Pope Francis touches the death wall at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, Poland. Photo: CNS/Paul Haring. On January 27 last, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was marked on Holocaust Memorial Day. It is a sombre annual commemoration that recalls one of the darkest periods of human history. Almost every year, the calls of ‘Never Again’ are made in speeches by political leaders and survivors. However, mature leadership must also ask the reasons why – why did the holocaust happen and what was the thinking behind the Nazi regime that gave us Auschwitz as a permanent reminder of man’s inhumanity to man?
Underpinning Nazi atrocities was an ideology where self-determination is absolute and can justify anything. Nazi ideology is a classic example from history of the human tendency to usurp the place of God as the ultimate arbitrator of what is good and what is right, what is right and what is wrong. For the Nazi mindset, nothing was off limits once it was done in the name of German interest. And all those who resisted their ideology or begged to differ were crushed or eliminated. Might was always right. And once you were powerful enough, you were not accountable to anyone. Human rights were not acknowledged but conferred by those who had that power. There was no such thing as innate human rights, human dignity or compassion. In Auschwitz, only those who were useful to the Nazis were allowed to live. The sick, the weak, the disabled and millions more were sent to the gas chambers.
For all this to happen, God and any external moral obligations needed to be eliminated. In the words of GK Chesterton (1874-1936): “Once you abolish God, the government becomes God”. Here is the ideology that allowed horrific crimes and human rights abuses to happen in Auschwitz and beyond.
Does this philosophy that underpinned German National Socialism in the 20th century still exist today? Undoubtedly the answer is ‘yes’. Does it have the potential to cause harm today as it did over 80 years ago? Absolutely, because any nation that dispenses with accountability and decides for itself what is right and what is wrong, who lives and who dies, who has rights and who doesn’t, is a nation that not only poses danger to its own citizens but others as well.
Reflecting on the Communist regime in Russia in the last century, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, famously said: “People have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened” (Templeton Address, 1983).
Ideas have consequences. They lead somewhere and express themselves in concrete actions, good or bad. The Nazis removed the idea of a Creator God as a preamble to committing the most appalling crimes against humanity. And once God was eliminated, human rights lost their foundation and all was permitted. As we mark the 80th anniversary of the holocaust, let us not confine ourselves to emotional revulsion at what happened at Auschwitz but become less naïve about what happens when human beings remove God and play God instead.
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Divine humour
A man with a fondness for the drink found himself with no money and decided to enter a Church to pray in desperation. “Lord,” he said, “How much is a thousand Euros in your eyes?” The Lord replied: “Very little. It’s like fifty cents.” The man thought about this for a while and said: “And how much is a year for you?” The Lord replied: “Very little. It’s like five minutes.” Then the man decided to be brave in his request: “Lord, can I have fifty cents?” The Lord replied: “Can you wait five minutes?”
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Wisdom from Newman
St John Henry Newman left behind a treasure trove of wisdom that just keeps on giving. Recently, I came across a wonderful insight that every priest, teacher and catechist must heed. In An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent he wrote: “If the preacher has never really suffered in his life, he will almost inevitably preach superficial sermons, using the Word of God for his own purposes…But let his heart at length be ploughed by some keen grief or deep anxiety and Scripture is a new book to him.” Wise words indeed as we approach the anniversary of his birth (February 21).