| | Recently a photo album belonging SS-Obersturmführer Karl Höcker, the adjutant to the commandant of Auschwitz, was found and donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It depicted Höcker and other Nazi officers enjoying recreation, formal ceremonies, holidays, retreats, meals, and sing-alongs at part of the same compound that would kill exterminate countless Jews. Because of a lack of photographic or historic evidence Höcker was never found guilty or executed for war crimes unlike many commanders shown in the photo album. In 1945 he evacuated the camp only carrying enlisted soldier papers was able to fool the British and serve in a British prisoner of war camp for 18 months. Later in 1963 he only served 7 years in prison. Though he administrated the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of detainees at Auschwitz, he worked after the war as a banker and lived to the ripe age of 88 years old. This album had many rare photos of Karl Höcker that prove his rank and responsibility as a Nazi at Auschwitz during the time when the gas chambers were running at maximum capacity. What is probably the most shocking of all is that Karl Höcker seems not like a monster at all, he seems like a normal happy man, doing normal things. The thrust of the exhibit was to show that people are capable of evil. They don’t have to look like monsters to do it. They look ordinary.
Don't think that some pillars of your community couldn't do, or don't do horrible things. These people were those types of people! We can also become monsters all too easily as well.
When Jesus says the road is NARROW, that what he means. Not many people really find it. It seems like everybody finds the road, like we're all pretty much "okay". Jesus says the road is narrow, because it is. He says we have to take up our cross daily and follow him. Are we doing that? Are we really? We make excuses.
I think it's like the four soils. . . . I think we're mostly the thorny soil. . . the seed is planted and choked out by life... when we look around . . . people aren't really paying attention. So, the road is actually VERY VERY narrow. And the Karl can easily happen, in reality. I saw Karl lighting the Christmas tree in one picture. It was sweet. No, it was horrible. But he probably thought it was sweet. He thought he was a Christian. We make up reasons to do what we what to do if it doesn't stack up, but it's not on the narrow road. We've gone to the highways.
Are we disciples that understand self-sacrifice, devotion, and humble love? I get distracted, you get distracted. It's time to take up the cross again.
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| | Posted 12/19/2007 10:30 AM - 72 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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