Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust: Genocide and Moral Obligation

Out of the numerous holocaust studies, there have been relatively few about the "righteous gentiles," that small number (far less than 1%) of non-Jewish Europeans who risked themselves and often their families to save Jews from the Nazis. Of that small number of studies, none had analyzed the phenomenon from a specifically Christian perspective, despite the fact that many of the rescuers were professing Christians. David Gushee's remarkable study fills this gap. Gushee admits that most Christians stood by and did nothing while the Nazis took their Jewish neighbors to the death camps. Some even cooperated or were themselves perpetrators of the atrocities--often having learned to hate Jews in church. So, Gushee investigates to find out why these Christians were different. What made them rescue Jews when so few others had such moral heroism? Gushee seeks to answer this question so that today's chueches can work to produce that type of Christian and not the bystanders or perpetrators. He also concludes that political protections for the basic human rights of all must be firmly in place--by the time one needs heroic morality, it is too late to stop genocidal horrors. This book is rivetting. One can only pray that it finds a wide audience which heeds its author's lessons well.

I first bought this book out of curiosity. After I had read the preface, I couldn't put it down. For three days I read and reread this book. Not only is it intellectually stimulating, it is also spiritually challenging. It makes one wonder, "Would this happen today?"