Research on the rescuers has shown that some were Christians whose activities on behalf of Jews during World War II were, at least in part, religiously inspired. This article argues that these religious rescuers have left behind important clues for the churches as they respond to Christian moral failure during the Holocaust and seek to be morally stronger communities today. Eight lessons for the churches are proposed, in the following areas: Christian attitudes toward Jews; character formation; Christian community; piety and spirituality; the Bible; religious tolerance; patriotism; and Christian moral leadership.
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References
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and from Douglas Huneke, “In the Darkness... Glimpses of Light: A Study of Nazi-Era Rescuers” (Report, Oregon Committee for the Humanities, 1980).
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2. Eva Fleischner reports that her research on rescuers was suggested by Yehuda Bauer. Fleischner, “Can the Few Become the Many? Some Catholics in France Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust,” in Remembering for the Future, ed. A. Roy Eckardt and Alice Eckardt (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1989), 1:233. My own research was stimulated by the comments of Lawrence Baron at the 1990 Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust, Nashville, TN. Baron lamented the absence of Christian researchers on the righteous Gentiles and essentially invited my involvement.
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3. It could be argued that a North American Southern Baptist writing in 1996 is not a member of the same faith community as, say, a wartime Italian Roman Catholic or a German Lutheran. In other words, one could argue that cultural, experiential, and chronological distance limits the extent to which I can speak meaningfully about the behavior of these Christians during the war. To this I can respond only by claiming the considerable continuity of Christian belief and identity across culture and time. I can also respond by acknowledging that my interpretation of the Christian rescuers is both conditioned by my own context and intended to be of service to that context.
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4. Interview with author, Dec. 1991.
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5. Philip Friedman, Their Brothers' Keepers (New York: Holocaust Library, 1957), p. 13.
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My own work, The Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust: A Christian Interpretation (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1994), analyzes the findings of these and many smaller-scale research projects on rescuers.
7.
7. For an appreciative but critical analysis of these studies, see David P. Gushee, “Many Paths to Righteousness: An Assessment of Research on Why Righteous Gentiles Helped Jews,”Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 7(3):372-401 (1993).
8.
8. Ibid., p. 388.
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9. See Gushee, Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, chap. 6.
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10. Of course, the not-explicitly-religious motivations are also of great interest and importance, and it would be unwise to draw some impermeable boundary between these different ways of discussing the mystery of human motivation. Perhaps it is my own context that leads me to think that the explicitly religious motivations and religious practices are worthy of isolation and special attention, for among theologically conservative and devout evangelical Christians, motivation, behavior, and morality are almost always discussed in the language of faith and shaped by the practices of faith.
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11. For example, evangelical Christians will not accept any theological claim that abandons classic Christian beliefs about the person of Jesus: his messiahship, incarnation, bodily resurrection, or divinity. Likewise, most will reject any claim that the New Testament itself, erroneously and tragically, is antisemitic.
12.
12. Oliner and Oliner, Altruistic Personality, pp. 154-155, 157.
13.
Fleischner , “Can the Few Become the Many?” p. 239.
14.
14. See Gushee, Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, pp. 119-125.
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15. It should be noted that most Protestant evangelicals draw a sharp line between the authority of Scripture and that of Christian tradition; the latter can be and is criticized relentlessly where criticism is due. This provides an opening for uprooting anti-Judaism in Christian tradition so long as that uprooting can be justified in biblical terms.
16.
16. Magda Trocmé, quoted in Philip Hallie, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), p. 120.
17.
17. Like everyone else exploring the activities in Le Chambon, I am indebted to the work of Pierre Sauvage—both his film, Weapons of the Spirit (1989), and occasional articles he has written.
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18. This phenomenon was discussed by Pierre Sauvage in a 1989 PBS interview with Bill Moyers.
19.
19. A helpful review article is Pamela Oline, “Rescuing the Hidden Story,”Books & Religion, 18(2):4-7, 11 (1991).
20.
20. Douglas Huneke, “Glimpses of Light in a Vast Darkness: A Study of the Moral and Spiritual Development of Nazi-Era Rescuers,” in Remembering for the Future, ed. Eckardt and Eckardt, 1:488.
21.
21. Oliner and Oliner, Altruistic Personality, p. 93.
22.
22. Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, pp. 169-170.
23.
23. Quoted in Mordecai Paldiel, “Hesed and the Holocaust,”Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 23(1):104 (1986).
24.
24. Luke 10:25-37.
25.
25. Matt. 7:12.
26.
26. Ibid., 25:31-46.
27.
27. Gen. 4:8-10.
28.
Gushee , Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, chap. 6.
29.
29. The reference is to internecine Southern Baptist arguments over the precise way to describe the nature and authority of the Bible.
30.
30. Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, pp. 129-132.
31.
See Gushee, “Many Paths to Righteousness,” pp. 387-388.
32.
32. Oliner and Oliner, Altruistic Personality, p. 159.
