Glimpses of Light

Yesterday, on my 32nd birthday, my boyfriend took me to the Short North in Columbus for breakfast bagels. As we sat, the sound of chanting began to ring, closer and closer. I looked at Michael with furrowed brows, and he said “that doesn’t sound good.” Trying to explain my foreboding, I said “sounds like Nazis,” and rolled my eyes. A minute later, masked men marched across the street opposite, holding red flags with black swastikas, chanting guttural and unrepeatable words. It was the strongest sense of evil I have ever experienced.

Ten years and four days ago, I submitted a paper for one of my final undergrad classes studying the Holocaust. I was struggling to comprehend the pain of the world and the place of goodness in the midst of it, and I used this paper (as I have for many papers before and since) to wrestle with my own questions. How can rampant hate somehow seem to overcome good so quickly? What gives us courage to press on? How do I avoid being swept away by hate? I am still asking these questions, but reading this paper reminded me of what I believe. The paper is raw, and plagued somewhat by naïveté, but I still believe it’s premise: that small acts of goodness mean something in the face of indiscriminate hate.

Mostly, I post this as a small protest to the dehumanizing rhetoric that has become all too common in our lives these days. It is true that dehumanization is a step toward genocide, and while I don’t want to be an alarmist, I am deeply aware that casting off people as “trash” is the first step toward chaos. I refuse, then, to let those who were marching yesterday allow me to dehumanize them. My heroes (Jesus for one, but also people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa) made it a point to love one’s enemies. This can feel impossible when the hate being spewed comes from the pit of hell, but I believe this means that it is all the more necessary. This is my stance: I will refuse to hate. Even more than this, I will choose to love the person in front of me.

I have never in my life seen hateful rhetoric change anyone’s mind. But I have seen love do so, and I have seen it many times. So I am posting my 11-page undergrad paper, knowing that no one will read it, because I need it. I need this written down, somewhere in my corner of the internet, so that I can come back to it, and remember why I believe that light wins.

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany.

Glimpses of Light

It is hard to imagine the intensity of suffering which occurred during the Holocaust. As much as we study it, as much as we try to position our minds into a place of understanding, this is an historical event which will continue to haunt and disturb with its daunting evil inflicted by mortal human hands. In common conversation we label the Nazis "insane", "inhuman", "cruel"; and yet we find that these people were much like us. They had families, children to take care of and homes to maintain. It is despicable, but if we are honest with ourselves it is possible to see our own capacity to inflict such pain. But the fear we encounter within ourselves when we realize what we are capable of cannot overcome the hope to be found in the beauty and grace a human heart can hold. There are always two sides to the story; always a hope to cling to; and here we will search out these points of joy. First, the attitude of evil which found its way into the minds of many during Hitler's regime will be examined. But the main focus, here, is the history of rescue and moral fortitude during this time and the everyday heroes who brought about relief. Through these heroes one is then able to tease out some of the common sources of light which we can still cling to now. In the end, it seems that it is an ordinary bravery, and everyday relationships, which bring light to dark places.

At first, it is hard to see past the suffering which took place during the time that Hitler tried to implement the Final Solution, which was to rid Ge1many of all those who were not Aryan (mostly focusing on the Jews) and to create a "perfect" society. This is most obviously portrayed in Hitler's own autobiography, where he summarizes his views on racial purity and a society of perfection: 

Any crossing of two beings not at exactly the same level produces a medium between the level of the two parents. This means: the offspring will probably stand higher than the racially lower parent, but not as high as the higher one. Consequently, it will later succumb in the struggle against the higher level. Such mating is contrary to the will of Nature for a higher breeding of all life. The precondition for this does not lie in associating superior and inferior, but in the total victory of the former. The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness. Only the born weakling can view this as cruel, but he after all is only a weak and limited man; for if this law did not prevail, any conceivable higher development of organic living beings would be unthinkable. (285) 

Hitler's beliefs, while evil, obviously resonated with something within human nature which strives for perfection and purity. There is a sense of something akin to cleanliness in Hitler's ideals, along with an overarching theme of attempting to create a grand, "higher" version of society. He wants to create a society on a pedestal, a society to trump all others. His idealism somehow connected with the masses, and this is the first important point which needs to be made. Human nature, in some shape or form, seems to have a desire to sweep a broad brush stroke of grandiosity, purity and perfection over all of life. While it is not in the scope of this essay to argue where that desire came from, it is nonetheless recognizable in each of us, and it was to this instinct that Hitler appealed. One need not argue that this instinct is inherently bad. However, when this desire is manipulated into becoming the driving force of an entire nation, it has disastrous consequences. Perfection as a worldview will always leave human dignity in the dust, and Hitler proved this on an historic scale. In his attempt to bring Germany to the heights of perfect civilized society, he degraded his country into a place of hatred and murder.

