Tuesday May 30, 2006

Column:

Auschwitz is the face of Nazi inhumanity. Birkenau is the gut.

Birkenau is the essence of the Holocaust story. By some fluke of history and nomenclature, that spot of hell on earth called Birkenau - where the massive murders happened, has become subsumed under the rubric of Auschwitz - a political prison for primarily Polish and Russian prisoners.

Auschwitz today looks much as it did fifty years ago, like any college campus, USA. Birkenau is barren, pitted, vast, ghostly. Auschwitz. Birkenau. Buna. Three camps that, to the uninformed, have been lumped together under one immediately recognizable name.

Pope Benedict has just returned from Poland. It was not this Pope's first trip to Poland. It was actually his third trip to the death camp, Selsia, located in the Southern part of Poland and only a short drive from Krakow. It was his first trip as Pope. Benedict is certainly not the first Pope to visit Poland, and he is the second to visit Auschwitz. And yet, this Pope's trip to Poland is historic.

Historic because Pope Benedict is the first Pope to visit Birkenau.

In traveling to Poland Benedict was paying tribute to John Paul II. He was physically illustrating that he, as Pontiff, was building upon the foundation that he, as Theological Advisor to John Paul, had outlined.

In visiting Birkenau, the notorious Nazi murder camp, Pope Benedict sent out a clear message to Christians, to Jews, to the world. The message is that Pope Benedict is continuing in the path set out by his predecessor Pope John Paul II. The message is that this Pope will continue to fight the scourge of hatred against Jews.

The significance of this visit cannot be overstated. Many dignitaries, sight-seers, travelers and students visit Auschwitz, the symbol of the Nazi murder machine. But in reality it was Birkenau, also called Auschwitz II, that was the murder factory. Auschwitz is a tiny facility while Birkenau is enormous. Frames of the barracks of Birkenau continue as far as the eye can see. Birkenau had four gas chambers and crematoria, it was an example of efficient industry, an efficient industry of destruction and death. Auschwitz had a small make-shift gas chamber. It was in Birkenau that the Jews were murdered and imprisoned. Except for one very short time, when the load was too large for Birkenau to handle alone, Auschwitz was where prisoners of war were housed.

It was the act of going to Birkenau that mattered. On this historic trip to Birkenau it was the action of Pope Benedict that spoke volumes louder than his words.

Going to Birkenau is an illustration of the deep and significant understanding that Pope Benedict has of what truly transpired in the Holocaust Kingdom, in Planet Auschwitz / Birkenau, where the basic laws of this world were not in effect and where the only law that mattered was the set of norms devised by the Nazis.

"Poland for the Poles" was a popular anti-Semitic slogan during the Nazi era. On Saturday afternoon, in broad daylight, the day before Pope Benedict set foot in Birkenau, those words of hate rang out - once again, in the streets of Warsaw. The epitaph was directed at a group of Jews. They were directed at Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich as he returned from synagogue.

Rabbi Schudrich is not a native Pole, he is not an old-time Jewish victim. Schudrich is a man with a conscience and a vision, a man dedicated to returning and revitalizing Jewish life to Poland and to Poland's Jews. When he heard the local Pole spew anti-Semitic slogans at his group he did what came naturally - he approached the man and confronted the words of hate. Schudrich saw the ugly head of anti-Semitism rising and went to confront the evil. The rabbi was punched in the chest and pepper sprayed in the eyes.

On Saturday Rabbi Michael Schudrich confronted modern-day evil. On Sunday he stood with Pope Benedict at Birkenau.

There are those who were disappointed by the words spoken by the Pope at Birkenau. There are those who ask why he did not speak of Darfur, why he did not mention anti-Semitism? The reason is clear.

When a Pope speaks his words become policy. The utterances of a Pope are the equivalent of theological law. This Pope, Benedict, has already made public statements about Darfur and anti-Semitism. So has his predecessor. To speak again on these subjects is to run the risk of sending out variant messages. That is why the Pope, every Pope, always reads his presentations, why there is never spontaneity in Papal presentations.

The visit of Pope Benedict to Birkenau was about the evil he has witnessed in the past. It was about God and about God's action and inaction. It was about the Holocaust and the murder of innocents. The person who, as a boy, wore the uniform of Hitler Youth delivered the right message. Like prayer, Pope Benedict delivered the message silently.