In honor of the 75th anniversary of the Auschwitz concentration camp liberation carried out by the Red Army on January 27, 1945, the directors of the Adventist Church in Germany (North Union – NDV; and South Union – SDV) released a joint declaration expressing “A permanent commitment”. It reflected on the past Nazism with the goal of drawing conclusions for the present and the future. On Memorial Day, the presidents of the German Adventist unions (NDV and SDV) placed a wreath by the “Memorial of Deported Jews” in Stockard and they read the declaration.
The monument, inaugurated in 2006, commemorates the over 2,500 Jewish victims of Württemberg, Hohenzollern, Baden, and approximately 250 Roma and Sinti people who were deported to concentration camps in Eastern Europe.
Susanne Jakubowski, member of the Jewish community council in Württemberg, took part in the ceremony and recalled the historical events of the Nazi era as well as the concentration camp liberations that followed, thanks to the Allies. The same Jakubowski lost two of her grandparents in the Nazi deportations.
The German Union Declaration
The declaration released by the Church memorialized the victims of National Socialism: the assassinated Jews, the Sinti and Rom people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the deported Slavs, the workers in forced labor, the homosexuals, the political prisoners, the people with disabilities, and other victimized groups. “They were deprived of the right to vote, tortured, and assassinated by the National Socialist regime with its racist and antisemitic ideology.” The declaration also commemorated the men and women “who actively and courageously resisted the dictatorship of inhumanity”.
The remembrance of the victims of past violence ”is a permanent obligation for us” continues the declaration. Each voice needs to be strongly heard speaking against any danger of repeating this inhumanity, for example judging people based on their origins, religion, gender, and other reasons. “We also reject the words spoken by political leaders that are openly or subtly antisemitic, xenophobic or misanthropic,” the Adventist leaders affirmed.
In the lives of Christians, there must not be any room for antisemitism, xenophobia, and misanthropy. The declaration reminds all that “major ethnic and cultural diversity is a part of our worldwide Adventist Church image”. Furthermore, “every person was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26)” and should therefore be respected and protected “independent of his/her characteristics.” Translating this image of the human being in the present reality is an assignment “that we share will all who work in favor of humanity”.
Here is the original website.