It is at this point where we come to the crux of the issue: if chasing purity, power, and perfection will not bring hope, what will? To answer these questions, we will tum to the ordinary people who saved lives during Hitler's murderous reign of power. In Oliner and Oliner's The Altruistic Personality, we find a basic outline and description of those who took part in the help and rescue of the Jews. While there were some who began the process late in the war, about 70 percent of rescuers began their work before 1942, and 52 percent participated for between 2 and 5 years. Therefore, the majority of those who worked to help the Jews during this time began their work early on and continued it as part of their lifestyle for many months (50). The work started in the most basic of ways. As Hitler began to institute the beginnings of the extermination of the Jews, non-Jewish friends offered support by giving gifts of food and medication, and even library books. They also provided psychological suuport through counseling and offering a sense of "normalcy" (50). Oftentimes, neighbors would hold onto possessions for Jewish neighbors when they were deported, and there were even protests in Amsterdam in the early stages of Hitler's plan, although none were effective (51). In a stronger attempt to keep neighboring Jews safe, some would try to find methods to employ them. While this was mostly ineffective in the long run, there were also attempts by non-Jews to run Jewish businesses for their friends while secretly giving them the money that was earned (52). 

Deportations did occur despite all attempts to protect the Jews, and the time of ghettoization, and then concentration camps, was begun. At first, there were some in Poland who were able to help significantly at the beginning of this process. Throwing food over the walls of ghettos was a common occurance, although there were a few who attempted to personally smuggle in food. Some even attempted to live in the ghettos with the Jews. With their Aryan documents, they were able to leave, get food for the imprisoned, and smuggle it back in (Oliner and Oliner 52). One Dutchwoman, a member of the Red Cross, even tried to bring clothes to a former coworker by walking into the camp. While many urged her not to go, believing that those who went in never came out, she responded by saying "we'll see. I'm a Christian" (56). She walked into the ghetto with the clothes, and walked out without them unscathed (56). Another German officer assigned to Ukraine tried to save the Jews surrounding him by stating his need for them to repair locomotives. He endangered his life many times, and once looked down the barrel of a gun in order to release some of his workers from prison (57). 

Oliner and Oliner state that "rescuers who maintained contacts with Jews gave them hope to go on. Those who provided even minimal physical sustenance made it possible to survive for yet another day" (57). Survival had much to do with simple, steady relationships between Jews and their helpers - and helpers sometimes came from the unlikeliest of places. "Several hundred Jews owe their lives to officials who refused to follow instructions," (57) the authors write. Just having an officer with a strong conscience was help enough for many Jews. There were also, though, some "arranged escapes... even after the ghetto walls were sealed" (58). Some Poles were able to take vans into the ghettos, often by bribing guards with money or vodka, and smuggled Jews out of the camps in the vans (58). One Jesuit priest even used a subterranean tunnel to enter into a Jewish camp and tend to their needs as best he could (60). 

While helping the Jews to "sustain rights" (Oliner and Oliner 50) and escape from incarceration were both important endeavors, there were two more crucial points in the helping process (50). The first was smuggling Jews out of the country. Just being released from a camp was not enough — Jews who had obvious Jewish characteristics needed to escape the country and find a safe place to start again (62). Rescuers learned how to either obtain papers or forge documents which were necessary to get Jews across borders (63). However, if smuggling was not an option, the final method of helping, and oftentimes the most dangerous, was that of helping the Jews to maintain an underground existence in their country of origin (50). The Dutch had the most intricate and helpful system when it came to underground shelters, but unfortunately it was developed too late to be of much use to most of the Jewish population. Farmhouses were optimal locations for shelters, and many did offer up their homes as a refuge (70). Finally, it was important for homes to not only be a general shelter, but to also have hide­ outs within them in case the Germans were to investigate the house. Closets and hidden areas behind bookcases were optimal locations, although some were unable to create decent hideouts at all, which often led to the Jews being discovered and then deported (71). Oliner and Oliner state that, throughout this process of rescuing that some were involved in, "the activities of most of the rescuers were more mundane than glamorously heroic" (49). Help included the basic life necessities - food, shelter, and clothes - and very rarely looked anything like brilliant, courageous heroism in the moment. 

While the outline of how rescue occurred during this time is an important part of seeing the hope which still existed, what truly sheds light are the stories of individuals who purposefully put themselves in harm's way to help the Jewish population in Europe. With many different nationalities and backgrounds, these heroes add a dimension to the Holocaust that is often forgotten: the dimension of goodness. 

