Category: history

Nazis

Dachau Gas Chamber and Creamatorium

Gail and I along with another couple recently visited Germany.  There were two main themes of the trip.  We went to see where the Reformation started with Luther.  We saw a lot of Luther sites and learned a lot of medieval history.  The other main theme was the history of the Nazis and World War II (WW2).  I will focus on the Nazis.  (See Gail’s blog post for more information on the Reformation and Luther.)

The Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) was not founded by Adolf Hitler, but Hitler quickly rose to power in the party because he was a good speaker.  In February 1920, a 25 point program was adopted by the Nazi Party.  Though the 25 points were never fully implemented and some points were ignored, it provided a foundation for Nazism along with Mein Kampf (1925), an autobiographical manifesto by Hitler.  The 25 points included the anti-capitalist, nationalist-imperialist, and anti-Semitic sentiments of the time.

In the throes of the Great Depression and in the midst of tremendous hyperinflation along with required reparations payments to the World War I allies, the German government was in disarray and was not functional.  After the 1932 elections, in January 1933 Hitler was appointed Chancellor because no party was able to form a majority coalition and the Nazi Party had the most seats in the German parliament.  In February 1933 the parliament building burned down  and emergency powers were given to Hitler, and Hitler quickly seized power and became a dictator.

Also in March 1933, the Dachau Concentration Camp was opened and it was first filled with Hitler’s political opponents.  I found it interesting how much planning, lies, and deception the Nazis did.  There was not enough jail space for all of Hitler’s political opponents so it was fortunate that there were these new concentration camps for them.  The camps were promoted as a place where these people could work and be reeducated.  The truth is in the Dachau camp the inmates were abused, tortured, and worked to death.  And just outside the camp proper was a gas chamber and crematorium to kill the lesser inmates.  Brutal treatment and terror tactics were the norm.  The SS commanders of the camp did not want to deal with the inmates.  The inmates were in their opinion a lower form of human life in varying degrees, so within given boundaries the inmates ran the camp. It surprised me how well that worked.  There were no uprisings.  I think the inmates were in survival mode and thinking only of themselves.  I think it was the self-centered selfish nature of humankind that allowed this evil to continue.

There were several WW2 points I took away from this trip.

  1. The Germans today do not want this to happen again and have these documentation centers set up not only for us tourists but to teach the next generation about the dark side of their history.  That is very commendable.
  2. The Nazis were planners.  This evil was not something that just happened.  It was planned.  
  3. The false philosophical beliefs (e.g. Aryan superiority) were taught to children and believed by many.
  4. Lies and deception were common tools of the Nazis.  
  5. And human nature is not good.  Evil exists in the human heart.  You can see instances of similar evils since WW2. This was not a one time thing.

This sounds quite depressing, but the other big theme from the trip was the Reformation and Martin Luther.  God’s mercy and grace is there for us.  We may not be good, but God showed his love for us in sending Jesus to pay the price we could not pay.  We can be empowered by the Holy Spirit to do good.  There is hope for this life and hope for eternal life with our loving God.

I have one last WW2 fact from the trip.  When you see the old buildings in the center of these German cities you need to realize that almost all of these buildings are reconstructions of the original buildings. This is because the allies heavily bombed the German cities. It took decades to rebuild these buildings.  There were only a few of the old buildings that were left mostly untouched.  Those untouched buildings were used as landmarks (e.g. the Cologne Cathedral) to guide the allied bombers on their bombing raids.

Why a Luther Tour?

Luther Altar Piece

My wife, Gail, wrote this blog post.

We recently traveled in Germany, seeing many historical Luther sights.   As I posted yet another picture of a Luther Statue on my Facebook page, I wondered if our trip was looking somewhat cult-like for friends not particularly interested in Luther and Lutheran Christianity.  I’ve come to the conclusion that while our trip was filled with Luther specific sights, our trip was more about the history and the amazing times in which Luther lived.  While we visited key sights in Luther’s life and work, very little of the content we saw was explicitly evangelistic or spiritually moving.  Rather, in seeing the locations, I was moved by what an amazing time in history those years were and what amazing company of fellow scholars and great minds were concentrated in one time and place.  

When we visited Wittenberg, within a thirty minute walk, we could observe Luther’s Black Cloister, the home of Philipp Melanchthon, a fellow theologian and reformer, the home and workshop of Lucas Cranach, a prolific artist, businessman and craftsman, and the Wittenberg Castle Church where Luther first posted his 95 theses.    When I think about the intersection of all these people and the timing of their lifespans in the wake of the innovations in movable type printing by Johannes Gutenberg,  I am in awe of God’s orchestration of events, propelling history and theology forward by new technology. 

Additionally, the social impacts of the Reformation, including the dissolving of many convents and monasteries, the bloody Peasants’ War, and eventually the Thirty Years War were enormous and largely unconsidered by Luther in his 95 theses invitation to discuss issues.  

Having local guides tell their own local history was one of the best parts of the trip.  Their history, so much longer than any American can imagine, shaped their culture.  When touring various sights, guides told that to most Germans, Luther’s greatest accomplishment was the establishment of the common language of High German.  And while most guides could articulate the reformation truth of salvation by Grace through Faith in Jesus, there seemed to be very little appreciation of the life changing impact of that truth for daily life and hope.  

Was our trip a Luther pilgrimage?  Maybe.  It wasn’t a worship of Luther and it wasn’t just historical learning. We saw the places, but more importantly we gained insights about how God worked in that unique time and place.