God and Caesar
“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” (Matthew 22:21)

Not long after Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939, a Polish public health nurse discovered the stark nature of evil. Forced to serve the regional government of occupied Poland as it established a Jewish ghetto in her city, her duties included identifying the sick. She was assured that they would be treated in regional hospitals and reunited with their families. One day she was summoned to a wooded site where an SS “mobile killing unit” had slaughtered hundreds of Jews from the surrounding area. She recognized from among the dead several people she had identified in reports the week before.

The Polish nurse suddenly understood the awful truth about the Nazis. A devout, practicing Roman Catholic, apolitical and dedicated to healing, she had to make a choice – obey the Nuremburg Laws of 1935, which deprived Jews of their civil rights, or obey God’s law. She chose to obey God’s law, specifically to rescue young Jewish children by removing them from the ghetto and placing them in homes of a few trusted members of her extended family.

She sought the assistance of her parish priest, asking that he give her signed, incomplete baptismal certificates in order to better protect the children by making it appear they were Christian. He refused on the ground that scripture forbade the violation of secular law. She continued the rescue operation without her pastor’s support. It should be noted that other priests in similar circumstances did, in fact, provide fake baptismal certificates.

The nurse practiced for days walking with a child hidden between her legs under the hoop of her dress uniform. Once convinced that a child could follow her movements without verbal commands, they set out for the two guard posts. At one she was required to leave a daily report and at the second to sign out of the ghetto.

Twelve Jewish children were saved in this manner. The last child, a little boy, was very sick. As they neared the first guard post he began to cough and the nurse could not mask his cough with her own. A Ukrainian militia man knocked the woman to the ground with the butt of his rifle, exposing the child. Other guards held the boy upside down and one shot him to death, then turned the rifle on the nurse and summarily executed her. A Nazi officer ordered that the bodies remain in place for three days as a warning to anyone else who might consider helping Jews in violation of law.

The nurse’s brother was asked why she risked her life on behalf of strangers. He responded she acted as she did because Christians are commanded to love others.

The term “Righteous Among the Nations” refers to Non-Jews, like the Polish nurse, who aided Jews during the Holocaust, which began the night of November 9, 1938. On that night, Kristallnacht, (“Night of the Broken Glass”), a government organized pogrom (riot) was carried out in full view of the entire German population. Ninety-two Jews were murdered; 30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps; more than 200 synagogues were destroyed; tens of thousands of Jewish homes and business were ransacked. “Pogroms” have been happening against the Jewish people since at least the time of the Crusades in the11th century.

The 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht will be commemorated worldwide three weeks from today and I am honored to have been asked to participate in its local commemoration. All of you are invited to attend the program on Sunday, November 9th at Temple B’rith Kodesh on Elmwood Avenue beginning at 7 P.M.

What followed Kristallnach for the next 7 years was the systematic slaughter of up to 11 million innocent people, six million of them Jews (God’s “chosen people”), men, women, and (1.5 million) children, all at the command of modern day Caesar, Adolph Hitler. It started in Germany, but with the annexation of Austria in 1938 soon spread throughout Europe.

There were “Righteous Among the Nations” or “Righteous Gentiles” in every country overrun or allied with the Nazis during World War II, and their deeds often led to saving Jewish lives. Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem bestows special honors on these heroes in three areas of recognition. To date over 22,000 “Righteous Gentiles” from 44 countries have been recognized. The country with the most is Poland, which tragically lost 80% of its Jewish population. The country with the highest proportion (per capita) is the Netherlands. The figure of 22,000 is far from complete, however, as many cases were never reported, frequently because those who were helped, eventually died. Moreover, this figure only includes those who actually risked their lives to save Jews, and not those who merely extended a helping hand.

While tens of thousands during the Holocaust acted humanely, even heroically, sadly many, many more did neither.

In today’s gospel from Matthew, Jesus teaches a lesson about a citizen’s dual responsibility – responsibility to secular authority and responsibility to God’s authority. “Is it lawful,” Jesus is asked, “to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? If he answered “no,” he would have been reported to Roman authorities and arrested for treason. If he answered “yes,” he would have been branded a Roman collaborator and lost credibility among his followers. Aware of the trap, Jesus skillfully avoids it by answering: “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

As citizens of political entities we have certain obligations, for example, to pay taxes that fund public services. But just as importantly, one of those obligations is to insure that public servants perform competently and ethically. Accordingly, it is our duty to hold them accountable for their actions. Voting on November 4th is obviously one way we will do that.

As citizens of God’s kingdom we likewise have important obligations that flow from the First and Second Great Commandments – love God and love neighbor. We are to be Christ-like in our behavior toward one another. We are to be in the world the “Good News” that Jesus proclaimed. It is our duty, therefore, to pursue justice, most particularly justice for intended victims of the worst forms of injustice like genocide. When secular law is intrinsically evil, when Caesar’s law clearly conflicts with God’s law, a Christian’s duty is always to obey God’s law.

How then could the Holocaust have happened in predominately Christian Europe? What went so terribly wrong? Did Christianity fail its greatest test ever? Can the reality of Auschwitz be reconciled with a God who is active in human history? These are the types of questions that will be explored in a twelve session course entitled “The Two Thousand Year Road to the Holocaust – An Interfaith Study of the Greater Rochester Community” that begins in ten days, on October 29th. Biblical scholar, theologian and retired United Methodist minister Ted Weeden, Deacon Tom Driscoll and I helped prepare the course syllabus and will be among the presenters, which includes several Holocaust survivors. For more information, check the kiosk in the entry foyer or log on to www.holocaustroad.org .

Jews ponder the Holocaust and ask: Where was God? Christians need to do the same and also ask: Where was Church? Church as institution and Church as body of Christ? The sad truth about the Holocaust is that it would never have happened if more Christians at the time and for centuries before had genuinely practiced their faith.

Religion, you see, is as religion does, all the rest is talk. That’s why Ellie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, writer, and Nobel Peace Prize winner has said: “Christianity died at Auschwitz.” That is a powerful indictment. And it’s up to us post-Auschwitz Christians throughout the world to prove it wrong.

Deacon Anthony J. Sciolino
Church of the Transfiguration
Pittsford, New York

Isaiah 45:1, 4-6; 1Thessolians 1:1-5b; Matthew 22:15-21. 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time. October 19, 2008. (Cycle A)