Re-Membering Wannseekonferenz

by Jacqui Skinner

Our travel seminar is a diverse bunch. We have three countries of origin, represent six denominations, include students from Charlotte and Richmond (as well as a couple non-student friends of the seminary), and our age range spans six decades. We have all come from different backgrounds and have come for different reasons. We have all left different things back at home. I left behind a spouse and two small children, who very thoughtfully snuck a couple letters into my luggage for this significant journey. With permission, I would like to share my partner’s wise words of encouragement, as they are the most appropriate for our day today:

You are coming face-to-face with evil. And there really are no words for explaining how this came to be… Words and logic don’t stand a chance against the sheer and total horror of the Holocaust.

But you know that…

Keeping your humanity after witnessing the physical proof of this darkness has to require emotionally processing, crying, screaming maybe, all the things that are beyond words.

And it also requires community. It sounds like carrying the burden of this trip with the locals and with your fellow seminarians is by design. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about what an experience like this could do to a person, so despite how uncomfortable it may be, I urge you to process with your cohort… The weight of this history cannot be carried alone.

Community has been a central element of this trip. As the days go on, we grow closer and closer. As we prepare for our first evening and day off, we are planning outings to do together. When a small group decided to make dinner plans for this evening, every one of us opted to join in the meal together on a free night instead of venturing off alone or in smaller groups.

No one is left to carry this alone.

As we explored the grounds at the Wannsee estate – the site of the Nazi meeting in January of 1942 known as the Wannseekonferenz – one would not know that such evil had ever stepped foot there. It is idyllic and beautiful. It smells of spring; sounds of the lake accented by bird calls make the estate feel welcoming and full of life. However, on this estate, a group of very well-educated and venerated men mapped out what they called “the final solution to the Jewish problem”. That solution was systematic and pragmatic extermination. The methods and logistics of the death camps were decided here, in a routine ninety-minute meeting over a fine meal in a luxury villa overlooking the lake. As Dr. Baard often reminds us, evil is often beautiful and enticing; it is never obviously ugly, even in this case. Here, evil sat in a place of honor and luxury and spoke of genocide as if it were natural and necessary.

And yet, much of our tour and lecture focused on the culpability of the civilian population. This did not just happen by the conspiratorial designs of only a dozen or so high officials. This happened because of the evil within every person who chose to elevate their anti-Semitic prejudices. As a colleague pointed out, as the people dehumanized Jews, they themselves lost their humanity. God have mercy on us all, indeed.

In modernity, we also face a problem. As we examine this evil, I am convinced we must reckon with “the dis-membering problem” – we are once again looking at dehumanization in various contexts, from genocides around the world, anti-Semitism, racism, and political polarization. We are coming dangerously close to an unraveling of humanity anywhere we miss the Imago Dei in other human beings.

Today, we met – a diverse group of theologians – on the grounds of Haus der Wannseekonferenz to discuss how we deal with this problem of fractured humanity, of othering, of dis-membering. As if to undo Wannseekonferenz by re-enacting it in the name of Christian love, we spoke of the role of the faith in meeting moments of dehumanization. We formulated our own “final solution”, that of love in genuine community. The weight of this burden cannot be – and will not be – carried alone.

We must always continue to love.