The Ten Commandments and the Holocaust

 vs.












Before explaining how the Holocaust is a flagrant violation of God's law, I think it is important to include a timeline and some important terminology for a better understanding of what exactly took place.

The following timeline covers some important events during the period from 1933 to 1945.

• 1/30/33: Adolf Hitler is elected Chancellor of Germany.
• 3/22/33: The first concentration camp is opened at Dachau.
• 11/9/38: Jews are murdered, are sent to concentration camps, and have their shops and synagogues destroyed on Kristallnacht.
• 11/23/39: Jews in Poland are required to wear yellow stars.
• 5/20/40: Auschwitz is opened.
• 1942: Many Jews are sent to "Death Camps" and gassed.
• 1/27/45: Several concentration camps are closed and the survivors are forced to go on "Death Marches."
• 4/20/45: Hitler commits suicide.
• 5/7/45: Germany surrenders, ending World War II.
• 11/20/45: The Nuremberg trials begin.

 Some vocabulary relating to the Holocaust:

• Antisemitism: discrimination against or prejudice or hostility toward Jews
• Concentration camp: a camp where large numbers of persons are detained for the purpose of concentrating them in one place
• Deportation: the act of expelling a person from their native land
• Genocide: the systematic killing of a racial or cultural group
• Holocaust: the mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime from 1941 until 1945
• Kristallnacht: a word meaning "night of broken glass," a display of Nazi violence against the Jewish stores and synagogues on November 9-10, 1938

With that information, it is obvious that the Commandment the Holocaust most directly violates is the Fifth: "Thou shalt not kill." Not only were a great number of Jewish people put to death; even the nonviolent discrimination shown toward them is an affront to human dignity. These people were treated as less than children of God, which is a great sin. Plus, Hitler's suicide was also sinful. Rather than owning up to his actions, he was so cowardly that he simply chose to kill himself. (Of course, even before his death, Hitler was completely rejecting the gift of life that God gave him by choosing to spend it so evilly.)

The Nazis also broke the First Commandment: "I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have strange gods before me." They essentially worshiped Hitler by putting his law before God's. Hitler himself valued his country's prosperity over God.

Finally, the Holocaust provides an example of people disregarding the Seventh Commandment: "Thou shalt not steal." Even Jewish people who were not killed were robbed of their opportunities to operate business and make a living, not to mention the fact that their property was greatly damaged on Kristallnacht. Many even had the lives of their loved ones stolen from them, which is far worse than losing any sort of material wealth.

The fact that breaking the Ten Commandments was what led to something as horrific as the Holocaust should encourage us to take these laws seriously and follow them at all costs.

Pictures courtesy of David E. Phillips and BBC.

The information used on the timeline comes from:
http://historyonthenet.com/Chronology/timelineholocaust.htm