Sister Irene sits in the living room of Beth Abraham, a retreat for Holocaust survivors that she and three other nuns run in Jerusalem's Talpiot neighborhood. Dressed in the white habit that has been her garb for the past 55 years, her face radiates love and compassion.

"I was 13 years old when the Nazis burned the synagogue in my hometown in Germany. But I had no eyes, no ears, no feeling for the suffering of my Jewish brothers and sisters. When my Jewish classmates disappeared from school, I never asked why."

It was only after the war, in 1947, when at the age of 22 Irene joined the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, that she confronted the "very painful truth of my nation's crimes against the Jewish People in all its horror."

The head of the sisterhood pointed out that her indifference was a sin "and that responsibility for these crimes fell upon me as well. 

"I had to ask myself: Where was I when all these crimes were taking place? Why didn't I do anything? Tears of repentance flowed as I prayed to God to show me what I should do. Our national crime was so great. What could I, one person, do in the face of such enormous sin? And then, I received the answer. I would give my life to God for the Jewish People." 

Sister Irene is one of 200 women worldwide who belong to the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, a Protestant order headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany. Its members have dedicated their lives to repenting and atoning for the crimes and injustices perpetrated against the Jewish People, for which the Christian Church bears heavy responsibility.

Today, the order has members not only at its motherhouse in Darmstadt (aptly named Kana'an) and Israel, but also in the US, Brazil, Paraguay, England, Holland, Switzerland and Australia.

In 2001, the sisterhood organized the International Repentance Conference in Jerusalem, which united more than 1,000 Christians who endorsed a confession of their sins for defaming, murdering and persecuting the Jewish People and pledged to work to fight anti- Semitism in all its forms.

Founded by the late Mother Basilea Schlink and the late Mother Martyria Madauss, the sisterhood grew out of a Christian movement of repentance for anti-Semitism following World War II. A member of the Confessing Church, Mother Basilea was National President of the Women's Division of the German Student Christian Movement during the Nazi era. 

She spent seven years lecturing in German cities, bringing home the message that the nation Israel is "still the people of the blessing." For that crime, she was hauled before the Gestapo and interrogated twice, though released each time. Her followers see this as a sign that she enjoyed God's protection.

In 1955, Mother Basilea first came to Israel and decided to send sisters here to further their work. The first sisters lived in Haifa, taking care of Holocaust survivors in hospitals.

Sister Irene arrived in 1959. But Mother Basilea had further plans for the sisters in Israel. 
"Mother Basilea said Jerusalem is the heart of the Jewish people," says Sister Irene. "It is to Jerusalem that the Messiah will come. She decided our work should be in Jerusalem."

In 1961, two days after the start of the Eichmann trial, Beth Abraham was dedicated. 
Beth Abraham - founded with the assistance of former Jerusalem mayor Daniel Auster - has served as a retreat for thousands of Holocaust survivors over the past 41 years.

"I thank God every day that I can still serve the Jewish people," she says. 
Twenty-seven years ago, Sister Irene was joined by Sister Gratia, a native of Austria. Today, the order in Israel also includes two younger members, German Sister Clarita and Finnish Sister Eugenia. 

Beth Abraham serves as a free one-week vacation retreat for eight Holocaust survivors at a time. The rooms are spotlessly clean, the meals are all dairy and kosher, and the garden is spectacular. During the week, the sisters provide for all their guests' needs, including taking them on tours around Jerusalem.

"I would like to make it perfectly clear that we do not proselytize," says Sister Gratia emphatically. 

"Our purpose is to love God. We can't atone completely for Hitler and the sins of the Christian world; we can never heal the wounds, they are just too deep. But we can help to soothe them. We can feel the hurt with those who are hurting. It is our prayer that our guests will feel as if they are resting in the bosom of Abraham and that they will experience here something of the peace of the Almighty." 

Sister Gratia admits that some of the guests are wary at the outset of their visit. But most reserve places in Beth Abraham after hearing about it by word of mouth.

"At first, it is very strange for them to be with Christian nuns from Germany," says Sister Gratia. "But they soon feel the love. Everyone needs love and we become like family.

"They remain in contact with us long after their visit."

The sisters must be doing something right; Beth Abraham currently has a three-year waiting list. 

"From where will help come? From America, from Zinni? No. Our answer is 'Am Israel Hai and Od Avinu Hai.' We call out to God, especially now. God brought the Jewish People home from the far corners of the earth. 

"Did He do this for them to die here? No. He has a purpose. There is hope. This is what we want the Jewish People to see, especially now, because the despair is so great."

The walls of Beth Abraham are decorated with passages from the Tanach, many relating to the life of Abraham. Every day begins with a communal breakfast, during which the sisters and the guests sit around the table and sing. Then the guests are treated to a tour of Jerusalem. 

"Many of our guests don't really know Jerusalem," says Sister Gratia. "We want them to see everything in the city. We take them in our car or by taxi to wherever they want. They are often afraid to go out of the house and its garden, but we help them to overcome this fear. In the concentration camps, they prayed 'Next year in Jerusalem.' 

"Now, we want to give them Jerusalem. We take them to the Wall, to the Great Synagogue, to Yad Vashem .... Our guests especially like Bus 99, which tours the city.

"When they get back we sit down and talk about what they have seen. We talk about the prophecy in the Tanach. They have seen that Jerusalem is a living city, not a ruin."

She points out that many of the prophecies of the Tanach have already been fulfilled - for example, the Ingathering of the Exiles. It is written, she says: "I will bring my people home."

They host guests whose origins are in Romania, Hungary, Poland, Russia and other countries. "We want to open their eyes. They are here and they are part of these prophecies. We want them to see that the Tanach is alive and that they are the people of God. It is strange that in a German Christian house we can give them a ray of hope."

One guest had suffered terribly at the Nazis' hands.

"For nearly the entire week, he hardly spoke," Sister Gratia remembers. "But then suddenly, at the end of his stay, he began to pour out his story. When he finished he turned to us and said: 'All week, I have looked at you and wondered what your underlying motivation was. I grew up in a religious home and I studied in a cheder before the war. During the Holocaust, I not only lost my entire family but I also lost my faith in God. After this week with you, I have regained my faith.'

"Do you know what this did for us as Germans and Austrians? We who led this suffering? We took away not only this man's childhood, his dignity and his entire family, but we also stripped him of his faith. But here in our house, we were able to return to him his faith. This, for us, is a gift from God."

Bracha and Shlomo Geller from Kiryat Bialik waited two years to be able to stay at Beth Abraham. "Through the sisters we got to know Jerusalem. It was a wonderful week," they say.

"Our parents died at Auschwitz. We have very bad memories of Germans," says Hillel Frisch of Ashkelon. "Both my wife and I were recovering from operations and needed a place to rest. We called and the sisters took us right away. We were very impressed. It was like another world. We were welcomed into a warm and loving home.

"It seems unbelievable that there are people who have dedicated their lives to helping humanity in this way. And they do not ask anything in return."