Today’s Scripture Reading (January
30, 2014): Nahum 3
Primo Levi,
an Italian Jew, spent the last months of WWII in the Auschwitz Concentration
Camp. He was interred into the camp in February 1944 and remained there until
the camp was liberated on January 27, 1945. He recalls his experiences in
Auschwitz in his book entitled “If This is a Man.” In the book he tells the
story of those who were incarcerated. The story starts with being shipped to
Auschwitz in cattle cars that were so packed with people that the prisoners had
to stand, and they were so close together that they couldn’t move and could
barely breathe. Once in the camp they were stripped of all of their
possessions, including clothing. Then, naked, the first selection would happen.
Those prisoners not chosen to die in that selection, are then herded into
another room where they are forced to stand for hours on end, still naked,
awaiting whatever it was that was coming next. The next step of the process was
to remove their name and replace it with a number that was tattooed onto them.
It was by that number that they would now be known. Then they were finally
given clothing to cover themselves, if it what they were given could be called
clothing. Actually they were rags that had been worn by other prisoners until
the time of their execution. Now these rags were theirs to wear until they
shared the same fate as those who had previously worn the rags. Finally they
were given a bunk, barely big enough for one person, and yet it was expected
that two would sleep in these beds. The whole process was designed to degrade
and remove the humanity from the prisoner.
Unfortunately
the concentration camps of WWII were not the first places where these tactics
were used. In ancient warfare, the dual practice of massacring the prisoners or
degrading the ones chosen for life resulted often in people who were willing to
fight until there very last breath. There was no expectation of humane
treatment on the part of the conquering army – only death and the removal of
their humanity of the captive. It was this devaluing that allowed for
atrocities to be committed because anything could be done to someone who was
less than human.
Nahum speaks
earlier of the defeat of Nineveh. But in this passage he is speaking of the
humiliation of Nineveh. And there are two factors to this humiliation. Maybe
the most obvious is a revealing of the body. In saying that the skirts of the
Ninevites would be lifted, Nahum is speaking to the forced nakedness of the
captives. There is a removal of modesty by the compelled exposure of what would
normally be covered. For many, this might have been the worst moment of their
lives. And this would result in the dehumanization of the person. But the
second part of this dehumanization is that the face is covered. Essentially
this is like the removal of the name in Auschwitz. Everything that makes you,
you, would be taken away. The individual once known by a name is no more. What
is left is something that has been devalued and because of that devaluation,
anything is proper in the disposing of what is left.
It should be
noted that Primo Levi tells the story of the dehumanization in the
concentration camps during WWII, but the theme of the book is really humanity
in the midst of inhumanity. For some, no matter what was taken from them, they
refused to be dehumanized. The nakedness and the shame for these people was not
revealed in them, but rather revealed in the ones that who attempted to remove
their humanity. In the midst of this kind of dehumanization, people of faith
can often look beyond themselves to find their humanity. But because Nineveh
had rejected God, it might be that this option was not open to them. They had
found their humanity in their strength, and when it is removed, there is
literally nothing left for the captives to hang on to.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2
Chronicles 33
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