We must never forget...

For my book club's February selection, we are reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It takes place in Nazi Germany although it is not really a story of concentration camps and other more typical fare of the genre. I hear it is a great read and somewhat unique in its styling. It is narrated by Death after all.

It just so happened that the Scottsdale Public Library is hosting an exhibit entitled "Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings." And last night they had Ernest Michel, a Holocaust survivor, speak about his experiences and his new book, Promises Kept.

His words were powerful. He relayed his story of being told he could no longer attend school, of being ordered to the train station with one suitcase so they could transport him to a camp, of saying good-bye to his parents at the train station only to never see them again. He lived in Auschwitz and two other camps for over two years before being taking on a Death March with several SS men where he would ultimately find a way to escape. At the time when he was roughly 20 years old, he weighed about 80 pounds. Remarkable. He was one of the few lucky ones. In fact, one SS officer once said to a group of prisoners he was with, "You are the lucky ones. The other ones are already up the chimney." He saw innocent people shot every day. His own parents were gassed immediately upon arriving at the concentration camp they were sent to.

In the dedication to his new book, which is to his parents, he writes: "My life's greatest regret is that they [his parents] died without knowing that their two children, my sister Lotte and I, would survive the Holocaust. Between us, we have seven children, nineteen grandchildren (sixteen of them in Israel), and, as of 2007, seventeen great-grandchildren—a total of seventy-two descendants."

In the horrible genocide of the Holocaust, families did survive, and some of them were strong enough and fortunate enough to tell their stories that we might not ever forget and resolve ourselves to never let such a thing happen again. Michel is nearly 85 years old and in his quest to end genocide worldwide, he is tireless and fierce.

One of the most fascinating parts of his talk was when he spoke of covering the Nuremberg War Trials as a correspondent for the German press. He was then face to face with the leading Nazis still alive. At one point he was even asked if he would be willing to speak with Gehring—the highest Nazi still living and imprisoned. He said he was young enough to think he could handle it. But when face to face with the man, and Gehring held out his hand, Michel couldn't do it, turned and walked out. This was the man who had authorized his starvation, his imprisonment, his near death as well as the deaths of many he loved. Powerful image.

The other striking image for me was his concentration camp number still emblazoned in his left forearm seventy years later—#104995.

He can never forget.

At one point he joked that he can't remember things that happened last week but he vividly remembers the details of the months spanning 1936-37.

It made me think of how undeniable those marks will be in the Savior's hands and side when he comes again. And yes, there is the irony there to remind me of how important it is that we be kinder and better to one another no matter what race or background we have. We mark each other with our injustices and our unkindness.