The last few paragraphs of this article struck me. I still remember visiting Bergen Belsen when I was five. Days later my family was held at gunpoint returning from the Pergumum in East Berlin. In that East German border guard with the submachine gun, I saw a living testimony to the evils that occurred at Bergen Belsen. Communists and Fascists have always been the same to me on an emotional level. The evils of WWII were fresh in the early 80s. My five-year-old was impressionable. Imagination ran wild for me in those days. Later in my 20s when offered a chance to visit Dachau, I went to Oktoberfest instead. I could not let loose the memories and imagination of a five-year-old again. What gets me concerning your summary of Moltmann is; I think his perspective has largely been lost. I suppose in a way my faith has been forged from those experiences since I was five. Yet, today I look in horror as anti-semitism resurfaces. A hundred years has not yet passed, but humanity seems to be fully healed from the atrocities, in that they seem more than willing to commit them again. I'm not sure those fires forge theology anymore. Your writing breathes life into the memories.
Thank you so much for sharing! I do think the memories of WWII are growing more distant and people are forgetting. Yet, I am also aware how much people never took the right lessons from that conflict. It took decades for Germany (at least West Germany) to really come to grips with what happened and accept guilt, and almost as soon as that was happening, we get a new right wing movement that is erasing the progress. And of course the East operated by a very different narrative that continues to affect it to this day. As you note, anti-Semitism decreased a bit in the West but is now making a comeback. Japan's difficulties acknowledging the war crimes of its military are well-known. And now after many decades of interventionism, the U.S. is pivoting back toward isolationism. But probably none of this should surprise us, because we see how people take the wrong lessons from tragedies in our own day, and we know that human beings often accomplish great feats only when motivated by extreme necessity. Many thanks for reading.
The last few paragraphs of this article struck me. I still remember visiting Bergen Belsen when I was five. Days later my family was held at gunpoint returning from the Pergumum in East Berlin. In that East German border guard with the submachine gun, I saw a living testimony to the evils that occurred at Bergen Belsen. Communists and Fascists have always been the same to me on an emotional level. The evils of WWII were fresh in the early 80s. My five-year-old was impressionable. Imagination ran wild for me in those days. Later in my 20s when offered a chance to visit Dachau, I went to Oktoberfest instead. I could not let loose the memories and imagination of a five-year-old again. What gets me concerning your summary of Moltmann is; I think his perspective has largely been lost. I suppose in a way my faith has been forged from those experiences since I was five. Yet, today I look in horror as anti-semitism resurfaces. A hundred years has not yet passed, but humanity seems to be fully healed from the atrocities, in that they seem more than willing to commit them again. I'm not sure those fires forge theology anymore. Your writing breathes life into the memories.
Thank you so much for sharing! I do think the memories of WWII are growing more distant and people are forgetting. Yet, I am also aware how much people never took the right lessons from that conflict. It took decades for Germany (at least West Germany) to really come to grips with what happened and accept guilt, and almost as soon as that was happening, we get a new right wing movement that is erasing the progress. And of course the East operated by a very different narrative that continues to affect it to this day. As you note, anti-Semitism decreased a bit in the West but is now making a comeback. Japan's difficulties acknowledging the war crimes of its military are well-known. And now after many decades of interventionism, the U.S. is pivoting back toward isolationism. But probably none of this should surprise us, because we see how people take the wrong lessons from tragedies in our own day, and we know that human beings often accomplish great feats only when motivated by extreme necessity. Many thanks for reading.