{"id":19605,"date":"2015-04-15T12:14:33","date_gmt":"2015-04-15T18:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=19605"},"modified":"2015-04-15T12:14:33","modified_gmt":"2015-04-15T18:14:33","slug":"unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html","title":{"rendered":"Unpleasant Photograph Warning: “Bergen-Belsen through the eyes of its liberator”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"70<\/a>
The liberation of Bergen-Belsen, seventy years ago today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In less than a week, my wife and I will be in Israel again. \u00a0And, roughly\u00a0a week after that,\u00a0we\u2019ll be walking with our group through Yad Vashem, Jerusalem\u2019s museum and memorial to the millions of Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A very few\u00a0of those who\u2019ve accompanied us to Israel in the past have objected to this visit. \u00a0One\u00a0once declined even to get off the bus for it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

To me, though, it\u2019s a solemn duty. \u00a0It\u2019s my obligation never to forget, and to try to ensure that others don\u2019t forget. \u00a0I feel that I owe that both to the victims and to my father, who was among the liberators of the concentration camp at Mauthausen, Austria, and who was marked for life by his experience there.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whenever I\u2019m in the vicinity of Linz or Salzburg, I make a point of visiting Mauthausen. \u00a0It\u2019s not fun. \u00a0I don\u2019t count it as a tourist activity. \u00a0It\u2019s an occasion for reverence and for reflection.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I feel that a visit to Jerusalem is enhanced by a visit to Yad Vashem. \u00a0It helps to understand the founding of the State of Israel, and the attitude of Israelis toward the threats that surround them. \u00a0And, even more importantly, by giving us a glimpse both of extreme human evil and of millions of lives brought cruelly and prematurely to an end, it helps us to grasp more deeply our desperate need for the Atonement and Resurrection of Christ. \u00a0In that sense, it\u2019s a fitting prelude to the visits to Gethsemane, Golgotha, and the Garden Tomb that follow it in the next day or two of the tour itinerary.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an account, which I offer in that spirit, of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, in northern Germany:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/article\/416948\/bergen-belsen-through-eyes-its-liberator-bernice-lerner<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very much like what my father told me as I was growing up. \u00a0He wanted me to know, and he wanted me never to let the memory fade.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve tried to honor that request.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s quite bizarre, in that light, that\u00a0I have an obsessive anonymous critic online who, among other things, has delighted for roughly five years now (perhaps more) in publicly labeling\u00a0me an anti-Semite.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several years ago, he was even claiming that he\u2019d accompanied me on a tour to Israel and witnessed my ludicrous antics, my bigotry, my perpetual rage, and my shameless lies\u00a0there at first hand. \u00a0His claim\u00a0turned out, unsurprisingly, to be complete fiction. \u00a0(He\u2019s finally admitted it now, chortling\u00a0over what he plainly regards as a clever bit of deception \u2014 although it actually never deceived anybody but the most gullible in his tiny, embittered, angry audience.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I wish, though, that he really had<\/em> accompanied me through Yad Vashem. \u00a0I wish that he could walk with me through the camp at Mauthausen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps, then, he might come to understand that anti-Semitism isn\u2019t an amusing weapon to be casually and dishonestly deployed against someone\u00a0whom he\u2019s chosen to regard as an enemy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 In less than a week, my wife and I will be in Israel again. \u00a0And, roughly\u00a0a week after that,\u00a0we\u2019ll be walking with our group through Yad Vashem, Jerusalem\u2019s museum and memorial to the millions of Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust. \u00a0 A very few\u00a0of those who\u2019ve accompanied us to Israel in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nUnpleasant Photograph Warning: "Bergen-Belsen through the eyes of its liberator"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    In less than a week, my wife and I will be in Israel again. \u00a0And, roughly\u00a0a week after that,\u00a0we'll be walking with our group through Yad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unpleasant Photograph Warning: "Bergen-Belsen through the eyes of its liberator"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"    In less than a week, my wife and I will be in Israel again. \u00a0And, roughly\u00a0a week after that,\u00a0we'll be walking with our group through Yad\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-15T18:14:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2015\/04\/601px-The_Liberation_of_Bergen-belsen_Concentration_Camp_April_1945_BU4260.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html\",\"name\":\"Unpleasant Photograph Warning: \\\"Bergen-Belsen through the eyes of its liberator\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-15T18:14:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-15T18:14:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"    In less than a week, my wife and I will be in Israel again. \u00a0And, roughly\u00a0a week after that,\u00a0we'll be walking with our group through Yad\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Unpleasant Photograph Warning: “Bergen-Belsen through the eyes of its liberator”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Unpleasant Photograph Warning: \"Bergen-Belsen through the eyes of its liberator\"","description":"    In less than a week, my wife and I will be in Israel again. \u00a0And, roughly\u00a0a week after that,\u00a0we'll be walking with our group through Yad","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Unpleasant Photograph Warning: \"Bergen-Belsen through the eyes of its liberator\"","og_description":"    In less than a week, my wife and I will be in Israel again. \u00a0And, roughly\u00a0a week after that,\u00a0we'll be walking with our group through Yad","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2015-04-15T18:14:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2015\/04\/601px-The_Liberation_of_Bergen-belsen_Concentration_Camp_April_1945_BU4260.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html","name":"Unpleasant Photograph Warning: \"Bergen-Belsen through the eyes of its liberator\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-04-15T18:14:33+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-15T18:14:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"    In less than a week, my wife and I will be in Israel again. \u00a0And, roughly\u00a0a week after that,\u00a0we'll be walking with our group through Yad","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/unpleasant-photograph-warning-bergen-belsen-through-the-eyes-of-its-liberator.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Unpleasant Photograph Warning: “Bergen-Belsen through the eyes of its liberator”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}