The Grey Book Part 4

5 "MERCY-BAPTISMS"

Christian clergymen in many lands were prepared to baptize Jews if the ceremony of baptism meant that lives could be saved.

The following is related of the Lutheran Church in Slovakia:

"Many Jews who tried to escape persecution sought rescue by giving up their religion and by requesting to be received into the Evangelical Church, for the Catholic Church did not receive them. [96] The Evangelical Church did not refuse them, which was an act of courage in those days, but enabled them to become members of the Church...

Here some examples follow: <26> In 1940, 20 persons, most of them adults, became Christians in Bratislava.

For the year 1941 the number was 83; for the first half of the year 1942: 47 persons; for the second half: 7.828 persons were admitted in 1943; only 2 in 1944.

In Horne Zelenice (near Hlohovec), 169 persons became Christians in 1942; 39 in 1943; in 1945 only one. In Frencin 120 persons; in Kochanovce (near Treucin) 45; in Banska Bystrica, 202 persons became Christians in 1942.

This help aroused the anger of the rulers, of the Gestapo and of the Hlinka Guard. They began to arrest Evangelical Christians and pastors. 9 pastors were sent to the concentration camps in Germany. Joseph Bucko, minister at Martine, perished in the camp." [97]

It is reported that in Bulgaria,

"... Ministers of various Christian denominations engaged in ma.s.s 'mercy baptisms'; several of them were removed from office because of this (one of these ministers, with a community of about 200 souls, managed to baptize 200 additional persons between January 1 and September 1, 1940).

High dignitaries of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church declared that 'conversion to Christianity' and 'formal baptism' were two different acts, the first of which necessarily preceded the second, sometimes by a considerable period; because the law spoke of conversion and not of baptism having to have taken place before September 1, 1940, Jews baptized later could also be saved if the minister declared that they had expressed their will to adopt Christianity before that date.

Many courts accepted this reasoning. In this way, a number of baptized Jews and offspring of mixed marriages escaped the provision of the law." [98]

The following is quoted from the testimony of Richard Simantov: <27>

"... It must be admitted that, with a few exceptions, all the Christian religious inst.i.tutions [in Bulgaria], as also their clergy, behaved with sympathy towards the Jewish victims of the anti-Jewish legislation.

When issuing the required legal doc.u.ments to the Christian Jew, the clerk of the court or the judge himself interrogated the priest, whether he had indeed carried out all the religious formalities, and how long the teaching of the catechism had lasted for the person of Jewish origin concerned.

The priest would always reply in the affirmative and would declare that the man had received instruction for 3, 4 or 5 months, and that he regularly attended church services etc., although often these doc.u.ments, which were issued by the Church, were given only in exchange for a payment, without the ceremony having been performed..." [99]

We have the following particulars about Greece :

"Many tried to evade the racial laws through baptism. More than 500 Jews embraced the Orthodox religion; some scores preferred to become Catholics.

it was clear that it was not out of conviction that these Jews entered into the Church. It was well-known, that only the desire to escape persecution moved them to seek refuge in the shadow of the cross.

Out of compa.s.sion, the priests did not hesitate to accept the new converts.

They were on friendly terms with them in different ways. Out of n.o.ble feelings and not in order to receive a reward, the priests also distributed baptismal certificates to Jews who had never attended a church service..." [100]

The biographer of the Archbishop of Athens, Damaskinos, relates:

"Later on, when the persecutions started affecting the Jews of Athens, the Archbishop decided on the following measures. He summoned the Director General of the Administrative Services of the Community of Athens, Mr. P.

Haldezos, and said to him: "I have made the sign of the cross and have spoken to G.o.d, and have decided to save as many Jews as I can, even though I run a great risk. I am going to baptize them, and you must give certificates enabling them to obtain the ident.i.ty cards of Christian Greeks. Mr. Haldezos agreed to this. With the help of a Munic.i.p.al official, they opened a register wherein they registered 560 Jews as Christians, all of whom were saved. There was no treachery." [101]<28>

Rev. J.J. Buskes discussed the considerations, which led clergymen in the Netherlands to provide Jews with false certificates of Baptism:

"We are well aware that many pastors had conscientious objections to giving forged baptismal certificates. But, thank G.o.d, there were other ministers who had conscientious objections about not doing so.

Such a certificate was, of course, false. But the man who wrote it out and gave it to a Jew, did service to the truth and helped his neighbour. The one, however, who would not write it and thus refused help to a Jew, served falsehood and failed the Jew.

There is a truth which is like a lie and there is a lie which is like the truth. G.o.d commanded us to lie in the service of the truth. Not the end, but the obedience to G.o.d's commandment (to love our neighbour as ourselves) justified the means.

Thus the humble and scrupulous Dr. Oorthuis wrote in a pamphlet of the underground movement: even forged pa.s.sports can be safe-conducts from the Lord, and stolen ration cards be gifts of mercy from G.o.d, which we accept with Thanksgiving." [102]

Many people may feel horrified when reading the views of Rev. Buskes. The same author stated in another publication:

"If I can save a man whose life is threatened by a scoundrel by saying to that scoundrel that two and two make five, I shall say so to him, in obedience to the ninth commandment. In such a case I am even prepared to declare that two and two make ten." [103]

A personal friend of mine, who is a devout Christian, took the oath declaring that a child in his house was not Jewish but his own child born out of wedlock. He saved the child.

People who are horrified at such behaviour, probably never lived under German occupation. At any rate, they should remember St. Paul's saying: "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law". [104]

In my opinion, it was morally permissible and even laudable to baptize Jews in those days in order to save their lives, as long as it was mutually understood that this was in order to deceive the persecutors and that the baptism in fact was invalid. <29>

II

BEFORE THE WAR

6 HISTORICAL EVENTS

a. Hitler's Rise to Power - the Nuremberg Laws. (Jun., 1933-Sept., 1935)

President Hindenburg entrusted Hitler with the Chancellors.h.i.+p on January 30, 1933. The Reichstag fire, on February 27, was followed by a wave of arrests.

The "Ordinance for the Protection of the People and the State", issued on February 28, suspended the sections of the Const.i.tution which guaranteed individual and civil rights. The "Enabling Act" (March 23) stripped Parliament of its power and handed it over to the Reich Cabinet. Laws enacted by the Cabinet were to be drafted by the Chancellor (Hitler) and might deviate from the Const.i.tution.

On April 1, Jewish shops throughout Germany were boycotted. Jewish civil servants were dismissed on April 7. On the same day the exclusion of "non-Aryan" lawyers was ordered. According to a decree of April 22, no Jewish physicians were allowed to work for sick funds anymore. At the end of April another decree restricted the admission of Jewish children and students to schools and universities.

In the following months Jews were excluded from working in the fields of art, music, literature and journalism. The "Law on revocation of naturalizations and deprivation of German citizens.h.i.+p" (July, 14) robbed Jews, who had been naturalized before or had been born outside Germany, from their citizens.h.i.+p.

In January, 1934, it was decreed that Jews could no longer be members of the Labour Front. When President Hindenburg died, on August 2, 1934, Hitler became President and Supreme Commander of the Army.

On May 21, 1935, it was decreed that only "Aryans" could serve in the army.

It is estimated that 37,000 Jews emigrated from Germany in 1933; in 1934, the number was 23,000, whilst 21,000 Jews left Germany in 1935. [105] <33>

b. The Nuremberg Laws - Crystal Night. (Sept., 1935-Nov., 1938)

On September 15, 1935, two fundamental laws were adopted by the Reichstag meeting at Nuremberg. One, the "Law Respecting Reich Citizens.h.i.+p", decreed that only a national of German or kindred blood, who proved by his conduct that he was willing and likely to serve the German people and Reich faithfully, could be a citizen. The second, the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour", specifically referred to the Jews and singled them out as undesirable aliens, impure of blood and dangerous to the honour and security of the German people. There followed seven paragraphs, the first of which dealt with the prohibition of marriages between Jews and nationals of German or kindred blood. Paragraph three prohibited Jews to employ in domestic service female nationals of German or kindred blood, under the age of forty-five years.

