January 26, 2005
by Keith Clements
on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

"In a world of violence, poverty, disease and misery for millions" we should "ask ourselves which track we're on, and where it is ultimately leading," as many of the "tracks that led towards Auschwitz are still in place." This was underlined in an article on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, by Rev. Dr Keith Clements, General Secretary of the Conference of European Churches (CEC). The article will be published tomorrow, Thursday 27 January, in the "Baptist Times," Britain's Baptist weekly newspaper.

"I visited Auschwitz in March last year," Clements stated. "Having read and viewed so much about it, it was hard to believe one was now actually there: standing on the most infamous piece of railway track in history, leading through the gate under the Birkenau guardhouse to the platform."

"Having once stood on that line leading into Auschwitz-Birkenau," he said, "no railway track can ever look quite as innocent again for it connects with all the railway lines across Europe. The route to Auschwitz began far away and not just in a physical sense. It began in the widely diffused anti-Semitism; it joined the railroad of nationalism, when nation began to replace God as an object of worship. It connected with the track of racial superiority and the belief that differences of colour, culture and religion were inimical to a 'pure' society. The train was hitched to the locomotive of the seemingly omnipotent state, claiming the right to pull everything in conformity behind it. The engine was stoked with the ideology that some people, if not actually a menace to the rest, are there to be exploited and conveniently dispensed with for economic gain. Finally, in the context of war where all restraints are dropped, the track went straight and level enabling the 'final solution'. Auschwitz was a uniquely horrific crime in its combination of careful, calculated planning and inhuman brutality. But equally it was the culmination of trends endemic in much of our world. Auschwitz did not just happen, it was made to happen and moreover allowed to happen."

It's precisely because Auschwitz is the result of "moral evasion" and of "fears which kept people silent and inactive," that nowadays we must "ask ourselves which track we're on, and where it is ultimately leading. The lie that some people do not matter as much as us because of their colour or gender; the lie that people who are different are inherently enemies to be banished or eliminated; the lie that masses of people exist only for our economic benefit and can be dispensed with when it suits us; the lie that the so-called interests of the state (or some states in particular) take precedence over everything and everyone else; the lie that one's country can itself go to war on a lie; and the biggest lie of all, that there's nothing in any case we can do about it - all these are rife in our world. These are the tracks that ultimately led towards Auschwitz, and they are still in place."

The full text of Dr Clement's article will be available in the January 27 edition of "Baptist Times," and also on the their website at http://www.baptisttimes.co.uk/.

Conference of European Churches (CEC)