Over six million European Jews were killed in the Holocaust of the World War II that ended in 1945. This genocide was implemented to an extraordinary scale by the Nazis, who considered the Jews as “parasitic vermin” that deserved to be eradicated. All the Jews in Europe were sentenced to destruction regardless of their condition: the healthy and the sick, the rich and the poor, the aged and the young, converts to Christianity and the religiously orthodox, even infants. At this point, the fate of the Jews was mainly dependent on the Christians who had the choice to hide the Jews from the Nazis or not. Prior to the Holocaust, the Jews and the Christians had not had a smooth relationship, and this was mainly because Christians believed that the Jews were responsible for the murder of Christ. There were extensive discrimination and prejudice directed against the Jews (anti-Semitism) since the 19 th century. The Christians should have let go of their generalized stereotypes against the Jews and hide them from the Nazi authorities to prevent them from being sent to concentration camps ( Dietrich, 2017).
The Situation Prior to the Holocaust
While Anti-Semitism reached its peak during the Nazi era, it began in the early 19 th century. It is during the Nazi era that the racially based hatred of the Jews that was rooted in dark conspiracies regarding the Jewish power climaxed in the killing of up to six million European Jews. It is believed that the roots of anti-Semitism can be traced to the rise of Christianity, and the claim that it is the Jews that killed Jesus – a view that remained a Catholic doctrine till 1965. For many years, most of the history’s oft-quoted and prominent Christian thinkers including Thomas Aquinas, Saint Augustine, and Martin Luther wrote about these anti-Jewish ideas. The situation was so bad during the Middle Ages that pronunciations were made barring the Jews from owning land, citizenship, joining professional guilds, marrying Christians, and serving in the government. There were several stereotypes regarding the Jews that emerged during this period, and these include the myth that Jews have horns and that they are greedy money grubbers as portrayed by Shakespeare in his character of Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice.” A myth was upheld that Jews engaged in ritual murder, and this led to blood libel, which was a claim that Jews used the blood of Christian children to make the Passover matzah ( Pinnock, 2012).
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The Holocaust
World War II started in September 1939, and there were about 1.6 million Jewish children living in the German army territories at the time. The war in Europe came to an end in May 1945, and 1.5 million Jewish children were dead by this time. The Nazi persecution against the Jews started in Germany in 1933 and by 1939, the Jews had been completely deprived of their property and civil rights in the country, and they were ostracized from the country. After 1939, the German conquests in Europe resulted in the implementation of anti-Semitic policies in all the occupied territories. The severity and pace of persecution differed from one country to the next. However, one thing remained the same: all the Jews were marked, maligned, and separated from their neighbors ( Neuborne, 2002) .
Effects of the Holocaust
The Jews in Eastern Europe were isolated by the Nazis in ghettos, which were often established in the most uninhabited sections of a town or city. The internment camps in Western Europe were mainly set up earlier to house enemy aliens and refugees, and these ended up being used as the detention centers for the Jews. Such policies acted as the guides for the Nazis when they started mass shootings of the Jews and deportations to the killing centers. In 1941, Hitler made the decision to execute the systematic mass murder of all the Jews in Germany. The mobile killing squads followed the German army into the Soviet Union in 1941, and by the end of the year, they had killed over one million Jewish children, men, and women. In the year that followed, the Nazis created five more death camps that would be used for the execution of the Jews in Europe. All the Jews were condemned to death, but the childhood mortality rate was the highest, where only six to eleven percent of the region’s pre-war Jewish population of children survived in comparison to the 33 percent of the adults. The children were especially executed by the Nazis in the excuse of getting rid of all the “useless eaters.” The children, pregnant women, and elderly who were sent to the camps were a talent to the gas chambers immediately after arriving at the camps.
At this point, the Jews in German-occupied Europe were faced with two choices: to go into hiding and save themselves from the harsh hands of the Nazis or to remain vigilant and risk facing their untimely death. The vast majority of these Jews did not go into hiding, for a number of reasons. Hiding meant that they would leave their relatives behind, risk severe and immediate punishment, and it would require them to find a family or individual willing to provide refuge, something that was next to impossible. Without a doubt, many Jews held on to the hope that they would survive until they attained victory, or that the threat of death would eventually pass. The sad thing is that the ability or willingness of the non-Jewish populations to rescue the Jews did not get to match the Nazi’s passionate desire to destroy them. Even in the countries that had a deep hatred for the German occupiers, anti-Nazism was not sufficient to provide the needed aid for the Jews. The Nazis portrayed the Jews as criminals, as “Bolshevik” agents that were anxious to overthrow the European society, or as carriers of contamination. The Nazis went ahead to discourage rescue by placing threats of severe penalties for anyone caught helping the Jews ( Pinnock, 2012).
