A Prophetic Transformation: Reflections on FASPE

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

It’s difficult to convey the intensity of the FASPE (Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics) experience of spending two weeks with 35 people - seminary students, medical students, group leader, faculty, historians, guides - traveling, eating, rooming, and discussing together the role of our professions during the Holocaust. We travelled to Berlin, Krakow, Oswiecim, and Auschwitz; places where the Holocaust was planned and executed. “It’s a complicated and simple story,” as one of our lecturers described this history. It’s a story where we confronted the devastating realization that the annihilation of the Jews of Europe was not a secret, planned by a cabal of thugs and madmen. Regular folks - preachers, librarians, engineers, secretaries, students, teachers, lawyers, doctors, all made decisions that led to their participation in, or sometimes resistance to, the persecution and genocide. The ethical decisions made early on were not decisions about genocide; they were decisions about prejudice, about submitting to the government’s requests for information, about what you might be willing to accept in return for the offer of security during wartime, for power and wealth and influence. These are decisions similar to ones we all face today and have no way of foreseeing how they will escalate. 

I began the trip feeling entirely inadequate and unprepared for the emotional and intellectual challenges ahead, praying for God’s word to be a lamp for my feet and a light for this journey. I ended it in deep and humble awareness of the transformation within me and around me among the FASPE community that God brought together in this brief and incredible time. The faith transformation took hold of me in Krakow, after studying several days in Berlin. During our walking tour of that beautiful ancient city whose Jewish community and culture seemed to be destroyed, the weight of the history we were studying sat heavily on my heart. That evening I joined FASPE friends for Shabbat services at the one synagogue where Jews worship in Krakow today. The Rabbi below welcomed in the Sabbath with joy and with children running around his feet. Afterwards, he invited us to dinner at the Krakow JCC where people streamed in, women set up additional tables in the hallways, and brought out more plates of food: this community is alive! Alive and singing. Alive in the beauty of the blessings and in the rhythm of the songs and in the faces of those around me; here is the truth of God’s mercy and God’s eternal promise of new life. I have been transformed by experiencing a taste of the Jewish spiritual traditions which sustain and foster life and healing even in the midst of overwhelming death and brokenness. The next day I wept and prayed with Jesus in Wawel Cathedral, where a prayer card spoke to me - “we beseech you stranger, to harken as the wounds of your Lord speak silently to you, ponder if you have shown them proper gratitude.”

The prophetic transformation took hold of me as I left Auschwitz, stepping through the places where barbed wire and guns prevented so many people from ever, ever walking away. Because I have read the words of those who could not leave; and met their presence in the barracks, the latrines, the cells; met their absence in the rubble surrounding the gas chambers; because God brought me here now to hear and to see, I cannot step away without embracing God’s call to speak peace. To be the presence of mercy. To involve myself in the life and community of those who are the most disempowered, the most suffering where I am now. To stand against wickedness: the wickedness that steals in to my own heart when complacency and fear and covetousness encourage silence, and the wickedness that steals into society and becomes systematic evil when complacency and fear and covetousness encourage political complicity by individuals and institutions.

FASPE confirmed that if I am to be a Christian leader then I must speak and act in ways that de-legitimize systems of oppression today in my community. We cannot preach a gospel of liberation in our churches and not act against the injustice of U.S. systems of incarceration. We cannot preach God’s love poured out over all creation without also breaking down the barriers we’ve tried to erect against God’s love for people, based on their sexual orientation or what we perceive to be gender difference. We must challenge ourselves and our congregations to examine Christian texts that have legitimized antisemitism, and not be complacent that the legacy of Christian anti-Judaism is over. We must ever claim our responsibility to listen to and walk with the most disempowered people in our communities. And as we open our hearts to God’s call on all of humanity - even inadequate, unprepared me - to live out our questions, our laments, and our thanksgiving in community together then we will taste God’s glory.

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Mary Rawlinson is an MDiv student at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.

The FASPE is an intensive two-week fellowship program that examines the roles played by clergy in Nazi Germany and during the Holocaust.  This historical examination is used as the foundation from which to discuss the moral codes that inform and guide human action, and to consider the fundamental ethical issues facing the clergy today.  FASPE’s integrated approach includes historical, theological, philosophical, and literary sources; survivor testimony; and on-site workshops in Berlin and Auschwitz.