Religious Views of the Holocaust Most People

Religious Views of the Holocaust

Most people realize that during World War II, the Nazi Party of Germany waged a relentless war against people they did not welcome in their country for one reason or another. We all know that over 6 million Jews died during the Holocaust, but many people don't realize that the Nazis targeted others as well, including Gypsies and some Christians who would not cooperate with the Nazi regime or who were caught aiding those who were supposed to be sent to concentration camps.

Given that the Holocaust was a multicultural and multi-religious event, it is interesting to consider how some major religions might view the events. Christianity teaches that all murder is against the law of God. However most Christian religions allow the execution of criminals by state governments. This is why we have individuals who protest executions but rarely hear entire denominations protest such events. So then, would Christian religions condone the events of the Holocaust because it was an event sponsored by the German government?

The single most horrific act of the Holocaust was the murder of six million people, mainly Jews. The unfortunate fact is that the Vatican and the Pope, as spokesman of the Catholic Church, remained silent and never spoke out against the Holocaust, even though they knew what was happening well before the war was over (Rittner, et. al, 1994).

Although the death of all those people was the single biggest outrage committed by the Nazis in the concentration camps, it wasn't the only one. They also committed other atrocities, including forcing women into prostitution and performing experimental surgery on women. Women were forced into brothels, often for the purpose of servicing the elite of the German Army, the SS troops. While they were sometimes given a choice, the choice was prostitution or death (Dworkin, 1994). Christian religions would not consider these acts of prostitution sins, because the women did not participate as a matter of choice. Islam would take an extremely hard stance against these murders if the victims were Islamic, but even though the victims were largely Jewish, Islam considers itself a just religion and has a long and honored tradition of law and justice. Islam could not support such events. Buddhism is opposed to the taking of all life, including animals, and the Holocaust murders would be seen as the true horror it was.

Theologically, refusing to serve as prostitutes might have been considered suicide, a sin in all Christian religions and an unforgivable sin to some. Catholics who commit suicide, for instance, cannot be buried in consecrated ground. The Muslim religion would not consider the women's choice of life over death a sin, either, as both religions recognize the role of the will do act or not act when judging right and wrong. Even the prohibitions against provocative dress in Islam and regional rules requiring women to take extreme steps to keep themselves from being vulnerable to a rapist would not apply in this situation, since issues of dress and where they will be have been completely removed from their power. Buddhism is opposed to violence as well as murder, and forcing women into prostitution certainly resulted in acts of violence, the rape of women against their will in exchange for their lives.

Certain Nazi doctors also used Jewish women in numerous incidents of pseudo-scientific experiments, often targeting women's reproductive systems (Dworkin, 1994).

Other targeted people included people with physical deformities, such as dwarfs, who were operated on to study their bone structure before being killed. Virtually all of the victims of these tortures were killed afterwards, and in most cases whatever knowledge might have been gained could have been gained in other ways. For instance, dwarves could have been x-rayed. The real goal of these activities was sadistic torment of other human beings. All three religions discussed here - Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, concern themselves with such issues. Christianity would view such activities as sinful. Islam permits punishment and execution, but does not condone torture, and Buddhism is vehemently opposed to all such forms of violence.