The rescuers, parents, and children were faced by major challenges upon making the decision to go into hiding. Some children were lucky to pass as non-Jews, and they managed to live openly. Those who could not have any option but to live secretly, often in cellars or attics where they had to remain silent, and most times motionless, for endless hours. In rural areas, the hidden Jews lived in chicken coops, forest huts, and barns. Even the slightest noise could arouse the neighbor’s suspicion and even prompt a police raid. Children who posed as Christians had to be very careful not to reveal their Jewish identity from inquisitive informers, classmates, neighbors, the police, and blackmailers. Even a momentary lapse in behavior or language could expose the rescuer or child to danger. Living as a non-Jew came with its challenges and responsibility in that one required false papers, which were very hard to obtain in this German-occupied territory and they were subject frequent scrutiny and review by the authorities. Most children who managed to get away as non-Jews ended up being separated from their parents, and this came with deep emotional pangs of separation.
The Role of Christians in the Persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust
The truth is that Christian responses regarding the Holocaust in public are not widespread and they do not possess a measured complexity. However, this does not mean that contemporary Christians are not guilty of Holocaust denial. At the very least, it is very important for Christians to understand what happened during the Holocaust and the fact that many people who identified as Christians were either complicit in Nazi Atrocities at the very least or they were openly anti-Semitic ( Neuborne, 2002) . This awareness also extends to the “righteous Gentiles” who resisted the deportation of the Jews from Germany. Also, some people may see this as meaning the distancing of true Christianity from its distortion in liberal Nazi and German doctrines.
Many people would also go further and make a suggestion that contemporary Christians have the responsibility of acknowledging the involvement of Christians in the history of anti-Semitism and they should strive to eliminate the vestured of hidden prejudice or poor theology that promote hatred against the Jews ( Dietrich, 2017). However, there are some scholars, such as Eugene Fisher, who have tried to nuance this involvement or responsibility, noting the differences that exist between Nazi racism and Christian apathy, or active collaboration versus Catholic self-protection.
Some people might suggest the need for Christian theology being revised, saying that the Holocaust raises various questions regarding traditional claims about human history, God, and salvation. This re-evaluation can take various forms from the revision of the principle of God to a more absent, limited, or mysterious being, to the belief that Judaism comprises of a valid path to God.
It is very important to begin by accepting the fact that the whole issue of anti-Semitism originated from Christians. It is not moral or even fair for the Christians to consider the Jews in a generalized stereotyping aspect. For a long time, Christians have held a grudge against the Jews, accusing them of being responsible for murdering Christ. The problem in this is that only a small number of the Jews had persecuted Christ, and the fact that Christians still hold this against the Jews is against the Christian values and teachings. For this reason, this argument seeks to make an admonition to Christians to fight for the protection of the helpless Jews. During the Holocaust era, the Jews did not have much say in their fate, and they were all doomed to death. Christianity was a very strong religion at the time, and the fact that it was against the Jews meant that the Jews had little or no hope of survival. However, it is safe to say that the Jews were not guilty of whatever accusation was directed against them. Famous Christian scholars such as Aquinas, MLK, and Blackstone were very instrumental in enhancing anti-Semitism. This means that they had the same power to protect the Jews from the Nazis, which is what they should have done because the Jews were just innocent victims of circumstances. The Christians should have let go of their generalized stereotypes against the Jews and hide them from the Nazi authorities to prevent them from being sent to concentration camps ( Dietrich, 2017).
References
Dietrich, D. (2017). God and humanity in Auschwitz: Jewish-Christian relations and sanctioned murder . Routledge.
Neuborne, B. (2002). Preliminary Reflections on Aspects of Holocaust-Era Litigation in American Courts. Wash. ULQ , 80 , 795.
Pinnock, S. K. (2012). Beyond Theodicy: Jewish and Christian Continental Thinkers Respond to the Holocaust . SUNY Press.
