A recent visit to Yad Vashem

[ INTRODUCTORY NOTE: I thank the Rev. Dr. Gary Watts for giving me permission to post the pictures below, taken while he visited Yad Vashem recently, along with his brief commentary. Dim Lamp ]

                                                                       Yad Vashem

                                                                        Yad Vashem

Two days ago, I visited the Yad Vashem memorial. I hadn’t been there for a few years. So sadly moving to see results in real life of human evil.

Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day - Continued

[ INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO READERS: The following, Spirit-inspired letter was sent to me by my friend Fritz Voll, who has devoted many years to Jewish-Christian Relations, as well as an active member on the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews, and was the founding webmaster of the excellent cyber library and reference website, Jewish-Christian Relations. This website is, in my humble opinion, the best of  its kind in the world. Fritz has kindly given me permission to publish his letter here on my blog, many thanks Fritz, and blessings always!  Dim Lamp ]

Dear Garth,

Thank you very much for writing and pointing me to your blog. I had just taken a break from reading the book of Sidney Cyngiser about his Holocaust ordeal, when I read your mail and looked up your blog. I started to write something directly into the Web page but then thought, this is getting too long, so I decided to send my comment to you as email. You can perhaps then put whatever you want into the comment box, the whole thing or just a few sentences. You can of course also make page of it as a letter from a friend of yours, whatever you decide will be fine with me.

Here it is:

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It is Friday, the 29th of April, two days before Yom HaShoa, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and I am reading the book that my dear Jewish friend, Sidney Cyngiser has just published. He and his wife Bronia are Holocaust survivors whom I met in Calgary, AB, about 27 years ago. He is six years older than I, and was as young teenager together with his family forcefully taken by German soldiers from their home in Radom, Poland. His mother and siblings were sent to the gas chambers in Treblinka and murdered, while he and his father were chosen ('selected' they called it) to do slave labour at only about 17 years of age. He survived the hunger, cruelty of the guards and hard labour in more than one concentration camp and in the end the death-march from the east of Germany to Stuttgart-Vaihingen in the west. Diseased and as a skeleton of skin and bones he was freed by the American army and received prolonged medical care, only to see other survivors die around him with no chance to survive their survival. In hospital he had met Bronia, a child survivor of the camps.

I am reading the book as a German who came to Canada and to the City of Calgary rather late in life with my wife and three teenagers. I was 46 then and at age 53 I met Sidney at a Holocaust Symposium for high school students that I attended as a German in order to answer questions about the new democratic Germany. I also met adult children of survivors -- they were called the "Second Generation." Some of them encouraged me to stand with them as witness of what had happened, they considered me "Second Generation" as well, being a German of the generation after that of the perpetrators of the Shoah, the Holocaust.

When I first met Sidney, he accepted me with open arms and an open heart. After having had studied the Holocaust already in my youth soon after WW II, I had expected to be shunned by survivors. I had never before met one before in Germany and here in Calgary were about 70, all integrated in a vibrant Jewish community. After they had heard my views on the Shoah and my deep sorrow over what had been done and had perceived my utter condemnation of what was done in our name as Germans, some begun to trust me, and one of the first and most remarkable persons to do so was Sidney Cyngiser. We sat together and talked. He told me some of his experiences of German SS-guards that are so horrific that he would not relate them to the students. Sometimes I wept with him when we talked over the phone about the unspeakable cruelty of ordinary Germans who actually believed what their Nazi masters had told them about the Jews and enthusiastically or just in blind obedience debased, tortured and murdered the people of God's covenant, the people of the Christian Bible, whom Christians, for centuries, had considered only in a "theology of contempt" (Jules Isaac), who for Christians had been replaced by the church, who were expelled from 'Christian' countries and blamed for all the evils in the world for centuries.

In meeting these survivors I had to face recent German history again, but now in experiences of people like myself. Since that time the Jewish Shoah is present to me on every day of my life. When I hear the rumors people are spreading about other people -- I know where it can lead to. When I am in physical pain due to an illness, I think of the suffering of God's people Israel before they had a country of their own. When I hear and read about the denial of the Holocaust, I can sense how the survivors and their children are again hurting, because after all their unspeakable suffering that left deep wounds and scars in their bodies and souls, they are tortured again as liars. And then there are those, even 'Christians,' who blame the Jews for their fate, as people blame the raped woman for her ordeal. Every day new wounds are thoughtlessly or violently punched into the souls of the Jewish people in conversations, on the Internet and by badmouthing Israel, as if the young nation was not a nation of Jewish individuals, many of them survivors of the Holocaust, others of anti-Semitism in diverse countries who finally found a home, after no one wanted them.

Recently I translated a small German Anthology of Citations. Words by historians, philosophers, theologians and even perpetrators and survivors of the Holocaust that span the history of Germany from the outgoing 19th through the 20th century. A chorus of voices that can make us watchful for the early signs of discrimination against groups of people different to ourselves but no less human than we are.

The book that I am reading:

Sidney Cyngiser: Surviving the Survival: The Life Stories of Holocaust Survivors Sidney and Bronia Cyngiser. 2010, 484 pages. ISBN 978-0-9811715-0-0 . Contact: Sidney Cyngiser, 119 Canterville Rd SW, Calgary, AB T2W 4R2 Tel: (403) 238-3788)

The small book I translated from the German:

Konrad Goerg, We are what we Remember: Germans, Two Generations after Auschwitz. Voices to Remind Us.

116 pages. http://konrad-goerg.com/index.html

[Kindle Edition]

http://www.amazon.com/We-are-what-remember-ebook/dp/B0041VXTPW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AZC9TZ4UC9CFC&s=digital-text&qid=1283734336&sr=8-1

[Paperback]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/3866283423/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_0/187-8181332-7085711?ie=UTF8&qid=1283734336&sr=8-1&condition=used

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I don't know if I told you about the Holocaust Education Week that takes place in Toronto in November of each year, organized by the Jewish community and the Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Toronto. They had 100 different events during the week last November in libraries, schools, churches and synagogues (not in a mosque). I attended an event in Markham at a Baptist church, whose senior pastor has become a good friend since, and at a synagogue, where I heard Prof. Harold Troper speak, one of the writers of the book "None is too Many."

Thanks again and every blessing to you and yours.

Fritz

Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day

Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day

This Sunday, May 1, 2011, marks Yom HaShoah—Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is observed on the Hebrew calendar date of Nissan 27th. The purpose of this day is to remember the lives of some six million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust, and to learn from the experiences and testimony of Holocaust Survivors. The day was chosen by Israel’s Knesset in 1951, and is observed by most Jews around the world. On this day, the Jewish mourning prayer is prayed, which you can see here.

   One of the most helpful resources I have found—I do not know if it is still in print— for Jews and Christians to observe Yom HaShoah together is Eugene J. Fisher & Leon Klenicki, An Interreligious Holocaust Memorial Service: From Desolation to Hope (New York & Chicago: Stimulus Foundation & Liturgy Training Publications, my copy was revised in 1990).

   The following website—although some items may need to be updated—is an informative resource for further information on the Holocaust: The Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre.

   For a first-hand account of a Holocaust Survivor, I highly recommend the books of Nobel Peace Prize winner, author, scholar, teacher and humanitarian, Elie Wiesel. You can also visit his website here.

   Online articles on Yom Hashoah are also available at the Jewish-Christian Relations website here.

   I encourage Christian readers to attend the Yom HaShoah Service in your community, if there is one. Contact your local synagogue for the pertinent information.

Easter Greeting

Quote

 “Faith is different from theology because theology is reasoned, systematic, and orderly, whereas faith is disorderly, intermittent, and full of surprises….Faith is homesickness. Faith is a lump in the throat. Faith is less a position on than a movement toward, less a sure thing than a hunch. Faith is waiting.” –Frederick Buechner

Funeral Sermon John Tetz

Funeral sermon for John Tetz; based on Rev 14:13; Rom 5:1-8 & Jn 14:1-6; by Pastor Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson; at St Peter Lutheran Church; Medicine Hat; one o’clock; April 13, 2011.

We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of your loved one, John Tetz. John has been a very important person to each of you as members of his family; as a friend and neighbour; as an active member of this congregation and in the wider community. There is no question, you will miss him.

John was a faithful Christian man. His faithfulness shone through his many acts of kindness towards others. He attended Worship Services here regularly and served on Church Council. While living in our GSS facility, South Ridge Village, John participated in our Hymn Sings, and Sunday Worship Services.

John’s family members knew him as a giving and hard-working person. He had a very strong work ethic; and even while on his holidays he would help other people out with various jobs such as painting and fixing things and volunteering over at the Stampede grounds. John was also a quiet man of few words and a lot of inner strength. These qualities in John influenced and inspired his family members.

John was also committed to the wider community. He was president of CUPE for the custodians and housekeepers and an active contributor to negotiations. He was very involved over at the Veiner Centre; participating in the Thursday Night Club; 50 Plus Club; and Meals on Wheels. He also volunteered for the Salvation Army Christmas Kettles program.

John also enjoyed curling, dancing, playing ball in the old-timer’s league, making wooden bowls, travelling to places like the British Isles and the southern United States, and reading-especially westerns.

John’s children described him as a good man who stood by his word. He did the best he could; the family knew that; and God knows that. He was not a man who needed a lot of recognition.

In our passages of Scripture, we learn of what God has done for John; and we celebrate what God was able to do through him.

