A QUESTION OF FAITH
With Father Frank Daly of St Peter’s in Hinckley
NEVER again?
LAST week we marked a very special anniversary on what has now come to be called ‘Holocaust Memorial Day’. It was the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
There are those who think we shouldn’t do this, who don’t like to be reminded of the unspeakable cruelty that we have been capable as humans of meting out to each other. We do not like to be reminded of the darker side of our nature, what we have done and sadly, what we are still doing. We like to ‘sanitize’ cruelty and inhumanity so that we don’t feel sufficiently guilty to do something positive about it. Probably in the history of mankind, there have never been acts of such barbarity with which millions of Jewish people and some minority groups in Europe were treated at that time. We must never forget. We must learn. We must listen to the stories of survivors in all their horror, marvel at their nobility and courage and thank them for keeping this story alive for us because we have forgotten and we clearly have not learned. Auschwitz stands as a permanent warning to us of what we are capable of. Here are some unmatched words from Dr.Jakob Bronowski in his television series, “The Ascent of Man” from as long ago as 1973 as he stood in the pond at Auschwitz:
“It is said that science will dehumanise people and turn them into numbers. That is false, tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and the crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people, and that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance. When people believe they have absolute knowledge with no test in reality, this is how they behave. In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: ‘I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken.’ We have to sure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.”
Look around and see today how still people are being cruel to each other, still seeking to wipe out races, nations and individuals, because of arrogance, a sense of superiority, overwhelming self-interest or just plain evil. It is all around us and still flourishing. It has overtaken us in ways we cannot and will not see. Holocaust Memorial Day and the continued presence of Auschwitz is a constant reminder and challenge to look outside ourselves to find light and life and delight in each other and to promote it and live it at all costs lest we destroy our planet and ourselves by our selfishness, greed and blindness.