Germans atone for Holocaust with “stumble stones”
The metal plaques, called Stolpersteine, or “stumble stones,” are set into the ground at my father’s ancestral home in this picturesque village south of Frankfurt.
The squares, 10 cm by 10 cm (4 inches by 4 inches), are barely conspicuous, but the words etched in brass seem to cry out for memory of the home’s last five Jewish inhabitants.
As autumn sunlight bounces off the plaques, I recall a time nearly 75 years ago when the five, all relatives including my father, were driven from here by Nazi anti-Semitism. Four fled Germany; the fifth died in a concentration camp.
The creation of Cologne artist Gunter Demnig, the Stolpersteine are set at homes of victims of Nazi prejudice. They aim to trip the memories of passers-by of long-gone targets of discrimination, mainly Jews but also homosexuals, the disabled, dissidents and Gypsies.
By tying a victim’s fate to a capsule biography, told in a kind of Haiku, the “stumble stones” seek to reduce the epic scale of the Holocaust to a more comprehensible human story.
Cardinal Martino does it again
Cardinal Renato Martino, the papal aide who angered Israel and Jews by comparing Gaza to a “big concentration camp” is no novice at being outspoken or controversial. The southern Italian cardinal speaks his mind, loves to talk and sometimes has had to pay the price. Martino, head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (effectively its justice minister), has a laundry list of people and governments with whom he has clashed. But that hasn’t stopped him.
Perhaps his most famous remark came in December, 2003 when, shortly after U.S. troops captured former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Martino told a news conference at the Vatican that U.S. military were wrong to show video footage of Saddam. “I felt pity to see this man destroyed, (the military) looking at his teeth as if he were a cow. They could have spared us these pictures,” he said at the time.
The “treated like a cow” remark was heard around the world and, needless to say, was not very appreciated in the White House. The Vatican had opposed the U.S.-invasion of Iraq in March of that year. In fact, a certain chill developed between Martino and then U.S. ambassador to the Vatican Jim Nicholson, a Vietnam veteran who later went on to become Bush’s Secretary for Veteran Affairs.
While that is the Martino quip everyone remembers, there has been no lack of others.
In 2005, ahead of a meeting of the Group of Eight rich nations summit in Scotland, he pointedly said the United States had to “open its eyes” about the problems of Africa. He angered anti-immigration parties in Italy by backing a proposal to allow Muslim pupils in Italy to study the Koran in state schools. He angered U.S. conservatives, including well-known television commentators, when he said Washington’s plan to build a fence on the U.S.-Mexican border was part of an “inhuman programme.”
The former Vatican diplomat, who was the Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations in New York from 1986 to 2002, made headlines again last year when he called on Catholics to withdraw support their financial support for Amnesty International over the group’s call to decriminalise abortion.
Martino had more of a free rein during the papacy of Pope John Paul, who was not shy himself about speaking out. But Vatican sources have said Pope Benedict wants his cardinals to keep a lower profile and that Martino had been told by Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to keep the lid on and not be so controversial.
so anothervoice, you claim that just because people were celebrating after 9/11 that justifies the murder of women and kids. even though for decades we have supported oppresive regimes like israel, sadaam in iraq, saudia arabia,pakistan, etc.for decades people in the middle east, africa, and latin american have suffered under the oppresive regimes we have supported, so u know what i can’t blame them for feeling a satisfaction when we take a hit.they are not americans so there is no need for them to have symphathy towards us. the israelis have killed thousands more people then hamas have. hamas, hezbolla, and other jihadi groups are a product of israeli and american policies. they did not exist before there was an israel. americans were not hated until we started supporting the oppression and tyrannical ways of these regimes.israel has been stealing land, cutting of food and supplies to an already broken population for decades, its about the time the world comes to term with their war crimes and holds them accountable. i give this cardinal for standing for the truth and justice, which more then what we can say about the brain washed politicans in west and europe. this is the sign of a true religious man, not some extremist who hides behind the guise of the bible, torah, and qoran, trying to justify murder and genocide. god bless him
Berlin fights to save work of anti-Nazi theologian
Germany is launching an appeal to save thousands of valuable letters and manuscripts which had belonged to Protestant theologian and Nazi resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer by digitalising them.
The Berlin state library says it needs 40,000 euros to save the documents which it counts as one of its most prized collections. It wants to put about 6,200 pages of his work on the Internet to make them more widely available.
The papers include the farewell letter Bonhoeffer wrote to his parents before his execution in a concentration camp in 1945, just days before the end of World War Two, for opposing Hitler. He was 39.
Last summer, the library put the originals in non-corroding folders as the paper was in danger of falling apart and had been damaged by rusting paper clips. The collection also includes draft papers, sermons he held in Barcelona and New York as well as fragments from his book Ethics.
Bonhoeffer is viewed by many as one of the most important Protestant theologians of the last century. He was a leading member of the Confessing Church which opposed the Nazis.
He was particularly against the Nazis’ anti-Semitic policies, arguing Christians had a duty to resist any unlawful action undertaken by the state. He wrestled with the question of how far a Christian can go in fighting evil — and whether a Christian, or a pacifist, can justify murder.
He was arrested and imprisoned in 1943 on suspicion of conspiracy.
To imagine that no money can be found to preserved the heritage for one of the greatest Germans that has ever lived is is outrageous when there is plenty of money for lesser causes. Germany owes men like Bonhoeffer a debt, in a most literal sense. Shame on the Germans, yet again!
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Resident FaithWorld Expert
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