#andwerehoff Berlin-Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

After a mostly speechless day, I'm going to add only a few comments of my own to our day at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. This was such an influential camp, because of its close proximity to Berlin, and the central administrative offices for the whole Nazi concentration camp system which included 20,000 major camps and sub-camps! The culture for concentration camps was set here at Sachsenhausen. Our tour guide, Ronan (Mosaic Tours e.V.) profoundly laid out the context for the rise of Hitler and the Nazi movement. It really thrived in the petri dish of blame and fear

Here is the gate into the triangle complex, where one gunman could sniper kill any person trying to escape from the entire triangle.

Pastor Martin Niemöller was one of the prominent prisoners held at Sachsenhausen. The famous poem is attributed to him. 

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Here is a reconstructed example of his prison room. #true

The guards were perfecting making killing as effecient and impersonal as possible. The firing range was causing to much PTSD in the shooters. Other methods were not as effecient. The gas chamber was installed with one goal: mass extermination of human life. There were small examples of grace and beauty in an ocean of satanic stealing, killing, and destroying. 

"Male and female prisoners of the satellite camp came only seldomly into contact, as their barracks were separated by a fence and guards. Short meeting might occur on the outside - for example, on the way to work. On one such occasion, this velvet candle pouch for the Sabbath was thrown to the men by a group of women.

The Pouch was made for Irachmil Bahir, who had thrown the women some self-made candles, on which he had inscribed "Fur Gitta." The women had asked for Sabbath ceremony candles. Gitta had then made this pouch for him."

I couldn't help think about Abraham Heschel's "The Sabbath," where he describes the realm of space (stuff), and the realm of time. The first thing God calls "holy" in the Bible is the Sabbath, not a thing, not a place, but a day. When any other tribe of people has lost their space, they lost themselves. When they were driven from their place, they lost their identity. When the Jews lost their space (numerous times), they didn't lose their identity, because they were more identified by time than space. Sabbath happens, no matter where you are, no matter what you have or lack. Imagine the beaten, cold, hungry group of women lighting those two candles as their mothers had done, and remember the Sabbath and keeping it holy. All of a sudden their identity was secured. They were God's chosen and beloved children. #beautiful

After returning to Berlin, we found a beautiful place to eat down the river from the Berliner Dom. There are endless other things to say and ponder after a day like today. One important and timely issue is the temptations to blame others for individual or corporate problems, and another is the temptation to trade convictions for power. Christians in America are in, an often, hidden battle with both of these temptations. We are especially vulnerable to these temptations after losing power and influence in the last season(s) marked not by indifference to the Christian message, but by suspicion and outright rejection of our views as dangerous and unbecoming of people in the modern world. In this climate we are tempted to blame secularism, blame Islam, blame Hollywood, blame homosexuals, blame politicians, blame, blame, blame. When we spend so much energy blaming, we never consider that the problem might not just lay out there, but also in here. Our other temptation is to trade our convictions for power or the promise of power. History and Divine revelation agree that this this a losing trade.