I just finished reading a memoir of a holocaust survivor: This Has Happened: An Italian Family In Auschwitz. I am always appalled, ashamed, amazed, grieved, and saddened by accounts of the holocaust. What has me thinking the most today is the afterward by anthropologist, Mary Doria Russell. She explains why the Italian Jewish population had a greater percent of survivors, and in so doing applauds and honors the Italian people for their compassion and humanity. She goes on to say that while it's important to ask, "How could this happen?", it may be more important to ask, "What would I have done in that situation?" The people who fell under Hitler's "spell" were probably a lot like each of us before the war. So, if faced with that situation what would I have done? Would I too have been sucked into Hitler's promises? Would I have risked my life and the life of my children to shelter and protect my Jewish neighbors and friends? Would I have joined a resistance movement, living underground, engaging in my own warfare to fight the injustice?
Thinking about these things causes me to take the question outside of the context of World War II and the Holocaust. What would I have done as my Savior was being arrested and crucified? What would I have done when Christians were being rounded up, imprisoned, tortured and killed in the early days of the church? What would I have done when Christians were warring and killing in the name of Christ during the crusades? During the civil rights movement? When a popular politician is all the rage? When my Lord returns?
Of course, it's easy to answer questions that deal with the past. They're so hypothetical. But my greatest fear is that I won't be the person and Christ follower I believe I am when it really counts. It is also my most fervent prayer. Lord, help me to be strong, just, persistent, convicted, and loving whenever I face ignorance, prejudice, unjustness, evil, and the hard choice. Amen!
