To me, nothing, save perhaps the horrors of the slave trade, poses such questions to faith – Christian or otherwise – than the Holocaust, remembered once again on this Holocaust Memorial Day. The unimaginable suffering and death endured by so many, and the equally unimaginable evil that planned and put plans for mass extermination into effect, defies belief. Yet, of course, it was all too true, the lives of countless Jewish people today having been irrevocably shaped by the awful reality of the ghettoes and concentration camps, the memory of loved ones murdered and families forever scarred. How could God have let that happen? I have no answers. Simply questions. If nothing else, it means that for faith to survive, it can never settle for pious platitudes or clichéd naivety. But we cannot put everything at God’s door, for the atrocities of Auschwitz and its sister camps were of course committed by humans – ordinary people, who, somehow, felt justified in denigrating and denying the humanity of others. And tragically, terrifyingly, shockingly, a growing tide of nationalism, prejudice and sheer hatred still does the same today, the far right in some places daily growing in strength. Beware the tide of populism. Call out the Holocaust denier. And stand up for justice, peace and respect for all.
That’s the theme of the following reflection that I’ve written for the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, remembered so poignantly today across the world.
Where was God in the ghettoes?
Where was God in the ghettoes,
when the creed of hate brought death?
When so many died
in the genocide?
When they drew their final breath?
Where was God in the death camps,
when a broken people wept?
When, consumed by fear,
they were murdered here,
and the voice of conscience slept?
Where was God in the chambers
when the gas came pouring through?
When they gasped and choked,
when the ovens smoked,
when they slaughtered those deemed ‘Jew’?
Where is God in the evil
that pollutes our world today?
In the pain and need?
In the human greed?
In the wrong that still holds sway?
Where are you? God is asking.
Do you mean the words you say?
If you truly care
will you maybe dare
to do more than simply pray?
Will you help? comes the challenge.
Would you save us from our fate?
Then campaign and call
for respect for all,
before it’s again too late.