[July 2003 journal entry]
While driving to work with our youngest daughter, we discussed the Nazi Holocaust section of her 8th-grade literature course. In addition to reading Anne Franke’s diary and Corrie ten Boom’s story, she was assigned to do some independent research on the concentration camps. We discussed the widespread anti-Semitism across Western Europe and in the United States as well as in Germany. We discussed the anti-Semitism that can be traced from Christianity’s beginnings into the 20th-century. Morgan asked whether and when most Germans knew about the horrors that occurred at the concentration camps. After talking about the everyday (often every hour) strains/decisions faced by Germans who saw clearly and who dared to resist, we considered the options available to those whose position of privilege and distance permitted them to minimize/avoid seeing/learning too much. They knew enough to attempt not to know more. When Morgan admitted that she often avoids reading or watching news or documentary reports of human suffering, I suggested that the many individuals around her with similar positions of privilege and distance as well as the many institutions/spheres (including ‘religion’) available to her will not seriously challenge her to do otherwise. We then looked at hints in the Synoptic Gospels that being with ‘Jesus’ would have meant to be constantly challenged to see more rather than less, to see all rather than a biased selection, to see ‘from below’ rather than ‘from above’.
While driving to work with our youngest daughter, we discussed the Nazi Holocaust section of her 8th-grade literature course. In addition to reading Anne Franke’s diary and Corrie ten Boom’s story, she was assigned to do some independent research on the concentration camps. We discussed the widespread anti-Semitism across Western Europe and in the United States as well as in Germany. We discussed the anti-Semitism that can be traced from Christianity’s beginnings into the 20th-century. Morgan asked whether and when most Germans knew about the horrors that occurred at the concentration camps. After talking about the everyday (often every hour) strains/decisions faced by Germans who saw clearly and who dared to resist, we considered the options available to those whose position of privilege and distance permitted them to minimize/avoid seeing/learning too much. They knew enough to attempt not to know more. When Morgan admitted that she often avoids reading or watching news or documentary reports of human suffering, I suggested that the many individuals around her with similar positions of privilege and distance as well as the many institutions/spheres (including ‘religion’) available to her will not seriously challenge her to do otherwise. We then looked at hints in the Synoptic Gospels that being with ‘Jesus’ would have meant to be constantly challenged to see more rather than less, to see all rather than a biased selection, to see ‘from below’ rather than ‘from above’.
