A Facebook posting some weeks back pointed me to an article by Dr. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, KY. Dr. Mohler had compiled a list of books that he wanted to read this summer, and, as I scanned the list and read the short sketches of each, I thought, "these are worthwhile", and copied down the list.
The first book on the list caught my eye at once. Mission to Nuremberg, the story of an American chaplain, Henry Gerecke, whose charges for a year were the Nazi war criminals on trial at the end of WWII. This book, by Tim Townsend, tells the story of this unassuming Lutheran pastor from Missouri, who brought the Gospel to some of the most notorious men of the German war machine at a time when the world was clamoring for blood, German blood, to atone for some of the horrific crimes perpetrated against humanity.
The trials at Nuremberg were show trials, meant to mete out justice to representatives of the Nazi regime, but also to show to a world that it was justice that the Allies were after and not vengeance.
I thought of this book as I read the Matthew 7 passage for today:
“Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get."
Chaplain Gerecke seemed to me to be the epitome of this verse. He was thrust into a situation that was completely out of the ordinary, even for a chaplain in wartime. The facts of the Nazi concentration camps were known to everyone, and the world was waiting for the "monsters" that had brought this slaughter to pass to be dealt with. Even though a lot of the Nazi leadership, including Hitler and Himmler, had committed suicide at the end of the war, there was a need to get closure and try someone for what had gone on, and for the damage to individuals, families and society in general.
Two incidents from the book seem to illustrate both the tenor of the man who ministered to these war criminals and also the type of men that were on trial during those days.
When the chaplain was first introduced to his 21 charges, indeed they became his 21 parishioners, his first act was to look them in the eye and shake their hands. Many who saw this, and the pictures of the occasion, were outraged that he would treat these men as "human", but he replied that he knew he could not bring them the power and love of God without them liking him. His first mission was to bring these souls to God or back to God, and that is what he would attempt to do, no matter the reaction that accompanied it.
The second scene takes place near the end of 1945. Gerecke had served overseas since back in 1944 and had not seen his wife since he left the states. She wanted him home, and he wanted to go. The trial was over, and all that was left was the sentencing and the result of that. By that time he had only 13 charges, since there was a new chaplain to minister to the Catholics, 8 of the 21.
When those "hardened" criminals, who by this time were not so hardened, wrote a personal letter to Alma, Gerecke's wife, begging her not to take her husband away from his post, his ministry was recognized. They needed him there. His caring about them as persons and about their lives in the moment, and their souls thereafter, had made him both the face of Jesus Christ and the symbol of American justice.
Chaplain Henry Gerecke had become the embodiment of that verse above.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"
His wife wrote back, speedily by air mail, and told him to stay where he was and not to come home until his work there in Nuremberg was finished, which he did.
I would recommend the book, but more than that, I would recommend an imitation of the ministry of this one man, thrust into world events, but remembering his calling, caring for those God put into his life, and loving the unlovely, without reservation.
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