On April 26, 1938, it was decreed that all Jewish a.s.sets in excess of 5,000 marks should be registered. On June 15, 1938, about 1,500 Jews were arrested and deported to a concentration camp. On July 25, it was decreed that Jewish physicians were no longer permitted to treat non-Jewish patients. In the same month, Jews had to apply for special ident.i.ty cards. On August 17, 1938, the first name "Israel" for Jewish men and "Sara" for Jewish women was made compulsory in addition to their own names. In October, all pa.s.sports of Jews were stamped with the letter J.

Austria had been incorporated into the Third Reich, on March 13, 1938.

The German anti-Jewish laws were also enforced in Austria, where about 180,000 Jews were living.

It is estimated that 25,000 Jews emigrated from Germany in 1936, and 23,000 in 1937. [106]

In March, 1938, President Roosevelt invited thirty-three governments to join in a co-operative effort to aid the emigration of refugees from Germany and Austria. On July 6, 1938, the Intergovernmental Conference met at Evian, France. Nearly all the delegates expressed their sympathy for the refugees but were very careful not to a.s.sume any obligations on behalf of their Governments. <34>

It is important to keep some of the major political events of those days in mind. Italy attacked Ethiopia on October 3, 1935. In May, 1936, the Ethiopian emperor went into exile into Great Britain. On March 2, 1936, the Rhineland was remilitarized. On November 25, 1936, the anti-Comintern Pact with j.a.pan was signed. On July 16, 1936, civil war in Spain broke out. On September 30, 1938, the Munich agreement was signed by Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini and Daladier. As a result, Sudetenland was occupied by Germany. Poland and Hungary also occupied part of Czechoslovakia.

c. Crystal Night - the Outbreak of the War. (Nov., 1938-Summer, 1939)

On October 28, 1938, 15,000-17,000 Jews of Polish origin were rounded up and expelled. On November 7, a seventeen-year-old Jewish boy, Herschel Grynspan, whose parents had been among the people expelled to Poland, shot Ernst vom Rath, a minor n.a.z.i official in the Paris Emba.s.sy. He died two days later.

This was the pretext for unleas.h.i.+ng a pogrom that has entered history under the name Crystal Night: 7,500 Jewish shops were looted and windows of shops and houses were smashed; many synagogues were burned; more than 26,000 Jews were arrested, many of whom were sent to concentration camps; at least 91 were killed. [107]

On November 12, the Jews in Germany were ordered to pay a collective fine of thousand million Reichsmark. On November 15, Jewish children were dismissed from German schools. Jews were prohibited from visiting theatres, cinemas, concert halls, museums and public baths. On December 8, a decree was issued expelling Jews from the universities.

At the beginning of January, 1939, the "Aryanisation" of Jewish enterprises began. Since January 17, 1939, Jews were forbidden to be employed in the professions of dentist, pharmacist and veterinary surgeon. On January 30, 1939, Hitler publicly declared that the Jewish race in Europe would be annihilated if war broke out. <35> Hitler annexed Czechia, on March 15, 1939. Slovakia became "independent".

In April, 1939, Mussolini occupied Albania.

From the beginning of 1938 until October 1, 1941 (when further emigration was forbidden) an estimated 170,000 Jews left Germany. [108] Jews in Germany at the beginning of the Hitler regime, numbered 499,682. The 1939 census, registered within the borders of the pre-Hitler Reich, amounted to no more than 213,930. [109]

7 GERMANY

The vast majority of the Protestants of Germany belonged to one of the 28 Landeskirchen (Lutheran, Reformed or Uniate), of which the largest was the Church of the Old Prussian Union, with 18 million members. The Landeskirchen were independent members of the German Evangelical Church Union, founded in 1922. In all, there were forty-five million Germans who were, nominally at least, members of the Protestant Church.

In 1932, members of the Church who supported Hitler had founded the "German Christians' Faith Movement". These "GERMAN CHRISTIANS" demanded the creation of one Protestant Church, the application of the Fuehrer principle in Church affairs, the introduction of racialism within the Church, the "Germanization"

of Christianity (the "Aryan Jesus"!) and the elimination of "Jewish influence"