When man forgets: Remembering the Holocaust

Multi-awarded American novelist and essayist William Clark Styron, Jr. (1925-2006) asked: “Question: At Auschwitz, tell me, where was God?... Answer: Where was man?” The Holocaust (or Shoah) is so immense that it cannot be readily grasped in just an instance. It was a Nazi event of discrimination, expropriation, concentration, deportation and death of mostly Jews and others such as gypsies, ethnic Poles, Slavs, homosexuals, the physically and mentally disabled, and political detainees that gradually progressed between 1933 and 1945. It began with discrimination; then the Jews were separated from their communities and persecuted; and finally, they were treated as less than human beings and murdered. To describe it as inhumane is an understatement. It is beyond words… even unimaginable. Man, who is an "outstanding manifestation of the divine image" (GS 17), lost his humanity. Endowed with a spiritual soul, with intellect and with free will, the human person is from his very conception ordered to God and destined for eternal beatitude. He pursues his perfection in "seeking and loving what is true and good" (GS 15, §2). Therefore, the question, or rather the answer, is valid: “Where was man in Auschwitz?”

Michael Berenbaum, PhD of the American Jewish University admitted the impact of the Holocaust in our present time: “How do we make the Holocaust relevant in the 21^st Century?... It would be my deepest dream that the Holocaust is irrelevant.” How can a group of people be so abhorred and be regarded as so treacherous for who they were that one had to come to the conclusion that they had to be exterminated from the face of the earth? Probably, this could only be answered by the Führer of Nazi Germany himself; however, to think like this is different from actually executing it: the former requires deep-seated hatred while the latter defies the very nature of man as imago Dei (cf. CCC 355).

In search for man in one of the darkest moments of history, we turn our eyes to those who remained human by risking their lives and expressing charity amidst the atrocities. Irena Sendler (1910-2008) was a catholic polish nurse who used her position as a social worker to enter the Warsaw ghetto, smuggling approximately 2,500 Jewish children out in boxes, suitcases, trash cans, trolleys, tool chests, supply boxes, ambulances and even coffins. The children were then placed in convents or with Catholic families and were given new identities, saving them from certain death.[1]

Oskar Schindler (1908-1974) was a catholic German industrialist and member of the Nazi Party who is credited for saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunition factories. Though classified as an armaments factory, it only produced a wagonload of ammunition in the first 8 months of its operation. By presenting fictitious production figures, Schindler justified the existence of the sub-camp as an armaments factory to save the Jews as much as he can even to the point of bankruptcy.[2] Schindler died in Germany, destitute and almost unknown, in October 1974. However, many survivors supported and honored him and financed the transfer of his body for burial in Israel.

At the outset of the Holocaust, Popes Pius XI (1857-1939) and Pius XII (1876-1958) preached against racism and war in encyclicals such as Mit Brennender Sorge[3] (1937) and Summi Pontificatus[4] (1939) respectively. Pius XI condemned the Kristallnacht[5] and rejected the Nazi claim of racial superiority, saying instead there is only "a single human race" (MBS, no. 11). His successor Pius XII[6] employed cautious diplomacy to help the Jews, and directed the Church to provide discreet aid. Such strategy was heavily criticized; however, in his 1942 Christmas radio address, he denounced the murder of "hundreds of thousands" of innocent people on the basis of "nationality or race" and he intervened to attempt to block Nazi deportations of Jews in various countries. When the Nazis came for Italy's Jews, some 4,715 of the 5,715 Jews of Rome found shelter in 150 Church institutions—477 in the Vatican itself and he opened Castel Gandolfo, which took in thousands. There is still a great number of persons, whether recognized as Righteous among the Nations[7] or not, who restored the faith in the innate goodness of humankind: diplomats who issued visas to help Jews flee Nazi-occupied territories; common people who helped the Jews who were hiding; those who helped them escape from the trains to the death camps; those who provided food, shelter, medicine, even information; and the list of unsung heroes go on.

St. Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941), a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar. During WWII, he provided shelter for the people of Poland, including 2,000 Jews. He was a radio commentator who was famous for his anti-Nazi remarks. In 1941, he was arrested and entered Auschwitz as prisoner #16670. He volunteered to be starved to death in an underground bunker to deter further escape attempts in place of Franciszek Gajowniczek (1901-1995), who was present in both the beatification (1971) and canonization (1982) rites.

We are looking for man during the Holocaust, and we have found them. They may be outnumbered by the Nazis but they were there! The Holocaust was an extremely dark phase of human history but these people stood up as beacons of light. The 21st-century man should never allow this to happen again. This happens when man forgets his humanity, when man forgets that he is an image of God.

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[1] Baczynska, Gabriela (12 May 2008). Jon Boyle, ed. "Sendler, Savior of Warsaw Ghetto children, dies". Reuters. Retrieved 13 December 2016.

[2] Further Reading: David M. Crowe, Oskar Schindler: The Untold Account of his Life, Wartime Activities, and the True Story Behind the List (Cambridge, MA: Westview Press, 2004).

[3] Translated as "with Burning Concern"; It is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI on the Church and the German Reich to the venerable brethren: the Archbishops and Bishops of Germany and other ordinaries in peace and communion with the Apostolic See (1937).

[4] Encyclical of Pope Pius XII on the Unity of Human Society to our venerable brethren: the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other Ordinaries in peace and communion with the Apostolic See (1939).

[5] Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass" was a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on 9-10 November 1938.

[6] cf. Commission on Religious Relations with the Jews, We Remember: Reflections on the Shoah (1988), no. 4. See also: Marchione, Sr. Margherita, "Continuing the Battle to Restore the Truth about Pope Pius XII’s Efforts on behalf of the Jews during World War II: The Campaign to have him Recognized at Vad Vashem" in The Catholic Social Science Review, 12 (2007): 477-497.

[7] Righteous among the Nations is an esteemed title provided by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis.