Holocaust survivor Hy Abrams, 90, poses for a portrait Jan. 15 in the Brooklyn borough of New York with a book that documents all the different concentration camps he was held in during World War II. Abrams was taken at age 20 by German Nazi soldiers and separated from his mother, father, brother and three sisters. (CNS photo/Carlo Allegri, Reuters
by Nancy Linenkugel
Contributor
Language doesn't possess a word horrible enough to express it. Dastardly? No. Horrendous? No. Unadulterated evil? No. None of these is enough as we describe the awful truth and stark reality.
On Jan. 27, 2015, the world marked the 70th anniversary of the Russian liberation of Auschwitz. Among untold questions and disbeliefs surrounding this concentration camp, the truth that 1.1 million persons were exterminated there between 1940 and 1945 defies our logic and dulls our sensibilities.
More mind-boggling is the reality that Hitler's quest for a master race and world domination was carried out by highly educated, highly cultured and highly intelligent persons. The German people excelled in the arts, architecture, science, medicine, engineering; perhaps that very intelligence and culture led to the creation of such a successful extermination machine. Lesser minds could never have come up with that.
Rabbi Abraham Heschel (1907-1972) was a friend of Martin Luther King, Jr. and a believer in civil rights. He suggested that the souls of the rest of us went up in flames along with the bodies of the Jews and others who were killed 70 years ago. Not forgetting and not being indifferent to the suffering of others is the key that history won't be repeated.
This year 2015 is an anniversary for me as well. In 1975 – 40 years ago – my sister and I traveled to Basel, Switzerland to spend a day with Otto Frank (1889-1980), father of Anne Frank, and his second wife, Fritzi (1905-1998).
Readers of The Diary of Anne Frank know that Mrs. Edith Frank and their two daughters, Margot and Anne, perished in Bergen-Belsen. Otto was in Auschwitz and clung to life during the prisoner march prior to liberation. His second wife, Fritzi, had a similar story as her husband and son were killed in the camps but a daughter survived. Our meeting was just five years before Otto died and it was such a privilege to meet him and Fritzi. I clearly recall Otto's passionate message: "Do not hate, do not hate, do not hate."
For Otto Frank, compassion and forgiveness triumph over the evil that words cannot describe. For Rabbi Heschel, empathy and remembrance promise victory over the evil that words cannot describe. Both sentiments are lights inspiring us to prevent that evil from occurring again.
Yes, those are much better words – hopeful, heartfelt, and truly human.
[Sr. Nancy Linenkugel is a Sylvania Franciscan sister and chair of the department of Health Services Administration at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio.]