I have heard the story of a church in Germany during WWII which was located near a railroad track that served one of the concentration camps. Each Sunday morning a train taking Jewish people to the camp passed by the church and the church members could hear the cry of the people on the train. Hearing this cry every Sunday morning eventually disturbed the church members and they found themselves singing louder to drown out the cry of the people on the train.
Now many are critical of those church members. My question is: If you were a member of that church, what concrete actions would you take to assist the Jewish people? If you organized an action to stop the train and free the Jewish prisoners, it is a distinct possibility the Nazis would take retaliatory action against that community. The Nazis were known to randomly round up people in a community that defied their orders and kill them. If that happened, and it most likely would have, then the members of that church would need to decide who they would save—the Jewish people on the train or members of their community. Knowing this, what action would you have taken?
Many people in Germany during WWII faced this question. As Bonhoeffer noted, they were “trapped in a situation of ethical impossibilities. In the light of the monstrous evils being committed all around, what could one do and what should one do? In letters from his ordinands, we read of how tortured they were in knowing when to protest and when to accede, when to go to war, even if they knew it was unjust, and when to take a stand. . .” [1]
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[1] Eric Metaxas. Bonhoeffer. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010, pp. 470-471.
