Book Review: The Cost of Discipleship

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship is like reading a blade into your heart where the more you read the more that blade twists, ripping out every bit of pride and arrogance you may have had. When he says being a Christian means being willing to die a martyr in the name of Christ, he not only wrote it, but lived it.

Not too many weeks ago I was able to visit his church in Wroclaw, Poland, (previously Breslau, Germany) seeing his memorial. It is moving and tragic. There is a twofold reason for saying this. Bonhoeffer's grave was never found. He was executed in 1943 at the command of Himmler just a few days prior to his concentration camp being liberated by the Allies. Secondly, and more of a side note, what was once the church he pastored is now a Catholic parish since 1946 when Breslau once again became a part of Poland.

Day 3-5: Auschwitz and Birkenau

What a birthday present. Most cannot say they have been to Auschwitz, even fewer can say they have been on their birthday. There were a lot of surprises, one of which is how nice it is outside of the buildings in Auschwitz I. I do not say this to denigrate what its victims experienced, but to ask, "Why?".

I have become so confused over the Nazi concentration camp issue because I cannot understand why anyone would ever have so much work go into killing someone... The inmates were forced to build housing upon housing at Birkenau (Auschwitz II), but why? So they could house more Jews to be exterminated. It is still baffling. Why not just shoot them in their homes? Why not some other way? If one escaped, ten were tortured. They carrier their dead back to camp after a day's work so the Nazis would not accuse anyone of escaping.