When I was Young

When I was young 

I was profoundly influenced by two books: Deitrich Bonhoeffer’s, “The Cost of Discipleship.” and Corrie ten Boom’s, “The Hiding Place.” Both of those heroic figures were anti Nazi dissidents at a time when the majority of their Christian contemporaries were supporters of Hitler and his policies, however cruel. Hitler had enticed the Christians with promises of special privilege and pride of place in a new and expanded Third Reich, a Deutschland that he and he alone would make great – again. Besides, the Christians resented the Jews so for them their embrace of Hitler was a win-win proposition. Hitler would rid Germany of the Jews, and they, the Christians, would enjoy the prerogatives of power. Ten Boom and Bonhoeffer utterly rejected this Faustian bargain. 

Both resisted the malignant rise of facism and its hate filled ideology by speaking out against injustice, by hiding Jews, and by ministering to the oppressed. Both suffered intensely at the hands of the Nazis. Corrie with her family of five, who sheltered Jews, were arrested for harboring fugitives and interned in a concentration camp, a Nazi death camp from which she  alone survived. Deitrich was arrested for helping Jews escape to Switzerland and for openly opposing the Nazi regime. He was held and tortured by the Gestapo, transferred to Buchenwald and finally executed in Flossenburg. Neither were given court hearings as the ‘Law,’ degraded as it was, did not apply to Jews or their protectors, regardless. They were simply whisked away. Through unspeakable agonies, both Corrie and Deitrich left a legacy that inspired countless millions to engage in the ceaseless, intrepid and holy work of resistance to evil through mercy, and forgiveness, and sacrificial love. 

The parallels between then and now are inescapable. Then it was Jews who were denied their humanity. Now it is immigrants, and trans persons, and women, and liberals, and scientists, and educators, and journalists, and judges, and even popes. We are again confronting the awful specter of facism, its malevolence and its contempt for all things humane. Now we, too, are called to live with resolute courage and absolute moral clarity in the face of viciousness masquerading as virtue. Now our own situation requires from us an unwavering resolve to confront the sinister forces that threaten to engulf our nation. Now we, too, must comprehend the incomprehensible; that our contemporaries, like Corrie’s and Deitrich’s, can not or will not discern the wickedness they so effortlessly excuse, and so passionately defend. Now we, too, must weigh and accept the consequences of doing what is right. And, now we, too, must summon the courage to resist this evil reincarnate.

Now I am old. But I will -never forget- what I learned when I was young.