(I wrote this article during the Lenten season of 1994. The heartbreaking truth is that the article’s message may be more relevant today than it was twenty-five years ago. I decided to share it exactly as I wrote it a quarter of a century ago. )
During this Lenten season our nation has been given a special gift from an unlikely source. Who would have thought the person who directed “Jurassic Park” could give us “Schindler’s List”? Susan and I have already seen the movie twice, once with our daughter. Steven Spielberg is to be commended for his courage and skill in remembering that which must never be forgotten.
As I reflect on this incredible film my mind goes in several directions. I am aware that Spielberg “softened” the brutality of the Holocaust. Thank God he did. We could not endure the full reality of the tragedy. Nowhere in the movie do we see Amon Goeth, the commandant of the forced labor camp, setting his dogs on Jewish children to tear them apart while their helpless parents watched in horror. Nowhere do we see Goeth beating Jews, forcing them to count the strokes with the warning that if they lose count, he would start the torture all over again. As horrible as the events were in “Schindler’s List,” the sadistic treatment of the innocent men, women, and children on which the movie was based was far worse than any of us could even imagine (unless you yourself are a survivor of that horrible ordeal).
I also think of the victims of the Holocaust. Those who suffered and perished in that nightmare were persecuted for “crimes of being.” (Let that phrase “crimes of being” sink into your consciousness for a few minutes!) Jews were killed not for anything they had done wrong. There were killed simply for “being” Jews. The same was done to mentally and physically challenged persons (the first victims of Nazi extermination), Roma, and homosexuals. Just as the Jews were forced to wear the Yellow Star of David, homosexuals were required to wear the Pink Triangle. From the persecution, abuse, and violence heaped on homosexuals in our day, one wonders if we have really learned any lessons about an era which thought in terms of “crimes of being.”
I think of the interview I saw with Ralph Fiennes, the marvelous actor who played Goeth. He reported that he was approached by some Germans while making the film who identified him with the character he played, shook his hand, and said, “You know, what was done by the Nazis was done only to those who deserved it.” Such a statement reminds us that racial, ethnic, and religious hatred are still very much with us. The recent rise of racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny, and the resurgence of the Klan and neo-Nazis are just some of the signs that justice, freedom, and dignity for all persons are human ideals which must be safeguarded with generational vigilance.
But I also think of Oskar Schindler. What an unlikely hero! There was very little about the man which would suggest that he would risk his own life and spend his own fortune to rescue over twelve hundred Jews. If he were alive today and were to run for political office, the press would have a field day with his personal life and business practices. And yet here was a man who has been declared “a righteous person” by the nation of Israel for his courage and persistence. I take hope in a man like Schindler. How such incredible goodness could happen in such a questionable life is miraculous. In the worst of times he did the best of things. That should be a lesson for Christians who are so hesitant to expect goodness from what they judge as unlikely sources.
But there is another lesson we Christians could learn from this era. For the most part while Schindler was cleverly saving Jews from extermination, Christians in Germany were either collaborating with the Nazis or were sinfully silent. There were some glorious exceptions. (The Confessing Church led by courageous and compassionate leaders like Dietrich Bonhoeffer as well as the Huguenot congregation in Le Chambon, France offered a powerful and courageous witness.) But that is exactly what they were—exceptions. For the most part our world witnessed the German church’s complicity or silence during the Nazi era. Where the church failed, a near reprobate like Schindler stepped forward with courage and compassion and became a hero. Those of us who claim a Jewish carpenter as our Lord and Savior perhaps need to reconsider the cost of our discipleship. I believe our future, not to mention our present, will also demand courage and compassion. The “Schindlers” will be there surprising the world with their goodness. I hope the church will be there too making a redemptive difference.
