Visiting Auschwitz is something every Christian should do, almost like a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Then, together we must stand against anti-Semitism and holocaust denial, Al Gibson writes.
Visiting Auschwitz is helpful as we begin to understand the immense suffering our Jewish brothers and sisters have endured historicially and how even today they still experience anti-Semitism in all its forms. We need to remember the Jewish roots of our faith and embrace the Judeo-Christian values that have been the framework of society throughout the ages.
I visited Poland in 2017 to attend a family wedding which was a joyous occasion. Visiting the Polish State Museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau was probably not something to do on a wedding trip, however I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Visiting Auschwitz was a truly moving experience and I will never forget the 6 million people exterminated in the Holocaust.
If you ever go to Auschwitz-Birkenau you can easily feel overwhelmed by the vastness of the former horror camp and its documentation of genocide on an industrial scale. However, there are exhibits that bring hope like the Book of Names which is the biggest book I have ever seen. It contains 4.2 million names on 16,084 pages. Sadly an estimated 1.8 million people remain unidentified.
After visiting Auschwitz I felt I had to do my part to speak against anti-Semitism and make a stand for the Jewish people. I am sure this would be your reaction to. Together we can refute holocaust denial, stand against anti-Semitism and play our part to see such genocide never happens again.
Before my trip to Poland, I was given the historic diaries of Simon Bloomberg, a British Jew who had been a leader of the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons (DP) Camp after the war and after visiting Auschwitz I knew I had to publish his story. The result is, Life After Belsen: A first-hand account of the survivors of Bergen-Belsen and other horror camps in Europe after World War II.
Unfortunately, many of the camps did not close immediately after the War but remained open as DP camps for another five years. During this time all the survivors could do was wait for the State of Israel to be declared so they could finally be welcomed to their Jewish homeland. Simon Bloomberg helped many displaced Jews following the liberation of the camps, including Jews from Auschwitz.
Read a sample chapter: A Tragic Search for Holocaust Survivors – Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen
Mark International Holocaust Day on 27 January 2021 with your copy of Life After Belsen. Purchase now from Amazon.
We Stand With Israel
"Whoever blesses Israel will be blessed." This is God's call to us all to support the Jewish People.
I’m have to take issue with your use of the word ‘exterminated’. These people were not exterminated they were murdered. Exterminated is something that happens to rats or vermin of any sort when they are destroyed.
Thank you for pointing that out. I think we agree they were murdered but in a way that treated them exactly like rats and vermin. The Nazi’s sought to completely dehumanised the Jewish People. This is evident from the first exhibit in the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem.