Preface

Why the Shoah?

A Conservative Christian Looks at the Holocaust

by Joseph Keysor

This essay attempts to examine the Holocaust in the light of both divinely inspired and inerrant scripture and the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

It is divided into four parts. The first part has to do with biblical teaching. Can we understand the Holocaust in terms of what the bible says about sin, evil, and God's regulation of human affairs? Moreover, since Christians and Christianity have been so often blamed for being directly and/or indirectly responsible for the crimes of the Nazis, it is first necessary to define the terms "Christian" and "Christianity." Is someone who blatantly and consistently ignores the most elementary teachings of Jesus Christ a Christian? Is "Christianity" only a word, a name that can be indiscriminately applied to someone irrespective of his beliefs and his manner of life? What are the central beliefs of Christianity, how does one become a Christian, and what sort of conduct is expected from those who sincerely want to follow Christ in the straight and narrow way that leads to eternal life? These and other related questions are examined. This section also contains a defense of that great (but flawed) man of God Martin Luther, who has been consistently and unjustly misrepresented in discussions of the relationship between Christianity and Naziism.

The second part deals with the Jews: God's purpose and plan for them according to scripture and Christian attitudes toward the Jews are examined at length.

These two parts should be sufficient to demonstrate that, no matter how much people with the name of Christian and the outward appearance of Christianity disgraced the faith by their conduct, biblical Christianity in and of itself was not responsible, directly or indirectly, for the extermination of 6 million Jews in WWII. That having been said, the question naturally arises, "Where did Naziism come from?" The third part asserts and seeks to demonstrate that Naziism was the result of the 19th-century turning away from Christianity. It aims to correct the defect of a book on the Holocaust that in its opening chapter directly links earlier "Christian" anti-Semitism with Naziism, but says not one word about the dark secular trends and philosophies of 19th-century Germany which explicitly rejected Christianity and did so much to prepare the way for the Nazis. Particular attention is paid to the German theological liberalism that destroyed so much of the church, leaving only a hollow and empty shell, thereby contributing greatly to the spiritual vacuum that Naziism filled. The philosophies of Hegel and Fichte are examined, as are the writings of Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Ernst Haeckel. Humanly speaking, the roots of the Holocaust lie there, and in the unique circumstances of modern German history - not in the Protestant Reformation or in Roman Palestine. Spiritually speaking, the roots of Naziism's terrible crimes lie in Satan himself, and in the wickedness of the human heart. It was not the teachings of the bible, but rather the failure to follow the teachings of the bible, that led to the Holocaust.

The fourth part, the conclusion, not only summarizes but attempts to address some of the general issues in more specific contexts.

Does Christianity bear a historic responsibility for the Shoah, or should Nazism be considered as a fundamental revolt against the "Judaeo-Christian" interpretation of the sense of human life and history? Any answer to these questions cannot but leave unresolved questions and continuous doubts.
- Saul Friedlander

It is not only true that the lessons of the Holocaust have not yet been learned, it is doubtful that they have been discovered.
- New German Critique

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