THE LAST DAYS

 

FOUR STARS - Profound

 

 

       The cold evil experienced in the Holocaust is a reality we must never ignore.   Though many attempt to understand it on a human or physical level, they find their answers inadequate.  There is evil which can only be called inhumane, because it does not come from humanity.

       Compared to human evils, with their understandable motivations of lust, power and greed, inhumane evils are spiritual in nature.  Pure spiritual evil is motivated simply by the desire to destroy human life, whether it be a child, an adult or an elderly person.  Inhumane evil sends a chill through our souls and repulses our minds, going far beyond the usual human passions into a depth of indifference toward life that spiritually numbs us.

       This truth that there is an evil which transcends human selfishness  is graphically portrayed by five eye-witnesses of “the final solution”  in the film “The Last Days.”

       Created by the Shoah Foundation begun by Steven Spielberg, this documentary is one of the most important films of the year.   Its power rests not in its cinematic techniques or its inspired scripts, but in the simple words of five persons who give their own testimonies of what they experienced.  Using no narration and revealing no political or religious agendas, these five people simply tell their stories of what they experienced during the last year of World War II.

       Observing that Hitler was losing the war, they all expressed wonder that in those last days he would divert so many men and resources to killing Jewish people instead of winning the war.  But this is the nature of inhumane evil.   Demonic evil’s motivation is to kill innocent life.

       In a scene in which Irene Zisblatt describes seeing a soldier take a young child and throw him against the side of a truck, she explains: “That’s when I stopped talking to God.”   Though later, on Liberation Day,  she states that she was able to talk to God again, it is this initial response of spiritual numbness that inhumane evil produces.  Overwhelmed by the indifference of the cruelty, we recoil with the thought:   How can a good God allow such evil to exist?

       Though in our more comfortable moments we realize that the freedom to choose between good and evil is necessary if love is to exist, in the face of inhumane evil we are tempted to sacrifice both freedom and love for safety.

       Bill Basch explains such a choice in his own words, as he describes his experiences in Buchenwald.  Having befriended two other young men, they vow to one another that they will protect one another to the death.  When a friend’s limp caused by a knee infection caught the attention of the guards, Bill and the other friend tried to save his life by standing between him and the gun.  But when the guard said he would kill all three of them, they did not keep their promise and stepped aside.

       This is also the nature of inhumane evil.  Rejecting the best of humanity, it feels no compunction to honor a valiant or loving act.  Instead, it systematically attempts to destroy the very soul of its victims.

       This awareness that it was her soul they were after was expressed by one of the witnesses.      Renee Firestone said that one day she thought to herself, “What more do they want?  They have my home, my family, my freedom.  What else do I have?  And then I realized, they want my soul.  I decided then that they would never have my soul.”

       This is perhaps the strongest testimony of the spiritual nature of the evil of the Holocaust.  Transcendent evil not only disregards the sanctity of human life but attempts to destroy the souls of everyone involved, both those being killed and those doing the killing.  One of the most disturbing persons in the film is a former Nazi doctor, Dr. Hans Munch.  Though he was acquitted of war crimes because he prolonged the lives of his experimental victims as long as he could, Dr. Munch is clearly an empty soul.  Confronted by one of the witnesses because her sister had been one of his victims, his indifference to her pain is chilling.

       Though we are so repulsed by inhumane evil that some would even like to convince ourselves it didn’t really happen, “The Last Days” gives us five of the 50,000 testimonies the Shoah Visual History Foundation has taped.  No one can underestimate its value.  Recognizing the demonic evil that wants to destroy us all is the beginning of an awareness that we need God’s help to ultimately overcome it.