Gragg - MY BROTHERS KEEPER: christians who risked all to protect jewish targets of the nazi holocaust

Copyright 2016 by Rod Gragg

Cover design by Jody Waldrup; Cover photography by Corbis

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

ISBN 978-1-4555-6630-3

E3-20160912-JV-PC

For my dear friends the Knstlers

The Righteous Among the Nations

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples.

John 13:3435 ASV

It would be an honor, for me, to give my life for Gods ancient people.

Casper ten Boom, 1944

They are perhaps the sole rays of light in this dark era, the few whose consciences prevented them from being indifferent.

Yad Vashem

Then the LORD said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother?

And he said, I do not know. Am I my brothers keeper?

Genesis 4:9 NASB

M ANY DID NOTHINGEVEN though they called themselves Christians. Others joined the Nazis and supported the Shoah, or Holocaustthe dark, deadly storm that swept over Europe with the rise of Nazi Germany. In it more than six million Jewish men, women, and children perished, killed by starvation or illness, fatally tortured or beaten, shot by Nazi death squads, or executed in concentration camp gas chambers. Contrary to popular misconception, in many ways the Jews of Europe resisted the evil that befell them. Many Jewish leaders courageously protested the persecution before they were silenced. Countless numbers tried desperately to escape captivity. Others became resistance fighters or joined partisan bands. Some even tried to fight their way out of the gas chambers. Most, however, were women and children, often rendered helpless before the mighty force that overwhelmed thembut even they tried to resist. Every Jewish mother who gave her food ration to her child or shielded her infants eyes from looming destruction was a resister. And as the unimaginable horror of the Holocaust descended upon Europe, countless people who professed the name of Christ also refused to remain silent or inactive. Many risked everything to help rescue Jewish targets of Nazi tyranny. Some even made the ultimate sacrifice, faithfully fulfilling the words of Jesus: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

They ranged in personal faith from nominal believers to the devout. My Brothers Keeper records the stories of thirty of them, all of whom have been honored by the State of Israel as the Righteous Among the Nations. In 1953 the Knessetthe Israeli national legislatureestablished Yad Vashem, Israels official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, which is located on the Mount of Remembrance in Jerusalem. There people of diverse nationalities, races, and religions are memorialized by Yad Vashem for a common cause: they risked all to assist the Jews who were victims of the Shoah or Holocaust. Within their ranks were the Christians whose sacrifices are chronicled in this work, and whose lives personify Yad Vashems description of the Righteous Among the Nations: In a world of total moral collapse there was a small minority who mustered extraordinary courage to uphold human values. They are perhaps the sole rays of light in this dark era, the few whose consciences prevented them from being indifferent to the fate of the Jews. One of the Christians whose story is recounted in this work likely spoke for all herein when he explained why he chose to risk everything to save a single Jewish life. I know that when I stand before God on Judgment Day, he said, I shall not be asked the question posed to Cainwhere were you when your brothers blood was crying out to God?