By Gary G. Kohls, MD

This past week the infamous gate to the infamous World War II-era extermination camp at Auschwitz was stolen by vandals as yet unknown. That gate had above it a short bit of propaganda that proclaimed to the millions of doomed incoming victims (as well as people who were just passing by:: “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Makes One Free).

The Nazi regime, following Hitler’s fascist takeover and the violent destruction of Germany’s liberal democratic government in 1933, had successfully indoctrinated most Germans to regard as patriotic the obligation to build and defend the Thousand Year Reich by laboring diligently for the cause.

Such labor-promoting efforts eventually resulted in full employment in a large variety of industries: military, transportation (with the building of the Autobahn and expansion and improvement of the railroad system), chemicals, agriculture, mining and weapons production. All of these industries thrived, with willing, reasonably well-paid and grateful Germans all applauding Hitler for his economic miracle. After the hyperinflation, jopblessness and hunger that followed the fiasco of World War I, Germans were thankful for the work, the relatively generous paid vacations, the affordable medical care and affordable education.

Things were going well for Germany except for the fact that many oppressed minorities were suffering mightily under the military jackboot. The citizenry had to turn its eyes away from the persecution that was happening all around.

The 150 or so concentration camps needed a lot of citizen-workers to keep the camps running smoothly, and the series of camps and various other prisons were also a major part of Hitler’s economic boom, growing Germany’s GNP substantially.

Auschwitz, located in Poland, away from the eyes of most Germans, was ultimately the most infamous of the camps, and everybody that lived around it knew what was going on. German’s protested later, when the camps had been liberated, that they didn’t know that mass murder and genocide was going on right under their noses, but the odor of burning flesh, when the wind was right, was unmistakable; and the red smoke that came out of the tall stacks could have had no other explanation.

After the total destruction of Germany’s militarists, financiers, investors and industrialists that had benefited from Naziism’s attempts to dominate the resources of Europe and Asia, unbelievable stories were revealed. Among these revelations was the story of the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoess.

Hoess was not the Rudolf Hess who was Hitler's # 2 man early in the regime. That Hess had disgraced himself in the eyes of his fellow fascists by flying to, and crash landing in, Great Britain, without Hitler's fore-knowledge or approval, on a misguided attempt to be a hero and negotiate with the British early in World War II.

The Rudolf Hoess of Auschwitz infamy was the son of a devout, well-to-do, conservative Roman Catholic family that wanted him to go into the priesthood before he chose to serve Hitler. (Hitler, interestingly enough, was also a baptized Catholic who had likewise considered entering the priesthood as a child.)

Hoess learned unconditional obedience to authority from the harsh militaristic family-rearing that he and most German and Austrian children had experienced for generations, indeed centuries, before. Such punitive "parenting" was reinforced by the similarly harsh discipline that was the norm in the religious (and secular) schools - and not just in Catholicism, but in Lutheranism as well; and thus Hoess wrote the following explanation for his willingness to reflexively carry out the decidedly un-Christ-like orders he received at Auschwitz:

“Above all, I was constantly reminded that I was to comply with, and follow, the wishes or commands of parents, teachers, priests, etc., indeed all grown-ups including the servants, and that I was to allow nothing to distract me from that duty. Whatever they said, went. These fundamental values of my upbringing became part of my flesh and blood.”*

This is exactly how military recruits learn the killing arts and then react automatically and obediently, even to illegal orders when given in the heat of the battle. After the psychological trauma and threats of punishment experienced in basic training, soldiers will usually automatically apply what they have been indoctrinated to do – or else.

Duty and honor; solemn oaths; obedience to god and country; patriotism; nationalism; "America # 1" and "Deutchland Uber Alles" are common examples of patriotic slogans that have driven the killing machines on all sides of every war throughout the history of warfare. Internalizing such propaganda allowed Hoess to perform his duties very well at Auschwitz, without any obvious signs of remorse when he was later tried and convicted – and executed - for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The baptized Lutheran Adolph Eichmann, a contemporary of Hoess’s reacted the same when he was tried.

Sadly, the participants (willing or unwilling) of chronic brain-washing for the purpose of creating people willing to inflict pain on others (both the indoctrinated soldiers and the propagandized civilians), learn much too late that being involved in state-sponsored terror, directly or even indirectly, can also be lethal to their souls and psyches,, but it is especially lethal to the souls and psyches of their often innocent, defenseless victims.

In some way, those invisible wounds extend even to another group that are victimized by violence: the guilty bystanders who stood silently in the face of cruelty and did nothing. The guilt felt later for not intervening often became too much to bear, with depression, anxiety, insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks and suicidality often the result.

