The Third museum I visited was the imperial war museum on London’s South bank. I love the South Bank it seems like the cool young brother of the City, the pace seems to drop just a little bit.
The Imperial War Museum like most of the Museums in London is an impressive place for someone like me interested in twentieth century history it is a tresure trove of information. Recently installed in the museum is the Holocaust exhibition, I decided to take a look not really prepared for how it would effect me, I think I can honestly say it was on of the most moving and hard hitting exhibitions I have ever witnessed.
Now, I know about the Atrocities committed by the Nazi’s, the ethnic cleansing, The concentration camps, the mass genocide, what was chillingly fascinating was how this came about, how a nation can be so swept up in nationalist fervour to allow or turn a blind eye to this happening.
As I was walking around the exhibition and saw how the Jewish people were demonised by the state I can across one information board that stopped me in my tracks that sent a shiver down my spine.
It highlighted the fact that anti Semitism started not by the Nazi party but by Christian Churches burning Jewish Literature and books. I guess those churches never realised what started out as or at least what they conceived was peaceful protest would end as badly and horrifically as it did, I suppose Pastor Jones in Florida never realised his actions would change the stories of those shot dead in Baghdad.
I asked the question how a nation can get caught up in such hatred so quickly. I love modern Germany its people, I have found them intelligent, polite, measured, but how did they allow this to happen.
Deborah visited Yugoslavia shortly before the atrocities that occurred there, she remembers how friendly and hospital the people were, yet weeks later the whole area she stayed in was ravished with war and misery and became linked forever with ethnic cleansing.
I remember speaking to a friend who was involved in a inner city London gang, he tried to explain to me how one second they were like kids laughing and goofing about the next they would commit acts of unspeakable rage and violence.
Truth is I don’t understand but I recognised that it can and does happen, to think that we are now too educated or too civilised to allow this to happen again is at best naive and at worst dangerously complacent.
My belief is that burning books is never right, that the God I serve is the God in Psalm 40 who inclines his ear to me, the Jesus of Mark 1:41 who is so filled with compassion he reaches out to the leper woman and touches her, he speaks words of life to her.
On the wall at the end of the Holocaust exhibition is a quote from the Philosopher and politician Edmund Burke “In order for Evil to triumph, good men must do nothing” I was speaking to our welcome Pastor Michael Syson about the exhibition and he explained how he had gone to a Holocaust exhibition in Israel, One of the displays in this exhibition was a tree garden that had been planted to honour the ‘righteous gentiles’ who had helped the Jews during the Holocaust, each tree represented someone who had sought to help the Jewish people, Michael turned the corner expecting to see hundreds of trees, there were not, it was sparse, he recalls the shock of so few who had come to their aid, he noted that inaction as well as action changes the stories of others.