Our passage from Rev 14:13 emphasises at least two things concerning the death of faithful Christians. The writer tells us that those who die in the Lord are blessed. In other words, those who are people of faith; who place their whole life into God’s hands; those who trust in the Lord above everyone and everything else are blessed. Such people of faith are blessed because of their relationship with Jesus their Lord and Saviour. The deaths of faithful people like John remind us then of the need to be in a loving and trusting relationship with Jesus.

The other important thing we learn from this passage is that faithful people like John now rest from their labours—their time to work is now over. The passage also points out that their deeds follow them; their labours were not in vain; they bore fruit and live on in the hearts, minds and lives of others. Just as the labours and deeds gave John meaning and purpose in his life; so now others find meaning and purpose from such labours and deeds. For that we give the Lord our thanks. Eugene Peterson, in The Message, puts it like this: “None of what they’ve done is wasted; God blesses them for it all in the end.” May that be true of John and of all of us here today!

In our passage from Romans, the apostle Paul tells us of what God through Jesus Christ has done for John and for you and me. In Christ he has given us so much: we are justified by faith; through Jesus we have peace with God; we have access to God’s grace; we are given the hope of sharing the glory of God. The verse that stands out for me though is the last one, verse eight: “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Or, as Eugene Peterson puts it: “But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.”

For me, this is one of the most important verses in the Bible. We are all sinners in rebellion against God. We are enemies of God in our sinful state of being. Yet, it was at precisely that time when we were farthest away from God that God sent Jesus into the world to die for us all; to show his love for us; and to forgive us. Our sin and rebellion hurt God and his Son Jesus deeply. Yet, that hurt and pain of God was crucified as an act of sacrificial love for you, for me, for John, and for the whole human race.

We may be grieving today, and it is appropriate to grieve the loss of our loved ones. Yet, in our grief, we are in the presence of a faithful, loving God. On one occasion, I heard someone say: “To forgive, you have to first of all be hurt.” The point that person was making is this: forgiveness is not easy. Until you’re hurt and hurt deeply, you don’t have anything to forgive. The pain of Christ’s death is the greatest act of love and forgiveness. As you hurt and may be suffering pain over the death of John; I hope and pray that you will be given the love and grace of Jesus to forgive those who may have hurt you and caused you pain. I hope and pray that Christ’s example of reaching out to us in love and forgiveness will influence you and strengthen you to do the same towards one another. For the greatest power in this world is Christ’s love and forgiveness; and that too is what we celebrate today and during this season of Lent as we move closer to Holy Week and remember what Jesus did for us on the cross on Good Friday.

In our passage from the Gospel of John, the theme of Christ’s love for us continues and moves us beyond death into a new, joyous state of being of resurrection and eternal life. Jesus, speaking of our eternal, heavenly home has this to say: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” That is Good News for John and for everyone who believes in Jesus. Then, Jesus makes this wonderful promise: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” What a message of comfort and hope that is! We can take Jesus at his word on this wonderful promise. In love he has prepared an eternal dwelling place for us. One day, Jesus shall come and take us to our eternal home where everything is ready for us when we arrive—where John is now.

In my last few visits with John, he told me that he was ready to go to his eternal home. He was prepared; he was longing to go; John had the sense that his life here was complete; he had lived his life. How fitting it is to know that; and to know that Jesus has prepared a place for him. He is in his perfect home with Jesus now. My hope and prayer for all of you here today is that when your time comes to leave this world; you too shall be prepared like John was; you too shall place all of your trust and your life into the loving hands of Jesus who comes to give us resurrection life; eternal life; and one day take us to our eternal home.

The story is told of an old man who everyday took long walks with the LORD. While walking, the LORD God and the elderly man talked about all kinds of things—about the important times in the old man’s life: when he met his wife, the birth of his children, special Christmases, and so on. One day while they were out walking for a very long time, the LORD looked at the old man and said: “We are closer to my house than we are to yours. Why don’t you just come home with me.” And that is what he did! That too is what John did. The LORD has come to him to take him to the Father’s house, where he shall live forever with Jesus and his loved ones who have gone before him. One day you too can be in the Father’s house, in a room which Jesus has prepared for you if you trust in him and believe in him with your whole life. That is worth celebrating and to that we say: thanks be to God! Amen.

What’s in a name?

Paul Dickenson, in his 1986 book, A Collector’s Compendium of Rare and Unusual, Bold and Beautiful, Odd and Whimsical NAMES; the author cites the following names of people who become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy:

Will Drop was a Montreal window washer who died washing windows. Joe Bunt was a baseball coach. Dan Druf was a barber. Mr O’neil and Mr Pray became business partners in church equipment. Will Burn died in an electric chair. Go, Forth, and Ketchum were motorcycle police officers. Zoltan Ovary was a gynaecologist. P.P. Peters was a urologist. Will Crumble was a plaster contractor.

Do you know what's in your name? What significance is your name to you? Those of us who are batized members of God's family, were/are called and named by God; whose name means life; and who gives life. Now that's worth remembering and celebrating every day!