Was God in hell?

My recent visit to the death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau is one of the most terrifying and intense experiences I have ever had. I wrote about it at some length in my blog (www.timesofmalta.com/blogs/view/20101031/fr-joe-borg/work-will-set-you-free).

It is a living proof of the existence of the devil. Only the diabolically possessed could have invented such depravity, brutality and vindictiveness. The building of this ‘hell on earth’ has to be the evil work of the Evil one.

For over two hours, I walked around, listening to the excellent guide who was giving her cutting commentary. We stopped in front of the wall where inmates faced the firing squad. Were those who were shot the lucky ones or were they the victims?

We walked into the sleeping quarters: bare three-tiered wooden bunks covered by some hay. The privileged slept on the top bunkers. Those less lucky had to sleep below and suffered, among other things, from the effects of the starvation diarrhoea that affected many inmates.

We entered the gas chamber. Thousands had entered with the promise that at the other end was the beginning of a new life. They found furnaces instead.

Silence and the odd tear were my main reactions, together with a strong urge to shout out two questions: How can humans be so horribly savage to fellow humans? My God, how could you have remained silent?

Pope Benedict had similar feelings during his visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau on May 28, 2006.

“In a place like this, words fail; in the end, there can only be a dread silence – a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?

“In silence, then, we bow our heads before the endless line of those who suffered and were put to death here; yet our silence becomes in turn a plea for forgiveness and reconciliation, a plea to the living God never to let this happen again.”

God was silent, but was God present in this awful man-made hell?

In his fantastic book Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl reflects on his experience in a concentration camp. When he entered the camp, the guards tore to pieces the manuscript of his works, which he carried with him.

Later, in his prison uniform he found a small piece of crumpled paper reproducing Israel’s most holy prayer: Shema Israel. Frankl understood that survival would not depend on his works but on His words. Frankl’s faith in God helped him conclude that the meaning of life is found in every moment of living; life never ceases to have meaning, even in suffering and death.

His fellow inmates used to say: “If the Allies will not come to save us there is no meaning in this suffering of ours.” But he used to say something different: “If there is no meaning in the suffering we endure, it does not make sense for the Allies to save us.”

In the midst of all this anguish, he discovered that the salvation of man is through love and in love. Wherever love is present, God is present – even in a concentration camp.

As Christ crucified taught us, the discovery of this basic truth is not an easy one. Looking around him, he saw his utter ‘failure’ crowned with immense physical pain and the excruciating torment of the ‘absence’ of his Father.

He managed to utter the shortest but greatest prayer of them all: “In your hand, I commit my spirit.” This pure act of faith was answered within three days by the scoring of the ultimate victory: the Resurrection.

Sometimes though, it takes longer than three days to experience the Resurrection. It can take much longer, but its discovery lasts an eternity.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt