Today is a particular day set aside to remember the Holocaust perpetuated by the Nazi party of 1930s Germany (and their compatriots) against their fellow human beings. At least six million Jews died in the atrocities of that genocide, along with many, many, many other "undesirables" including disabled people, "gypsies" (Roma), left-handed people, social undesirables (impoverished people), homosexuals and others.
What I would say is important to remember on this day is not just those who died, but how that situation came to be. How governments, social organizations, churches and other groups did not speak up to counter racism, sexism, religious discrimination or the growing eugenics movement and so the atrocities began and very, very few people moved.
We all think we would speak up if we knew something like that was happening now. But...
Do we?
Thanks be to God for forgiveness for things done and left undone, for when we do not love our neighbors as ourselves.
What I would say is important to remember on this day is not just those who died, but how that situation came to be. How governments, social organizations, churches and other groups did not speak up to counter racism, sexism, religious discrimination or the growing eugenics movement and so the atrocities began and very, very few people moved.
We all think we would speak up if we knew something like that was happening now. But...
Do we?
Thanks be to God for forgiveness for things done and left undone, for when we do not love our neighbors as ourselves.
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