Brad, a couple of years ago I tried to explore the whole question of the
persecution of the Jews. You can find it at:
http://members.eisa.com/~ec086636/christians&jews.htm .
The subject of how the Jews were treated is a little painful for me because
my parents were from central Europe. My dad was ethnically German, my
mother Polish. When I was very young, we lived in a German speaking
community in rural Saskatchewan. Slandering the Jews and blaming all of the
woes of the world on them was as commonplace as breathing. Many of the
people around me would gladly have helped Hitler move the Jews to the gas
chambers. However, others would have helped and harboured them. Ever so
much depended on peoples' backgrounds.
Ed Weick
> Ed Weick wrote:
>
> [snip]
> > I don't know if ordinary citizens should be responsible for their
leaders
> > war crimes. I've read Daniel Goldhagen's "Hitler's Willing
Executioners",
> > which argues that the Holocaust was the product of how Germans thought
about
> > Jews and that all Germans, not only Hitler, had to bear the guilt. But
then
> > you can't try everybody in Germany as a war criminal.
> [snip]
>
> This is why I really liked the article in the NYT Sunday Magazine
> some time ago about all the Germans who, during WWII, did
> things to help the jews (and others) *where the level of risk
> to the person helping was relatively *low**.
>
> I don't think one can ask people to be martyrs (esp. if oneself
> is WInston Churchill with his gold Breguet watch and his estate or
> Osama bin Laden with his oil wealth, or Martin Luther King
> with his silk shirts and his place in history or at least on
> the evening news, etc.).). But there is a gray area between
> being a martyr and being an executioner. Sometimes just not
> seeing something one saw ("Who?") may be help enough. How hard is that
> if you have a paycheck in your pocket? ("I am a jew. I need help."
> "I can see you need help, sir, but don't lie to me about
> anything as important here in the Third Reich as your
> ancestry!")
>
> \brad mccormick
>
> --
> Let your light so shine before men,
> that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
>
> Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
>
> <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
>
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