<\/p>\n
When I was a teacher, one of my favorite units was exploring the impact of world events like the Holocaust and the Russian Revolution on history. Every year, students would receive an identification card and trace that individual through the course of the atrocities that occurred in Auschwitz. Though it\u2019s been nearly two years since I stopped teaching, I hold those lessons near and dear to my heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This past weekend, my husband and I had an opportunity to visit the Auschwitz exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum. From the moment we set foot into the crowded rooms, the weight of memories, silence, and testimonies filled the air. Every wall recorded mass extermination and Germany\u2019s takeover. TV screens blared videos of survivors and victims alike. People around me shook their heads, blew their noses, and wiped away tears\u2014some, viewing the brutalities for the first time. Because one thing was evident inside the walls of this museum: this experience wasn\u2019t just historical, it was deeply spiritual.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Especially for people of faith, remembering events like the Holocaust matters for a variety of reasons. First, there is an immense danger when we become removed from history. Not only do we quickly and easily forget, but we also lose empathy, insight, and overall awareness. In one of the survivor accounts, a thin man noted that people had already begun saying the entire event never happened. It was propaganda or an event \u201cimagined.\u201d Despite hard facts and evidence, even the Nazi\u2019s themselves tried to go along with this theory despite being the ones to cause harm. Shortly after the Allied forces liberated the concentration and extermination camps, the Nazi\u2019s tried to burn evidence of the events that had occurred. But it was too late and nearly impossible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While the conclusion of WWII in 1945 freed the remaining prisoners, it didn\u2019t undo the damage that had already taken place. Survivors will tell you that the \u201cnever again\u201d mantra isn\u2019t just a happy slogan, but a moral responsibility. And the minute we forget these events really happened, the easier it will be for something like this to happen again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the poem “First They Came,” by Pastor Martin Niem\u00f6ller, Niem\u00f6ller explains what happens when groups of people divide themselves along lines of gender, race, or religion. If we only care about people like us, what will happen when no one like us remains? The short poem reads this way:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFirst, they came for the Communists<\/span><\/p>\n And I did not speak out<\/span><\/p>\n Because I was not a Communist<\/span><\/p>\n Then they came for the Socialists<\/span><\/p>\n And I did not speak out<\/span><\/p>\n Because I was not a Socialist<\/span><\/p>\n Then they came for the trade unionists<\/span><\/p>\n And I did not speak out<\/span><\/p>\n Because I was not a trade unionist<\/span><\/p>\n Then they came for the Jews<\/span><\/p>\n And I did not speak out<\/span><\/p>\n Because I was not a Jew<\/span><\/p>\n Then they came for me<\/span><\/p>\n And there was no one left<\/span><\/p>\n To speak out for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When we forget, ignore, or become naive to events like these in history, we produce fertile ground for repetition. If we forget what has happened, not only are these events likely to happen again, but everything that victims before us have endured goes down in vain. It can also significantly distort our views of God and His people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of the biggest questions God\u2019s people have in light of events like these is, “Where was God?” Second, where were His people? And third, why did He allow all this to happen?<\/span><\/p>\n I won\u2019t pretend to have all the answers to these questions. I don\u2019t always understand why good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people. Why are babies dashed upon rocks? Why are individuals tortured? Why do crime rates continue to increase?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But what I do know is that we live in a fallen and broken world, and this place isn\u2019t our home. That doesn\u2019t make the suffering and horrible events easier to understand or navigate, but it does remind us that this isn\u2019t God\u2019s plan for His people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In his memoir Night, Eli Wiesel notes that upon seeing and living through the treacherous events of the Holocaust, a still small voice rang out from within his spirit: \u201cWhere is He? (Where is God?) Here he is\u2014He is hanging here on this gallows.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While I can\u2019t fathom that kind of faith, people like Wiesel remind me that human evil will continue to exist, but God\u2019s presence is with and within us even when we can\u2019t fathom understanding suffering. God grieves with His people, and He\u2019s not absent. But it\u2019s okay not to know why these things happened in the first place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Though many years have passed since the horrible events of concentration camps and mass killings took place, the Bible reminds us to remember things like these as lessons and warnings. For example, in the book of Deuteronomy, God\u2019s people were called to remember His faithfulness despite the calamity they endured. In the Psalms, we\u2019re shown it\u2019s okay to lament. Even Jesus told His Disciples to take communion in remembrance of Him. Because remembering changes us. But silence stifles the impact.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today, you and I have a choice to remember events so that they do not happen again. This is an immense choice between courage and comfort. But slow erosion allows injustice. We\u2019re called to quiet obedience, not quiet fear. And as Christians, this means guarding against the dehumanization of all people. It means loving all people, especially those who look or believe differently from you. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Remembering as a spiritual practice means paying attention to issues such as language, power, and exclusion. It\u2019s standing up for orphans, widows, and those being abused or marginalized. It\u2019s choosing conscience over convenience, and not being afraid to help those in dire need.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While we pray that events like the Holocaust never happen again, I want to leave you with a quote from the museum that will never leave me:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou who are passing by. I beg you. Do something. Learn a dance step. Something to justify your existence. Something that gives you the right to be dressed in your skin, in your body hair. Learn to walk and to laugh. Because it would be too senseless after all for so many to have died while you live doing nothing with your life\u201d (Excerpt from A Prayer to the Living to Forgive them for Being Alive, 1971, Charlotte Delbo, Auschwitz Survivor).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As you read this post, you probably still have many questions about the Holocaust, Hitler, and why this suffering took place. I know my students always did at the end of our unit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But hold onto those inquiries and let them lead you. Feel the emotions. Take time to process them and learn from them. Share how you\u2019re feeling. But allow those things to shape how you live now. Research. Dig deep. Read all the books and autobiographies you can. Try to understand what you can. Rest in what you can\u2019t.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Faith that remembers, resists, and responds is essential. Remember these events. Resist anything that even remotely portrays its existence in our world today. Respond with truth and justice as Jesus would. Use your memory as discipleship. Choose vigilance, compassion, and courage. Then, live with a faith that doesn\u2019t look away, even when the world tries to remain silent.<\/span><\/p>\n Photo credit: \u00a9Getty Images\/Carsten Koall\/Stringer<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Amber Ginter<\/strong> is a teacher-turned-author who loves Jesus, her husband Ben, and granola. Growing up Amber looked for faith and mental health resources and found none. Today, she offers hope for young Christians struggling with mental illness that goes beyond simply reading your Bible and praying more. Because you can love Jesus and still suffer from anxiety. You can download her top faith and mental health resources for\u00a0free to help navigate books, podcasts, videos, and influencers from a faith lens perspective. Visit her website at\u00a0amberginter.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I was a teacher, one of my favorite units was exploring the impact of world events like the Holocaust and the Russian Revolution on history. Every year, students would receive an identification card and trace that individual through the course of the atrocities that occurred in Auschwitz. Though it\u2019s been nearly two years since<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5289,3065,348,2568],"class_list":{"0":"post-16867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-auschwitz","9":"tag-courage","10":"tag-faith","11":"tag-taught"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why Remembering Matters<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
The Faith Tension:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Where Was God and Where Were People?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Remembering As a Spiritual Practice<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Leaving with Questions<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n