O LORD

Ravensbrück was a Nazi German concentration camp exclusively for women and children from 1939 to 1945, located in Northern Germany. As with all the Nazi concentration camps, it was for Jews, dissidents, political prisoners, non-white races, injustice, to detain and detour intellectual and cultural professionals, business owners…and anyone else who was not a Nazi. It was torture, starvation, forced labor, cruelty, and often death in a gas chamber. I recently read this:

“O Lord, remember not only men and women of good will, but also those ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they inflicted on us. Remember the fruits we have borne thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of this; and when they come to judgment let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.”

(Written on a piece of wrapping paper found near the body of a dead child in Ravensbruck where 92,000 women and children died in the Holocaust.)

I am miles away from this level of maturity. Bless them, O Lord.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor (Leviticus 19:18) and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus