On the day when dozens of civilians were found shot to death on the streets in Ukraine, twenty students made a study trip to Auschwitz. The industrial destruction of Jews and opponents of the Nazis poses the question to the students: how do I prevent myself from participating in a fascist regime as an engineer or economist? It was astonishing that during this study trip about violence in the twentieth century, twenty-first-century terror was only one national border away. The nearby violence causes inner unrest, some students said. Where do we put our fear and anger? What does it mean for our own safety, standard of living and responsibility?

On the day when dozens of civilians were found shot to death on the streets in Ukraine, twenty students made a study trip to Auschwitz. The industrial destruction of Jews and opponents of the Nazis poses the question to the students: how do I prevent myself from participating in a fascist regime as an engineer or economist? It was astonishing that during this study trip about violence in the twentieth century, twenty-first-century terror was only one national border away. The nearby violence causes inner unrest, some students said. Where do we put our fear and anger? What does it mean for our own safety, standard of living and responsibility? 

We are of course not the first to be confronted with terrorism. Under the regimes of Nazis, Napoleon and Roman emperors, countless victims were displaced and killed. How did previous generations process the crisis situations and find an answer to them? 

One of the earliest developments underlying the Western tradition of thought occurred in Jewish religion and culture. The destruction of their kingdom and surrounding empires east of the Mediterranean had a profound impact on Jewish thought in the fifth century BC and beyond. Deprived of what constituted their identity, they found a new basis for it. It pervades the Jewish texts, which in Christianity are called the Old Testament. 

Contrary to expectations, hardly any attention is paid to the conqueror, but the texts focus on an evaluation of one’s own leadership. With few exceptions, none of the leaders pass the test of justice. Why this self-examination in response to the destruction, while relatively few words mention the obvious perpetrator? 

Ultimately, terror cannot be counterbalanced through an enemy image between nations or states. The fear for the quality of one’s own existence cannot be absolved. That is why the Jewish texts look for a different foundation. According to them, the crimes do not so much reveal a distinction between the terrorizing group and the victims, but between justice and injustice. The injustice that is done to people, at the same time, makes visible what is right. 

Committing yourself to righteous relationships forms a foundation that gives peace of mind, and can thus counteract terror. But that starts in your own situation. On the one hand, this can be done through concrete small and large actions in your own situation. That also seems to me to be the motivation of the Dutch and other Europeans who drove to the Polish border shortly after the attack on Ukraine to receive refugees. And on the other hand, the commitment to justice requires you to examine your own actions and motivations and allow others to criticize them. Allowing criticism is a form of getting clean. That is why the Jewish thinkers mainly focus on their own circle. 

Yet that does not lead to being solely focused on yourself. Others are also committed to justice: people in other places, on the other side of the conflict, and also in other times. Because of the individuality in our society, this is sometimes forgotten. But a commitment to justice, in whatever form, connects you with those others, whether we know them or not. The mindset, the dilemmas and pain, but also the power that lies within are the same for all those people. Terror paralyzes people through the fear to stand alone. Commitment to just relationships does not mean that fear disappears completely, but it does form a connection with others. 

Auschwitz evokes an unrest that we would prefer to leave behind. But the inner turmoil does not go away. The people who are victims make a recurring appeal to us to determine our place. 

Rob van Waarde, Holy Saturday, 2022 

Rob van Waarde, PhD MSc
Trainer and spiritual counselor Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University
robvanwaarde@gmail.com