Editor’s note: Columns in the Faith section reflect opinions and perspectives of the writer and are not necessarily those of The Republic.
My journey in Auschwitz began as I walked through rooms adorned with the pictures, names, and stories of the victims. They were husbands, wives, and children. They were brothers and sisters, grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles. Each of them a person with livelihoods, relationships, hopes, and dreams. But it was not long before these rooms gave way to even more rooms that displayed how their humanity had been successively stripped away.
Through one window, suitcases with family names written on them towered to the ceiling. In the next window, a gruesome pile of prosthetic limbs that had been taken away from amputees filled the room. Through yet another window, tens of thousands of eyeglasses. In another window, mountains of shoes. And through the last window, ghoulish mounds of shaved human hair.
Ultimately, I was led to the gas chamber and the furnaces. It was in that place where I came to a horrific realization. Once a person’s humanity has been taken away, killing them is actually the easy part.
One might think this pathway to dehumanization only began in Auschwitz through the taking away of names, the stripping of clothing, and the shaving of hair. It may be even easier to believe that it was brought about only by a maniacal leader. While both beliefs are true, they do not fully capture the entire trajectory of this dehumanization or how we are just as susceptible to following the same path.
Our tendency is to see the Holocaust as an aberrational evil, isolated without cultivation. Even more, it is easy to view it as if it just appeared without successive shifts in the collective cultural psyche at the time. But this kind of historical ignorance begs for history to repeat itself.
The pathway to Auschwitz began with name-calling and stereotyping. It grew into enemy-labeling and the creation of a we versus they mindset. It evolved into dehumanizing language and images depicting others as morally inferior, which then led to the rationalization of violence.
If I am to be honest about our country right now, it appears as if we are following a similar path. I am not saying that we are necessarily heading toward a Holocaust. But we do share many of the same similarities in the precursors. However, the biggest difference between then and now is that we have the interconnectedness of social media.
This fact alone ought to make each one of us pause.
By virtue of social media, ideological groups can now coalesce without the constraints of geographical boundaries. They can instantaneously mobilize to force or impose their will and beliefs upon others. As a result, “melting pot” idealism, which has traditionally celebrated and championed the richness of diversity, is being supplanted by amorphous ideological “nations.”
Not only has social media siloed us into these self-reinforcing echo chambers, its depersonalized nature has made us increasingly careless, condescending, disrespectful, and hateful toward others, especially toward those of other ideological “nations.”
This is the breeding ground of name-calling and stereotyping. It is where enemies are constructed and declared morally inferior or subhuman. And then, within these all-or-nothing ideological “nations,” the enemies must be silenced, canceled, threatened, put out of business, overthrown, kidnapped, or killed.
One of the most asked questions after the Holocaust was, “Where was God?” I may be wrong, but as I look at the path we are taking right now and see where we are heading, I believe I know the answer to that question.
God was there, as God is here now, appealing to all people to resist the ideological forces that are working to strip others of their humanity. Imploring all people to travel no further down the demeaning path of name-calling, caricaturing, and stereotyping. Calling all people to peacefully, but vociferously, oppose those who refer to others as morally inferior or subhuman. Beckoning all people to stand in solidarity against all acts of violence against all people.
It is true that we have created this reality ourselves. But we also have an opportunity to change our course together. Now more than ever, we need reasonable people to rise up and come together as a new community. We need a new people that will no longer contribute to the nastiness and division. We need a new people that will lovingly and peacefully push back the hateful extremes. We need a new people, not beholden to ideology, but who will choose to walk humbly, act justly, and love mercy for all.
Brandon Andress of Columbus is a former local church leader, a Christian book author, a current iTunes podcast speaker and a contributor to the online Outside the Walls blog. His latest book is “Beauty in the Wreckage: Finding Peace in the Age of Outrage.” He can be reached at his website, brandonandress.com. All opinions expressed are those of the writer.
