vatican and International Red Cross representatives aided Nazis with documents—enabling them to escape to South America. Why? They hoped they would be useful in the future battle against Communism. (Department of State, Office of American Republic Affairs, July 14, 1947, Subject: "Illegal Emigration Movements in and Through Italy." The New York Times, Jan. 26, 1986, "Vatican Is Reported to Have Furnished Aid to Fleeing Nazis")

While immigration restrictions were keeping Jewish Holocaust survivors out of the U.S., Nazi war criminals were given entry in exchange for information on Communist activity in Eastern Europe (Nazi War Criminals in America: Facts and Action, Charles R. Allen: The News Tribune, May 13, 1987; The New York Times, Jan. 26, 1984). A Department of Justice 1983 report stated that Klause Barbie, Nazi war criminal, had been employed and protected by the U.S. intelligence agency.

The annual "Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents" in the U.S. for 1991 revealed an 11% increase over 1990. The nature of these incidents, furthermore, were more vicious than in the past. Anti-Semitism is increasing worldwide and is at its highest level since World War II.

Unfortunately, religious bigotry is the worst bigotry of all. Until the Christian churches modify their theology that makes the Jew an object of disdain and until they recognize that the Jewish people have a glorious Divine destiny separate and distinct from the Christian Church, anti-Semitism will continue to plague this nation.

The Bible Students' answer to "Holocaust Revisionists" is personal experience. Nine-tenths of our Bible Students in Germany were wiped out by the Nazis. The Holocaust did happen.

Bible Students urge our fellow Christians to remember that "he that toucheth you [Israel] toucheth the apple of his (The Almighty's) eye" (Zechariah 2:8). How can we as Christians forget God's unconditional promise to Abraham, "I will make of thee a great nation...And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:2,3).

To learn about Bible prophesy being fulfilled in Israel and our responsibility as Christians, read the online booklet: The Time to Favor Zion is Come.