With my own eyes I saw them …

Yes, with my own eyes I saw them after the pogrom night in November 1938 – the charred ruins of the Great Synagogue in Königsberg. I averted my gaze. I didn't want to know. A German child, unfeeling like millions of others. Three years later I saw Jews in the parks, fearful and isolated, marked with the Yellow Star. But it left me cold. Then there was the chance visit of a Nazi camp guard over 60 years ago. Yes, I had heard what she said about a concentration camp before I was sent out of the room as a 14-year-old. My parents were concerned: it seemed dangerous even to know. The incident stuck in my mind, no matter how hard I tried to forget. Still, I refused to confront the truth.

Millions upon millions of Germans did the same. Few had the courage to make a public stand. Even Christians for the most part were unwilling to take a risk. As a result six million Jews were abandoned to death. Anyone familiar with the Word of God could have foreseen the implications. We are warned that whoever dares to touch the people of God – as Israel has always been known – touches the apple of God's eye (Zechariah 2:8).

Along with scores of other young misled Germans, I was taught, ‘There can be only one chosen people, and that's us.' What arrogance! ‘Never again' vowed those who saw where such pride can lead to. They were serious. But what about today? Hate-propaganda is on the rise again. Biassed, distorted media coverage is driving us on to the side of those who hate and persecute the Jewish people and who will stop at nothing, not even murder. How can that be?

Yes, we were sorry about what happened. We deplored the crimes that Germans committed against the Jews during the Third Reich. But our repentance did not bring about a change in attitude. To feel ashamed, to feel regret, in the face of such atrocities is human, but it is not enough. Unless we have seen what we have done to God, nothing will change. The problem with most of us Christians in Germany is that we are out of touch with God …

The people of God have suffered indescribably during two thousand years of Church history. As Christians we have heaped untold guilt upon ourselves. We have made our Lord a figure of revulsion for them. The most heinous crimes against Jews were committed by baptised Christians in the 20th century.

Blamed for every imaginable calamity, thousands upon thousands of Jews were put to death even before the Nazi era. But the Holocaust, the systematic murder of six million Jewish men, women and children, is unparalleled in the annals of history. The Final Solution was planned in detail and ruthlessly implemented by one of the world's most cultured but also most arrogant and misled nations. Auschwitz was masterminded by German technology and efficiency.

To quote Elie Wiesel, ‘No nation, no ideology, no system has ever inflicted brutality, suffering and humiliation on such a scale on any people as yours has on mine in such a short period.' As a member of my people I confess our guilt in grief and shame. We are the ones who sinned so grievously against the Jewish people in their hour of need. We failed to show them compassion when they were hounded to death. What can we do to prevent it from happening all over again, only with a different label? Back then our fathers were silent. Today as citizens of a democratic society we can make our voices heard. We therefore urge our Government: Do not permit any boycott of Israeli products. Keep your agreements and deliver the spare parts.

Israel is undisputedly the legitimate homeland of the Jewish people. The hatred that denies the Jewish people the right to exist is directed against the living God. We are rejecting God and His claims on us when we deny Israel the right to exist and abandon the Jewish people to their fate.

Let us now observe a minute of silence to remember all the Israelis who died a sudden, violent death in their own land – almost 500 terror victims in the last one and a half years.