I went to see the “Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away” exhibit at the Castle at Park Plaza before it leaves on Sept. 15.
The exhibit covers all things Auschwitz, as a concentration camp, killing factory, site of nightmarish medical experiments, and after, liberation. The exhibit includes topics such as the rise in antisemitism, Anne Frank, Nuremberg Laws, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, the Final Solution, and the Death March. Although there were a few exhibits on the positive role Christians played, there wasn’t anything on how the antisemitic teachings of the church contributed to the Holocaust.
You didn’t find a lot of antisemitism in the Apostolic period of the church. After that, the church fathers had a range of views on the Jews, and they were all bad. The Christian church blamed the Jews for Jesus’s death. Some looked at the Old Testament and believed the cycle of apostasy and repentance to be particular to the Jews and concluded that Jews were just (bad, evil, sinful) people. Others focused on Romans 9, which fueled the idea that the Jews and Israel were no longer God’s chosen people, but Christians and the church were.
By the third century, with the unification of church and state, disagreeing with the church was seen as disagreeing with the state, which was treason and punishable by death. This was before the age of tolerance, so Christian sects had no problem killing other Christians or Jews for having different beliefs. This thinking would lead to forced conversions of Jews and Conversos and Crypto-Judaism — the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith.
In the fourth century John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople compared the synagogue to a pagan temple, the source of all vices and heresies. Chrysostom described the synagogue as a place worse than a brothel and a drinking shop.
There were also other false narratives circulating about the Jews, such as the Blood and Well-Poisoning Libels.
Jews were forced to live in segregation, which made it easy for an “us and them” mentality to develop and thrive, and to blame society’s ills such as the Plague on the Jews. They became the go-to scapegoat. Then came Martin Luther’s publishing of “On Jews and Their Lies.” Many scholars believe his writing laid the foundation for the Holocaust.
Here is an excerpt: “What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews?” ‘First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools…’ ‘Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.’ ‘Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.’ ‘Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb…’ ‘Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews.’ ‘Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them…’ ‘Seventh, I recommend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow…But if we are afraid that they might harm us or our wives, children, servants, cattle, etc., then let us emulate the common sense of other nations such as France, Spain, Bohemia, etc., …then eject them forever from the country…’
When I read the above, it looks the anti-Jewish propaganda from the time of Germany’s Kristallnacht or the “Night of Broken Glass.” The Lutheran Church was the state church during the time of the Holocaust and Luther’s writings provided “moral support” for the harsh treatment of the Jews. Remember, Germany was a Christian country that practiced traditional Christian values. It is also worth pointing out that the Nazis borrowed many of their segregation concepts from America’s justification for slavery and Jim Crow — both of which had strong, conservative Christian support.
By the time of Hitler and the rise of Nazi Germany, Christian teachings were interpreted in ways that justified discrimination, segregation, and persecution of Jewish communities. Christians had been killing Jews for over a thousand years, it was normative.
The village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon offers an example of explementary Christian behavior during WWII. They were part of the resistance. Led by Pastor André Trocmé of the Reformed Church of France, his wife Magda, and his assistant, Pastor Edouard Theis, the inhabitants of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and the villages on the surrounding plateau provided refuge for an estimated 5,000 people. This number included about 3,000–3,500 Jews who were fleeing from the Vichy authorities and the Germans.
One of the lessons we glean in looking unblinkingly at the religious roots of the antisemitic views of Jews is that they were enduring beyond the context in which they emerged. Soviet antisemitism was explicitly anti-Christian. Yet antisemites took up these themes and drove them forward in a new context. That is the danger, the enduring power, and the malleability of antisemitism.
It is important to know or be reminded of this history considering the growth of White Nationalism, Christian Nationalism, and Christian Zionism. As I went through the exhibit, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between what we are witnessing today in America and pre-Holocaust Germany. It is vital that we learn from history, so we don’t repeat it.
Ed Gaskin is Executive Director of Greater Grove Hall Main Streets and founder of Sunday Celebrations.
