The Righteous Gentiles of World War II, July 16
“Lord of the Exodus, who delivers your people with a strong hand and a mighty arm: Strengthen your Church with the examples of the righteous Gentiles of World War II to defy oppression for the rescue of the innocent; through Jesus Christ.”—Collect of the day: The Righteous Gentiles, July 16, in Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints (Church Publishing, 2019).
Lutz in bombed garden of the British Legation
Holy Women, Holy Men was a trial expanded calendar of commemorations of saints authorized by the 2009 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, that includes many modern people of faith and apostolic action. It was revised to become A Great Cloud of Witnesses (2016). The people remembered on July 16 are the thousands of Christians and people of faith who saved Jews from the Holocaust. One of them was Carl Lutz, an Evangelical Christian Swiss Vice-Counsel in Budapest. Lutz negotiated with the Nazis for the deportation of over 60,000 Jews to Palestine, probably saving more lives than any other person.
Lutz had gained permission to issue emigration papers for 8,000 Jews to Palestine. He interpreted it as applicable for 8,000 families, saving thousands more. A 2014 American film, Walking with the Enemy, tells of Lutz’s work with Pinchas Rosenbaum in Budapest during the German occupation of Hungary. Lutz also established seventy-six safe houses to hide Jews in Budapest, including the now famous Glass House, all of which the diplomat declared as Swiss territory.
There is another documentary about Lutz called The Forgotten Hero. I honestly believe each of us is given many moments to make a difference in the lives of others. The challenges may not be as dangerous or risky as Lutz’s on the international scene, but in our own environment, they may still demand courage. It is important to see how creative people who came before us made changes and found loopholes in systems awful beyond words when there seemed to be no way out. I can only believe this was the work of the Holy Spirit in the worst of times. I know that the same Holy Spirit is working in us today.
[See Carl Lutz, International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, www.raoulwallenberg.net.]
Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/