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Saturday, September 2, 2017

Amen

Amen is a true war story about true war heroes - not the kind that throw themselves on grenades or lead the charge up the hill or command great armies, but the rarest kind of all, the kind who possess the courage and the integrity to object to what is clearly objectionable, sacrificing their own comfort and safety for the sake of the truth, and for the lives of their fellow men.

An SS officer, in charge of clean water production, learns that a chemical he is using to purify water is also being used to gas hundreds of thousands of Jews in concentration camps. At first he is disbelieving, but then sees it for himself as his fellows proudly demonstrate the gas chamber.
The officer immediately goes to the Protestant church of which he is a member, but finds only excuses, denials, fairy tales. No one is being killed, he is told. They are being moved to different countries.

He goes then to the Catholic Church and is met with a generally similar response, except from a single priest, who, through his father, has connections to the Pope himself.

But when this priest goes to the Pope, he is told that he is being unrealistic. There is diplomacy to be considered, and the safety of the Vatican, and the problem of objecting to Hitler and not to Stalin. It's not as simple as simply speaking out against the murder of Jews. Aside from that, the Pope wants proof, and the Americans want proof.

In the meantime, the SS officer pleads with his church pastor and committee to speak the truth, to instruct the parishioners to pin the yellow star of David on their clothing. They can't kill us all.
Madness, he is told. It is still only 1942. The German people are cozy. The economy is strong. And undesirables are simply being removed from the good population (sound familiar?).

The young priest tries again, taking the SS officer with him to the Vatican this time. But Italy has been invaded by the Allies and the Pope is trying to save Italians, and also the holy sites that are being bombarded.

Have patience, the priest is told. God will make all things right.

Dumbfounded, stupefied, the priest stumbles backward, then slowly withdraws a yellow star from his pocket, pins it on his cloak, and walks to the train depot to line up with the Jews about to be transported.

This is the way God makes things right. Through one caring person at a time. One man of integrity. One hero.

The SS officer, discarding his uniform, escapes Germany and enters the Allied lines in France. He carries documents, plans, names, details. It is concluded by the Allied staff members that no man of God would ever have donned an SS uniform. He is, he is told, guilty of murder. He is jailed, and hangs himself in the jail cell.

The young priest dies in the gas chamber.

Later on, during the Nuremburg trials, the testimony of these two men was used in the conviction of Nazi war criminals.

Ultimately, in the hindsight of history, they did not die in vain. Neither, however, while living, did they choose, like so many others, to live in vain.

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