One has to wonder: What kind of Christianity is it that historically approved of harshness in parenting, punitive attitudes toward the “other” and pro-war theologies and also does not object to the unaffordable manufacture and stockpiling of, and training to use, the lethal weapons that are only designed for human slaughter?

From where in the human soul comes the willingness to kill, torture and cooperate with the evils of state-sponsored homicide and economic oppression, irrespective of what militarized nation one lives in: fascist Germany or “democratic” America?

As Bob Dylan asked so poignantly in his classic antiwar song, “Blowing In The Wind”: “How many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned? How many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry? How many deaths will it take til he knows that too many people have died? How many years can some people exist before they’re allowed to be free? And how many times can a man turn his head pretending he just doesn’t see?”

The answer isn’t really blowing in the wind.

I attach below a powerful poem by Thomas Merton entitled Chant to be Used in Processions Around a Site With Furnaces. Merton had Rudolf Hoess in mind when he wrote it.

Dr. Kohls is a retired physician from Duluth, MN who writes about peace, justice, militarism, fascism, psychological issues and is a member of the international organization, Every Church A Peace Church (www.ecapc.org).

*The Hoess quote above is taken from Alice Miller's Breaking Down the Wall of Silence. Miller's seminal work on the political and theological consequences of harshness in child-rearing is For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Childhood and the Roots of Violence.

Chant to be Used in Processions Around a Site With Furnaces

By Thomas Merton

(first published in The Catholic Worker)

How we made them sleep and purified them

How we perfectly cleaned up the people and worked a big heater

I was the commander

I made improvements and installed a guaranteed system taking account of human weakness

I purified and I remained decent

How I commanded

I made cleaning appointments and then I made the travelers sleep and after that I made soap

I was born into a Catholic family but as these people were not going to need a priest I did not become a priest

I installed a perfectly good machine it gave satisfaction to many

When trains arrived the soiled passengers received appointments for fun in the bathroom they did not guess

It was a very big bathroom for two thousand people

it awaited arrival and they arrived safely

There would be an orchestra of merry widows not all the time much art

If they arrived at all they would be given a greeting card to send home taken care of with good jobs wishing you would come to our joke

Another improvement I made was I built the chambers for two thousand invitations at a time

the naked votaries were disinfected with Zyklon B

Children of tender age were always invited by reason of their youth they were unable to work they were marked out for play

They were washed like the others and more than the others

Very frequently women would hide their children in the piles of clothing but of course when we came to find them we would send the children into the chamber to be bathed
How I often commanded and made improvements and sealed the door on top there were flowers the men came with crystals

I guaranteed always the crystal parlor I guaranteed the chamber and it was sealed you could see through portholes

They waited for the shower it was not hot water that came through vents though efficient winds gave full satisfaction portholes showed this

The satisfied all ran together to the doors awaiting arrival it was guaranteed they made ends meet.

How I could tell by their cries that love came to a full stop

I found the ones I had made clean after about a half hour Jewish male inmates then worked up nice they had rubber boots in return for adequate food

I could not guess their appetite

Those at the door were taken apart out of a fully stopped love for rubber male inmates strategic hair and teeth being used later for defense

Then the males removed all clean love rings and made away with happy gold

A big new firm promoted steel forks operating on a cylinder they got the contract and with faultless workmanship delivered very fast goods

How I commanded and made soap "12 pounds fat 10 quarts water 8 ounces to a pound of caustic soda" but it was hard to find any fat

"For transporting the customers we suggest using light carts on wheels a drawing is submitted"

"We acknowledge four steady furnaces and an emergency guarantee"

I am a big new commander operating on a cylinder I elevate the purified materials

"boil for 2 to 3 hours and then cool"

For putting them into a test fragrance I suggested an express elevator operated by the latest cylinder it was guaranteed

Their love was fully stopped by our perfected ovens but the love rings were salvaged
Thanks to the satisfaction of male inmates operating the heaters without need of compensation our guests were warmed

All the while I had obeyed perfectly

So I was hanged in a commanding position with a full view of the site plant and grounds
You smile at my career but you would do as I did if you knew yourself and dared

In my days we worked hard we saw what we did our self sacrifice was conscientious and complete our work was faultless and detailed

Do not think yourself better because you burn up friends and enemies with long-range missiles without ever seeing what you have done.

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Dr. Kohls is a retired physician from the Duluth, MN area who writes about peace, justice, mental health and religion.