On Thursday, I shared some truths I’ve learned through writing about WWII from the German perspective. I opened with this quote:
“A thousand years will pass and still this guilt of Germany will not have been erased.” -Hans Frank
Recently, my pastor reviewed the Biblical account of Jonah. We are often tempted to discard it as little more than a children’s story, however, the account is a poignant learning tool.
The Bible portrays Nineveh as a ruthless and barbaric place. Archeologists confirm that the Ninevites did horrific things to their enemies, such as skinning them alive. (I will abstain from going into further detail). In contrast, the World History Encyclopedia documents the Ninevites, and the Assyrian culture as a whole, as civilized and even advanced. Some historians speculate that the famous Hanging Gardens originated with them, not the Babylonians.
The point of Jonah’s account gets missed when we wash over it with primary colors and big fish. Jonah wasn’t just scared to go to the Ninevites. He wanted them to be destroyed for their sins. After he finally went and proclaimed God’s impending judgment, they repented with weeping and sackcloth. God relented, yet Jonah left the city and went to sulk on a hillside.
Jonah was actually angry at God for not destroying Nineveh.
Online, I still read hateful comments about the entire generation of Germans that either perpetrated the Holocaust or did nothing to stop it. How much the average person in Germany, or even the average German soldier, knew about what the Nazi government was really up to is an issue of continuing debate. What is clear is that as time wore on and the truth came to light, many Germans felt a sense of responsibility. In his memoir Soldat, German Army Major Siegfried Knappe writes:
“Even if the government had indeed felt threatened by such a Jewish ‘conspiracy,’ it was madness to think that an entire race of people should be exterminated. I was sickened by this news… As a professional soldier, I could not escape my share of the guilt, because without [the army] Hitler could not have done the horrible things he had done; but as a human being, I felt no guilt, because I had had no part in or knowledge of the things he had done.”
Most of the men of Knappe’s generation did not survive to tell their stories. As the tide of the war turned decisively against Germany, people lost farms, homes, and family members. Vast portions of their cities were destroyed, and the nation was split in two. East Germany suffered the most, living under communism for 45 years. Yet it surprises people to learn that many children and grandchildren of that generation still carry a sense of guilt.
There is a verse in the book of Isaiah that says, “I will visit the sins of the fathers on the third and fourth generation…”
The idea of visiting the sins on subsequent generations is often misunderstood to mean that those generations will be counted guilty for the sins of their forefathers. Dr. David Jeremiah points out that what it actually means is that the effects of sin are often felt into the third and fourth generation. Sin and idolatry have far reaching consequences.
As a nation, Germany has not hesitated to face the past. Everywhere, there are memorials and reminders of the Holocaust. The slogan “Never Again” is well known, even here in America.
Biblical and secular histories show that the Ninevites did not learn from the past. The book of Micah was written 100 years after Jonah. The Ninevites had fallen back into wickedness, and no one remembered the repentance of their forefathers, giving credence to the phrase “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Nineveh was overrun and summarily destroyed.
Author Vesper Stamper points out that perhaps history does not necessarily repeat itself, but it does rhyme. I continue to learn and be challenged by the lessons of history, and I believe that historical fiction is an important tool that we can use to interact with the past in an effort to understand it, rather than cancelling it or rewriting it.
(International Holocaust Remembrance Day was January 27th. Let us remember all of the tragedy on every side so that we can do our best to never let it happen again.)
The Prodigal Sons is the second book in the Gott Mit Uns Series, but it is also a great place to start:
Weimar Germany, 1923. A father, a son, and a cousin. Ernst is an alcoholic and brawler who finds his place in Germany’s postwar struggle by throwing in his lot with the burgeoning Nazi Party. Jakob is a young prodigy and church musician who wants nothing more than to spend time with his childhood sweetheart and live a quiet life of service to God. Friedrich is a German-American who remained in Germany after fighting with the Allies in the Great War. Follow the Schmidt boys and the women who love them as they try desperately to hold on to each other, to their faith, and to their love for Germany during the nation’s volatile 20th Century.
The Prodigal Sons is available on Google Books, as well as on Amazon Kindle and in print.
After creating stories prolifically as a child, Aubrey experienced a renewed interest in writing as she entered her 40s. She lives in Upstate New York with her husband and three children, and enjoys reading, playing music, crafting, sketching, exploring the outdoors, and traveling whenever possible. She is a lover of Jesus, the Bible, history, German culture, tea, and cats, and has a special heart for those who struggle with severe anxiety and depression.