Raoul Wallenberg was born into one of Sweden's wealthiest families. He was well educated, and ended up working in Haifa, Israel, where German refugees informed him of what was happening to the Jewish Germans under Hitler. Wallenberg then began to work for a company whose "Jewish owner could no longer safely travel in Hitler-controlled central Europe" ("Raoul Wallenberg") and moved to Budapest. Eventually, when Germany invaded Hungary late in the war, Wallenberg became an important factor in a rescue mission begun by the U.S. War Refugee Board. There were 200,000 surviving Jews in Budapest at this time, and Wallenberg, determined to save them, appealed to Stockholm to "grant Swedish diplomatic asylum to documented victims of persecution" ("Raoul Wallenberg"). By January of 1945, Wallenberg had issued nearly 20,000 passports to Jews, which put them under the protection of the Swedish government until they had the ability to emigrate. He also sheltered more than 12,000 Jews in buildings which were given Swedish extraterritorial status. He voiced that "when there is suffering without limits, there can be no limits to the methods one should use to alleviate it" ("Raoul Wallenberg"). He became skilled in using bribery to save the lives of thousands. Finally, Wallenberg even saved Jews straight off of the trains that were taking them to Auschwitz, and his network of collaborators was able to prevent a massacre of some 100,000 Jews who had survived in Budapest. Wallenberg saved countless lives, and his heroism is still celebrated ("Raoul Wallenberg"). 

Many have now heard of Oskar Schindler and his actions during the Holocaust which saved hundreds of Jews. Born in the Sudetenland, Schindler was a German businessman who would not have been nominated as a hero before his actions during the war. He was not religious, nor was he political, and besides these he gambled and drank on a regular basis. He was also willing to do many things to further his business and capital, and actually collaborated with a pro-Nazi party and moved to Krakow to profit from the war. However, he formed a strong bond with the bookkeeper for his recently acquired kitchenware factory who was a Jewish man, and this proved to be incredibly influential. Schindler staffed his factory with those from the Jewish community, but in 1942 the Nazis began to round up Jews for transport, and some of Schindler's workers were on the first train out of town. However, by dropping the names of a few Nazi friends, Schindler was able to keep his workers from being deported in the name of business. When the entire Krakow ghetto was commanded to be "liquidized" in 1943 ("Oskar Schindler), Schindler was able to manipulate the SS officer in charge of the operation, Amon Goeth, into allowing him to create his own subcamp at his factory without SS intervention. The "Emalia Camp" was successful in saving Schindler's Jewish workers for some time, but in 1944 he was told that the Jews would soon be sent to death camps and his factory dismantled. Schindler was then able to convince those in charge to allow him to move his "camp" to Czechoslovakia. Somewhere in this time, Schindler's desire for cheap labor turned into a desire to save lives. He made a list of names of those he knew he must save, eventually saving 300 of them (women and children) from a mistaken transfer to Auschwitz. His new factory purposefully never made useful shells for the Germans. At the end of the war, the Jews he had saved made him a gold ring inscribed with a Hebrew quote that stated "he who saves one life, it is as if he saved the entire world" ("Oskar Schindler"). 

Andre Trocme, born in northern France, was another hero of this era. He attended seminary in Paris, took graduate courses at Union Theological Seminary, and was ordained in the French Reformed Church. He was assigned to the village of Chambon in the south of France, which was where he lived out his work during the Holocaust. With a strong belief in non­ violence and a rebellious personality, his sermons were often aimed against anti-Semitism and the Nazi party. Eventually, Trocme and his church began to provide "food, shelter, false identity documents, and, sometimes, help to escape France completely" ("Andre Trocme"). Word soon got out that Chambon was a place of refuge, and many found welcome in the little town. While Trocme was eventually imprisoned in 1943, and later forced into hiding, his "flock" continued to carry out his ideals. By the time of liberation in 1944, the amount of people saved by this man and his town was estimated at about 5,000. 

Irena Sendler, a social worker in the city of Warsaw, worked specifically to save children during this tenible time. In 1942, she became the head of the "children's division and aid organization" known as "Zegota" ("Irena Sendler"). She was in charge of smuggling children out of the Ghetto and relocating them with sympathizers elsewhere, which sometimes included orphanages. They were also given new documents labeling them as Gentiles. She was anested in 1943, as Nazi law stated that "aiding a Jew was punishable by death" ("Irena Sendler"). She was beaten and tortured, but under no circumstance would she divulge the details of her work or the names of any of those working with her. She did escape with the help of "Zegota", but was forced to remain in hiding for the remainder of the war. She saved more than 2,000 children, and despised being called a "hero" until she died. She stated that "every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory" ("Irena Sendler"). 

