A Cruise Through Europe on the Danube to Rhine Rivers — History Comes to Life and Some of It is ‘Unspeakable’
Judy and I took a cruise. We don’t normally take cruises, although I have heard they can be fun (I have also heard they can not be fun). This one was a river cruise beginning in Budapest and ending in Amsterdam, and it was a blast. We cruised through Hungary, Austria, Germany, and into Amsterdam. Each day we stopped, got off the boat, and toured the city we were docked at. Our ship passed through 69 locks along the way on the Danube, the Main-Danube canal, the Main river, the Rhine river, and then a canal linking the Rhine to Amsterdam.
Here is a link to an album I put together to show some of what we saw on this cruise. Sorry, the link isn’t active — copy and paste into your browser. It should work.
Https://goo.gl/photos/6ogU8cqVK3L1128cA
We saw sites ranging in age from 800 — 900 AD when the Romans fortified the west and southwest bank of the Rhine, which was at that time for them the edge of civilization, up to post WW 2. Many of the cities in Germany we visited were partially to completely destroyed (90%) by Allied bombing, artillery, and house-to-house combat. But up from those ashes has risen a dynamic nation that in the last 20 years has come to terms with its own dark history.
Germans today have accepted their responsibility for WW 2 and the Holocaust. I was especially impressed with the museum at Nuremburg. As you know, Nuremburg was selected by Hitler to be the city representing the soul of the Third Reich. The Rally Grounds are still there, although most of the land is being used for football fields and a concert venue. In the museum, housed in part of a gigantic architectural monstrosity Hitler called his Congress Hall in the Rally Grounds, I walked through the history of the rise and fall of the Third Reich and the trials in the Nuremburg courtroom. As far as I could tell, the history was fairly and accurately displayed. And Germans have accepted their share of the blame for this dark stain in human history unflinchingly and without excuses.
Germany is leading the world in how to respond to evil. Evil must be brought into the light and it must be owned, so to speak. Indifference or denial only feeds evil ( I met a woman recently who told me she doesn’t believe in evil). It must be condemned by all parties and there must be true repentance. I saw all of these things in Germany.
The horror that the Germans inflicted on Europe and Europeans in WW 2 and the massive destruction that the war brought to Germany is of a scope too vast to comprehend. But it is important to try — the human heart is capable of such evil again and on an even greater scale. We must try and we must not forget. Denying that evil exists because of a soft-headed view of the world or because we don’t want to get involved — “it is the other person’s problem” — ensures that one day it will wash over us as well. Here are three quotes from Elie Wiesel’s book ‘Night’:
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
“Violence is not the answer. Terrorism is the most dangerous of answers.”
“To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time”.
We must not forget, even though we repent and are, to some extent, healed and made whole. And more to the point, we must not lose faith in God and in the power of God’s love. God did not cause the Holocaust, men did. God has clearly and unambiguously shown us how to live so that such horror does not occur again: “Love the Lord your God with all you heart and all your soul and all your strength and all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself”. Who is my neighbor? Everyone!
And how can I love in this way? I believe it is only possible, and I know many will disagree with this, when we are ‘in Christ’; that is, living as authentic Kingdom men and women. Most people believe they are good. Most of the Germans in pre-WW2 probably thought of themselves as ‘good’ people. But none of us are ‘good’, not one. To love like this requires that we are ‘new creations’ — I cannot resurrect myself; only Jesus can do that. It is not primarily God who will prevent the next Holocaust, it is the love of God flowing out of us, like streams of living water, that will prevent the next Holocaust. “It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts” (Corrie ten Boom).
Why is Germany leading the world in welcoming refugees in spite of the obvious dangers? Because they have not forgotten!
Blessings,
John
I had another thought about evil like the Holocaust. As Elie Wiesel says, we must never forget. To forget is to leave the door open for this evil to happen again. But, we must forgive as Corrie ten Boom showed us. To not forgive is also to leave the door open for evil to return, perhaps stronger than before. And this time it might be the unforgiving ones who become the tormentors and the unforgiven who are the tormented.
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God“. — Corrie ten Boom
“Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heat” — Corrie ten Boom