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>> 153 9 The Evangelical Understanding of the Holocaust Since the 1970s, the evangelical rank and file have shown growing awareness of the suffering of Jews and others during the Second World War. Books relating to the Holocaust have become popular in evangelical circles, often in conjunction with other themes, such as the position of the Jews in God’s plans for humanity and the moral and theological questions arising from the murder of millions of innocent people. Biographies, memoirs, and novels have been written to inform evangelical readers about the Nazi regime in Europe from 1933 to 1945, as well as to educate Christians on the meaning and purpose of the horrifying events that took place during those years and how they fit into the larger scheme of divine plans for human salvation. Such literature has further come to set standards for the proper behavior of Christians during trying times. The writings reassure evangelicals that true Christian believers had nothing to do with the persecution and annihilation of Jews and others and in fact went out of their way to protect such people from the Nazis. Evangelical literature has further pointed to the horrors of the Holocaust as a proof that all human beings need the Gospel and should accept Jesus Christ as their savior and follow in his footsteps, thereby assuring their status as righteous persons in this era as well as their spiritual and physical salvation for eternity. Evangelicals Discover the Holocaust The evangelical interest in learning about what happened to the Jews during World War II and the wish to make sense of it morally and 154 > 155 Exemplary Christians and the Rescue of Jews: The Hiding Place The most popular evangelical book on the Holocaust has been The Hiding Place. Published in the early 1970s, it was widely circulated until, at the turn of the twenty-first century, it was overshadowed by the popularity of a new genre of evangelical literature on the same topic. The narrator -protagonist of The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom, had published her memoirs nearly twenty years earlier.3 The evangelist Billy Graham recognized the book’s potential as an instructive evangelical tract and invited the Dutch heroine to the United States to lecture on her experiences . Graham also sponsored a new version of her book, coauthored by John and Elizabeth Sherrill, two professional writers, and it immediately became popular among evangelicals. Millions of copies sold in America, translations were made into a number of languages, and a film was produced.4 The Hiding Place tells the story of the ten Booms, a devout Dutch Reformed family who operated a watch shop in the Dutch city of Haarlem . Two unmarried sisters, Corrie and Betsie, lived with their aging father above the shop. Following the Nazi occupation of Holland, when the persecution of Jews and others began, the ten Booms gave shelter to Jews and non-Jews who were hiding from the Nazis. The family became involved in a clandestine operation to hide Jews as well as Dutch youths who were evading Nazi forced labor. The book offers a vivid account of many aspects of the rescue activity. The family had to be wary of informers and kept their rescue activity secret from those who did not take part in it. Daily life with hidden Jews is described with credibility. For example , it was difficult for the hidden persons to remain in their cramped quarters. One Jewish woman who could take it no longer gave herself up by walking out into the streets; she was recognized and arrested. While ten Boom gives an accurate picture of Holland under Nazi occupation, indicating that only a minority were willing to save Jewish lives, her book implies that true Christian believers, brought up on biblical literalism, were in the forefront of rescue efforts. Indeed, according to Joseph Michman, the percentage of conservative Dutch Protestants who 156 > 157 (86). Likewise, holding to a more literal reading of Scripture, the ten Boom asserted that the Jews were still God’s chosen people, destined to regain their role as God’s first nation. The German attempt to destroy the Jews was futile and would ultimately harm the perpetrators. After the war and the German defeat, ten Boom promoted a message of forgiveness and reconciliation. The book thus targeted Germans, too, as potential readers and converts. It carried the message that the truly converted were utterly forgiven and that Christian victims and their former persecutors were now in the...

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