As a citizen of her country, Mother Basilea longed to make amends for the sins of the past in the spirit of Daniel 9 and to find practical ways of expressing love for God's chosen people. This led, in 1961, to the opening of a small guest house in Jerusalem for Holocaust survivors. At the dedication a former mayor of Jerusalem said, ‘We want to forget everything else little by little and just see the reconciliation and the love that you have brought to us...' For more on this subject, see Israel, My Chosen People.
From an interview at Beth Abraham: ‘…We can never heal the wounds. They are too deep. But we can help to soothe them. We can feel the hurt with those who are hurting. This is what Beth Abraham is all about. It is our prayer that our guests will feel as if they were resting in the bosom of Abraham and that they will experience something of the peace of the Almighty.
And there is peace where there is faith.With our Jewish guests we read passages from the Tenach showing that the Almighty never forgot His people in all their troubles and never will.
A German Confession
Talk given at the World Prayer Congress, Jerusalem,
May 1996, by Sister Pista.
The Message of Auschwitz
Where was God and what can be learnt from the Holocaust?
ask British and American members of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary.
Excerpt from: The Guilt of Christianity Towards the Jewish People
After the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed, the question was raised: How could it have happened? The shocking truth is that the Holocaust was the culmination of centuries of hatred and violent persecution, often inspired by Christian theology.
I feel deeply convicted as a Christian but also as a German, for as early as the Middle Ages Jews were mercilessly killed by the thousand in German cities. Mother Basilea Schlink, founder of our community in Darmstadt, Germany, writes movingly in her book Israel, My Chosen People of how those who attack God's people attack Him, for Israel is the apple of His eye.
Considering the atrocities committed against the Jews in the name of Christ throughout much of Christianity's 2000-year history, how can we celebrate the millennium without first expressing our deep sorrow over the past in a spirit of repentance? By our unchristian attitude and behaviour we have brought shame upon the name of Jesus, making it offensive to His own people, the Jews … And so today it is our prayer that Christians all over the world will be inspired to commemorate the millennium with a service of repentance in a spirit of unity, acknowledging our common Christian heritage.
Drawn from Christian and Jewish historical sources in English and German, the following is a brief résumé of the horrific history of Christianity's dealings with the Jews -- dealings which paved the way for the Holocaust.
Sister Pista
Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, Darmstadt / Germany (an international and interdenominational Christian fellowship)
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