Holocaust Memorial Day 2008

INTRODUCTION

11 million died people were murdered in the Holocaust. 6 million were Jews, the rest were disabled, homosexuals, gypsies, blacks and cult members.

A fact that should be noted is that Pope Pius XII remained silent while Jews were arrested on the streets of Rome, deported to Auschwitz, and gassed to death. Another fact that is often overlooked is that Hitler was a Roman Catholic.

This message focuses on three groups involved in the Holocaust:

1. VICTIMS

Anne Frank and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are two of the famous victims but there were millions of unknowns as well. 1.5 million children were killed.

The term ’holocaust’ comes from the Greek word

’holókauston’ meaning ’completely burnt.’ Many Jews were burnt in Nazi crematoriums after being gassed to death. But the Bible talks about a much more terrifying burning. Revelation 20:15 "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.".

Leaving the straight and narrow way,

Going the downward road today,

Sad will their final ending be—

Lost through a long eternity!

2. SURVIVORS

Robert Maxwell, Corrie Ten Boom, Simon Wiesenthal and many others.

There are spiritual survivors too - those who have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Psalm 124:7 "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped."

Many are choosing Christ today,

Turning from all their sins away;

Heav’n shall their happy portion be—

Where will you spend eternity?

3. RESCUERS

a) Oskar Schindler saved 1,200.

b) Chiune Sugihara (Japanese ambassador in Lithuania) issued thousands of visas to Jews fleeing Poland. He was the last diplomat to leave, continuing to stamp visas from the open window of his departing train.

c) Raoul Wallenberg (Swedish politician) saved 100,000 Hungarian Jews by providing them with diplomatic passes.

d) Aristides de Sousa Mendes (Portuguese politician) saved 30,000 people by issuing Portuguese visas, free of charge, to refugees seeking to escape Nazi terror. 12,000 of these were Jews.

e) Giuseppe Jona (president of Jewish community in Venice during World War II), was ordered by the Nazis to produce a list of names of Jews. Instead, he killed himself, an act of self-sacrifice that saved hundreds of fellow Jews.

Christ is the greatest rescuer of all. He came to save not just Jews but Gentiles also. He has saved countless souls from an eternal holocaust.

Now Israel may say, and that truly,

If that the Lord had not our cause maintained,

If that the Lord had not our right sustained,

When cruel men who us desired to slay

Rose up in wrath, to make of us their prey;

Then certainly they had devoured us all,

And swallowed quick, for ought that we could deem;

Such was their rage, as we might well esteem.

And as fierce floods before them all things drown,

So had they brought our soul to death quite down.

The raging streams, with their proud swelling waves,

Had then our soul o’erwhelmed in the deep.

But blessed be God, Who doth us safely keep,

And gave us not a living prey to be

Unto their teeth and bloody cruelty.

E’en as a bird out of the fowler’s snare

Escapes away, so is our soul set free:

Rent is their net, and thus escaped we.

Therefore our help is in the Lord’s great name,

Who heaven and earth by His great power did frame.