Part 4 (1/2)
5 ”MERCY-BAPTISMS”
Christian clergymen in many lands were prepared to baptize Jews if the ceremony of baptism meant that lives could be saved.
The following is related of the Lutheran Church in Slovakia:
”Many Jews who tried to escape persecution sought rescue by giving up their religion and by requesting to be received into the Evangelical Church, for the Catholic Church did not receive them. [96] The Evangelical Church did not refuse them, which was an act of courage in those days, but enabled them to become members of the Church...
Here some examples follow: <26> In 1940, 20 persons, most of them adults, became Christians in Bratislava.
For the year 1941 the number was 83; for the first half of the year 1942: 47 persons; for the second half: 7.828 persons were admitted in 1943; only 2 in 1944.
In Horne Zelenice (near Hlohovec), 169 persons became Christians in 1942; 39 in 1943; in 1945 only one. In Frencin 120 persons; in Kochanovce (near Treucin) 45; in Banska Bystrica, 202 persons became Christians in 1942.
This help aroused the anger of the rulers, of the Gestapo and of the Hlinka Guard. They began to arrest Evangelical Christians and pastors. 9 pastors were sent to the concentration camps in Germany. Joseph Bucko, minister at Martine, perished in the camp.” [97]
It is reported that in Bulgaria,
”... Ministers of various Christian denominations engaged in ma.s.s 'mercy baptisms'; several of them were removed from office because of this (one of these ministers, with a community of about 200 souls, managed to baptize 200 additional persons between January 1 and September 1, 1940).
High dignitaries of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church declared that 'conversion to Christianity' and 'formal baptism' were two different acts, the first of which necessarily preceded the second, sometimes by a considerable period; because the law spoke of conversion and not of baptism having to have taken place before September 1, 1940, Jews baptized later could also be saved if the minister declared that they had expressed their will to adopt Christianity before that date.
Many courts accepted this reasoning. In this way, a number of baptized Jews and offspring of mixed marriages escaped the provision of the law.” [98]
The following is quoted from the testimony of Richard Simantov: <27>
”... It must be admitted that, with a few exceptions, all the Christian religious inst.i.tutions [in Bulgaria], as also their clergy, behaved with sympathy towards the Jewish victims of the anti-Jewish legislation.
When issuing the required legal doc.u.ments to the Christian Jew, the clerk of the court or the judge himself interrogated the priest, whether he had indeed carried out all the religious formalities, and how long the teaching of the catechism had lasted for the person of Jewish origin concerned.
The priest would always reply in the affirmative and would declare that the man had received instruction for 3, 4 or 5 months, and that he regularly attended church services etc., although often these doc.u.ments, which were issued by the Church, were given only in exchange for a payment, without the ceremony having been performed...” [99]
We have the following particulars about Greece :
”Many tried to evade the racial laws through baptism. More than 500 Jews embraced the Orthodox religion; some scores preferred to become Catholics.
it was clear that it was not out of conviction that these Jews entered into the Church. It was well-known, that only the desire to escape persecution moved them to seek refuge in the shadow of the cross.
Out of compa.s.sion, the priests did not hesitate to accept the new converts.
They were on friendly terms with them in different ways. Out of n.o.ble feelings and not in order to receive a reward, the priests also distributed baptismal certificates to Jews who had never attended a church service...” [100]
The biographer of the Archbishop of Athens, Damaskinos, relates:
”Later on, when the persecutions started affecting the Jews of Athens, the Archbishop decided on the following measures. He summoned the Director General of the Administrative Services of the Community of Athens, Mr. P.
Haldezos, and said to him: ”I have made the sign of the cross and have spoken to G.o.d, and have decided to save as many Jews as I can, even though I run a great risk. I am going to baptize them, and you must give certificates enabling them to obtain the ident.i.ty cards of Christian Greeks. Mr. Haldezos agreed to this. With the help of a Munic.i.p.al official, they opened a register wherein they registered 560 Jews as Christians, all of whom were saved. There was no treachery.” [101]<28>
Rev. J.J. Buskes discussed the considerations, which led clergymen in the Netherlands to provide Jews with false certificates of Baptism:
”We are well aware that many pastors had conscientious objections to giving forged baptismal certificates. But, thank G.o.d, there were other ministers who had conscientious objections about not doing so.
Such a certificate was, of course, false. But the man who wrote it out and gave it to a Jew, did service to the truth and helped his neighbour. The one, however, who would not write it and thus refused help to a Jew, served falsehood and failed the Jew.
There is a truth which is like a lie and there is a lie which is like the truth. G.o.d commanded us to lie in the service of the truth. Not the end, but the obedience to G.o.d's commandment (to love our neighbour as ourselves) justified the means.
Thus the humble and scrupulous Dr. Oorthuis wrote in a pamphlet of the underground movement: even forged pa.s.sports can be safe-conducts from the Lord, and stolen ration cards be gifts of mercy from G.o.d, which we accept with Thanksgiving.” [102]
Many people may feel horrified when reading the views of Rev. Buskes. The same author stated in another publication:
”If I can save a man whose life is threatened by a scoundrel by saying to that scoundrel that two and two make five, I shall say so to him, in obedience to the ninth commandment. In such a case I am even prepared to declare that two and two make ten.” [103]
A personal friend of mine, who is a devout Christian, took the oath declaring that a child in his house was not Jewish but his own child born out of wedlock. He saved the child.
People who are horrified at such behaviour, probably never lived under German occupation. At any rate, they should remember St. Paul's saying: ”Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law”. [104]