 The final ordinary hero discussed here is Corrie Ten Boom, who lived in the Netherlands in the city of Haarlem, and was the first female watch maker in her country. She and her sister, Betsy, never married, and lived devout Christian lives in a family dedicated to charity. Corrie began to take part in Haarlem's underground movement to help the Jews as a result of her previous community social work, and quickly acquainted herself with all of the necessities of working in the underground. When a Jewish woman came to the family's door seeking refuge, they welcomed her in readily, with Corrie's father saying that "in this house, God's people are always welcome" ("Corrie Ten Boom"). They continued to take in more refugees, and Corrie eventually asked others in the underground for 100 ration cards in order to provide enough food for everyone. Dozens of people lived in "the hiding place," as the Ten Boom's house was fondly known, and Corrie "became a key figure in the Haarlem underground movement" ("Corrie Ten Boom"). While the family tried to hide friends for as long as possible, Corrie and her sister Betsy were eventually found out and sent to a concentration camp. Overall, it is estimated that Corrie and her family helped to save about 800 Jews under unthinkably dangerous conditions ("Corrie Ten Boom"). 

Having addressed the issue of perfection as a worldview, it is now important to take the previous information, as well as each story, and find the pieces which are common to each. As opposed to Nazi procedure, which was wide-scale and affected thousands per day, rescue attempts and help were provided in small, individual ways. Even those such as Wallenberg dealt with policy focused on specific countries, or a specific area of Jewish residence. Nearly all help was given on a personal and fairly intimate level, especially the help which provided shelter. The meaning of this should not be understated: evil took place when broad, rogue ideals of perfection were inflicted upon millions; good took place when an individual, or group of individuals, were given consideration and thought. While it seems hard to swallow that evil can quickly become more rampant than good, it also makes sense. Good focuses on the heart; evil focuses on ideals detached from the heart. However, in many ways the meaning of this is also incredibly good news. In the face of rampant evil, these rescuers who hoped in the human spirit were still able to see people as people. While good can banish evil from the heart, evil cannot banish good from an entire nation. Even though the acts of rescuers were seemingly small, they were done in genuine love - something which cannot be erased by even the worst of man-made storms. 

The causes of light and hope during this time are somewhat harder to grasp, and have been and will continue to be debated. Some would say religion or principles drove goodness, some a strong sense of duty to a group of people, and some would argue that a sense of empathy is what created a desire to help (Oliner and Oliner). There are some simple factors, though, which go into nearly all of the situations summarized above. For one, individual relationships were a key trigger in taking on responsibility for another's wellbeing. Whether it was a boss, a neighbor, a coworker or an employee, those who helped the Jews were those who had seen the same humanity within them that they found in themselves. It is these seemingly insignificant relationships between people which typically began the helping process. The other main cause of hope during this time was the raw, simplistic nature of the help being given. While the Nazis were intent on bringing about some ideal version of humanity, those defying them believed in the basic nature of humans as they already were. We need food, we need shelter, we need clothing, and we need love. Those who gave of themselves were those who realized that it was the simple things which were necessary. One need not be important to help, one need only have a little extra food, or a few extra scraps of fabric, or some joy to spare and give to one who has none.

The result of this kind of goodness and this kind of evil may not bring about what we desperately hope for. We want a good which can run as rampant as evil. We wish more could have been done for the Jews. We want for someone to say that this all could have been prevented had one exceptional leader stood up and fought Hitler's ideas with ideas of their own. Maybe this could have happened — we will never know. But the results of looking at the ordinary heroism of the rescuers during the Holocaust has so much more to teach us than this. Ideas are a nice thing, and sometimes they change the world. At the core, though, it is the basic things which always remain. Ideas will come and go. Impressive speeches and "infallible" logic will have their time and then pass away as quickly as they came sweeping in. The basics, though, of ordinary living will not change. In the end, it was those who realized this who became the heroes. It was the people who got to the core of our similarities as humans, even if nothing else in their life was going right, who were able to make a difference.

At our worst, humanity creates nasty, hellish places; places of starvation and pain and fear. Hitler's regime makes this clear. However, at our best, humanity creates safe, hopeful places; places of rest and joy and peace. In our short lives we are capable of both murder and healing, evil and good, hell and heaven. Our hope, then, lies in the latter of each of these. While evil can quickly corrode the result of years and years of simple, honest goodness, it can never overcome it. The ordinary goodness still stands, even in the midst of debilitating darkness. A study of heroism during the Holocaust proves this: hope is always relevant, no matter how worn down we have become. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5, NIV). At the end of it all, light wins.