wfn.org | The tracks leading to Auschwitz are still in place

["Ruth Gill" <rag@cec-kek.org>]

Conference of European Churches - Office of  Communications
Press release No. 05-05/e			       26 January 2005

THE TRACKS LEADING TO AUSCHWITZ ARE STILL IN PLACE

Keith Clements on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation
of Auschwitz

"In a world of violence, poverty, disease and misery for millions" we
should "ask ourselves which track we're on, and where it is ultimately
leading", as many of the "tracks that led towards Auschwitz are still in
place". This was underlined in an article on the occasion of the 60th
anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, by Rev. Dr Keith Clements,
General Secretary of the Conference of European Churches (CEC). The
article will be published tomorrow, Thursday 27 January, in the "Baptist
Times", Britain's Baptist weekly newspaper.

"I visited Auschwitz in March last year", Clements stated. "Having read
and viewed so much about it, it was hard to believe one was now actually
there: standing on the most infamous piece of railway track in history,
leading through the gate under the Birkenau guardhouse to the platform".

"Having once stood on that line leading into Auschwitz-Birkenau", he said,
"no railway track can ever look quite as innocent again for it connects
with all the railway lines across Europe. The route to Auschwitz began far
away and not just in a physical sense. It began in the widely diffused
anti-Semitism; it joined the railroad of nationalism, when nation began to
replace God as an object of worship. It connected with the track of racial
superiority and the belief that differences of colour, culture and
religion were inimical to a 'pure' society. The train was hitched to the
locomotive of the seemingly omnipotent state, claiming the right to pull
everything in conformity behind it. The engine was stoked with the
ideology that some people, if not actually a menace to the rest, are there
to be exploited and conveniently dispensed with for economic gain.
Finally, in the context of war where all restraints are dropped, the track
went straight and level enabling the 'final solution'. Auschwitz was a
uniquely horrific crime in its combination of careful, calculated planning
and inhuman brutality. But equally it was the culmination of trends
endemic in much of our world. Auschwitz did not just happen, it was made
to happen and moreover allowed to happen".

It's precisely because Auschwitz is the result of  "moral evasion" and of
"fears which kept people silent and inactive", that nowadays we must "ask
ourselves which track we're on, and where it is ultimately leading. The
lie that some people do not matter as much as us because of their colour
or gender; the lie that people who are different are inherently enemies to
be banished or eliminated; the lie that masses of people exist only for
our economic benefit and can be dispensed with when it suits us; the lie
that the so-called interests of the state (or some states in particular)
take precedence over everything and everyone else; the lie that one's
country can itself go to war on a lie; and the biggest lie of all, that
there's nothing in any case we can do about it - all these are rife in our
world. These are the tracks that ultimately led towards Auschwitz, and
they are still in place".

The full text of Dr Clement's article will be available in the January 27
edition of "Baptist Times", and also on the their website at www.baptisttimes.co.uk

* * * *

The Conference of European Churches (CEC) is a fellowship of some 125
Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican and Old Catholic Churches from all
countries of Europe, plus 40 associated organisations. CEC was founded in
1959. It has offices in Geneva, Brussels and Strasbourg.

For information:
Office of Communications
Conference of European Churches
Phone +41 22 791 64 85 or 791 63 25
Fax +41 22 791 62 27
e-mail Luca.Negro@cec-kek.org