Show Prisoner says Waldh cept 'torcure chambe By STEVE RODAN Helifjious Ncas Service From section cover more recent months people have followed the hunt for Josef Mengele read about the capture and upcoming trial of Klaus Barbie seen two Americans extradited to stand trial for their acts and heard the accusations laid against former United Nations Kurt VV'aldhcim he said Yet at the same time there appears to be a growing number of people who claim there never was a Holocaust but that it was merely a hoax he said This mentality can be seen in the increasing number of LaRouchean followers in the United States "People espousing overt are finding support and gaining political clout to a degree thought unthinkable just a few years ago" But "equally disturbing and perhaps more sinister" arc those today who say they are tired of hearing about the Hitler age and wonder if it isn't time to end the "guilt trip" and just forget the matter he said There is also an opposite fear that the constant attention in the media will trivialize the whole issue and downplay its serious moral content "Let me say categorically it is not time to forget but to remember" he said Toblcr said the Holocaust cries out for answers — even today Such as where was the God who acts in history when his "chosen people" were being systematically slaughtered? What is the nature of man where some men plot the extinction of millions some carry out their orders and many arc indifferent to the whole process? When do political issues become moral isIn sues? The Holocaust did happen "It of realities" he of survivors today mourn the loss of their enis the grimmest said 'thousands tire families The word itself derives from the Septuagint the Jewish trans- lation of the Hebrew Scripture into Greek "Holokaustos" (totally burnt) is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew "olah" the burnt sacrificial offering dedicated exclusively to God Generally now the term denotes the specific sacrifice of the European Jews by fire he said But how this mass annihilation was allowed to occur in the 8 Church News Ogden ARAD Israel — Kurt during World War II kept a torture chamber next to his office and a copy of Hitler's "Mcin KampP on his desk charges a former Jewish prisoner who worked for him Yoscf Weill 68 a Hungarian-born Israeli recruited into forced labor during World War II says he discovered the torture chamber while he was cleaning Waldheim's room Weill says he was recruited for forced labor in a prison that camp in served both the Nazis and their Hungarian allies worked in an office in the camp from January to May 1944 Weill says Weill whose story has been reported in the Israeli press told Religious News Service that his job was to clean the stables in which Hungarian and German officers — including Waldheim — kept their horses In his spare time he cleaned Waldheim's office One time while he was cleaning the office Weill says he saw the door to Waldheim's room ajar The door opened into another room "There was a room with two chairs and torture equipment" Weill said in an interview with heartland of Western civilization is a complex and difficult question to unravel he said adding there were at least three major components which made the Holocaust possible These include Hitler's own racial world v iew the rapid transformation of Germany into a police state where policies could be carried out w ithout effective opposition and the indifference and paralysis of the Western nations and the Christian churches During his power Hitler openly spoke and wrote about his intention to destroy all European Jews But in spite of this most German people who voted for Hitler and his cohorts never dreamed that such threat's would ever be carried out "They had heard Hitler's strident and vulgar propaganda against the Jews but considered it mostly that — propaganda" Toblcr said "They did in fact hope Jews would be put in their places but their main concerns were Hitler's promises for a return of national pride and prosperity" During this time no Germans appeared to object to Hitler's rapid consolidation of total pow- - ittiiiiiiWilmawaftt Associated Kurt Waldheim in May 1943 (left) RNS "There was a stick with rubber at the end and two pipes on the wall On the wall was written in blood something in Yiddish" a "What was written was 'Brothers and Sisters whoever remains alive avenge us" Weill said Weill said that he never returned to Waldheim — who was then called Lt Dr Kurt Waldheim Weill recalled Waldheim approached him and asked why he never came to his office Weill responded er or the establishment of the police state Over the years only few individual Germans went out of their way to do anything for their Jewish neighbors and friends The Nazis gradually "drew the noose of persecution loss of citizenexpropriation ship dignity and even the means of survival tighter" he said The actual Holocaust became a possibility and then a reality first with the control and terror of the police state the resultant fear among the people and the coming of the war — especially the attack on the Sov iet Union This all led in October of 1941 to the decision to carry out the "Final Solu- tion" he said Toblcr said this decision was also aided by the ongoing failure of "nerve and action" by the two major institutions with "some power to thwart these criminal plans" — the Christian churches and the Western powers — especially Britain and the United States "Their major sin was the sin of indifference — the sin of omission" During this time both the protestant and German Cathotralics had "strong i ditions" he said In response to Press and in May 1986 that he wasn't feeling well Waldheim then asked whether he saw the room next door and Weill admitted that he had "Then he told me that that (torture) happened before Weill he was in said Waldheim the favorite in runoff of the Austrian presidential election scheduled to take place Sunday has been the object of numerous charges that he served the Nazis in their effort to deport and kill Jews and partisans during World War II the some German Catholic" bishops protests of Hitler's early public mistreatment of the Jews Hitler said he could not understand their objections He was merely carrying out a Catholic Church policy to its conclusion "Smaller churches and sects with an occasional were incredibly vulnerable and with the exception of the Jehovah's Witnesses accommodated themselves sometimes reluctantly to the regime's policies in order to protect their members and their own existence" he said caust has posed major problems for Jew ish and Christian theology and believers he said one reconcile this most catastrophic of events in all of Jewish history with the omnipotence and goodness of a history and who had had some special relationship with this 'chosen people' in the past?" For traditional Jews and some fundamentalist Christians the Holocaust is viewed as God's punishment while for others the enormity of the Holocaust has destroyed their faith in Judaism Christianity and God "Others Jews and Christians alike stand somewhere in between" he said "The Holocaust is a mystery' man does not know why God permitted it to happen but Hitler and the SS were not doing God's will but their own at Auschwitz Nevertheless they insist the Holocaust experience will not be permitted to deprive them of a faith in God" Tobler said there are at least six lessons to be learned from the Holocaust One that "God acts in histoin part through us through I must do his (God's) work and I must do it according to his principles and his way His work is to care for all of his children He makes no distinctions between race color or nationality I cannot be slothful or indifferent and thereby permit to the limit of my power for those who do their own evil works or have become diabolical instruments to abound" ry me Two to beware of those who arrogate themselves to the power of God and show unbridled contempt for any of his children Three to understand that mankind "even in a supposedly enlightened age is capable of much evil — or much goodI should promote that which brings out the best in me and in my fellowmen" Four Christians Jews and of all faiths must be vigilant when political issues become moral issues "We cannot individually or collectively betray our witness of God and Christ through accommodation cowardice or fear There must be a limit to what we will tolerate when moral laws are transgressed" Five prejudice of any kind clouds political judgment and paralyzes moral will people A similar paralysis of indifference gripped the Western democracies he said During the And six America must always years and in the deptns of the Depression the United be a haven for the oppressed of States and Britain as well as the world It is at least as important as this country's responsibilother countries essentially closed their doors to fleeing Jewity for the military defense of the ish refugees "The lesson for Hitler was that others disliked Jews as much as he and that in dealing harshly with them he was doing what the world wanted but lacked the courage to carry out" he said How a person should think about and understand the Holo world "I believe another holocaust the modern intentional systematic bureaucratic and techof a nological annihilation people — could still take place ide pubin spite of the world-licity of the Final Solution" Tobler said "We can help prevent it if we do not forget" — June 7 1986 |