More than 65 years ago, when I was about ten years old, I ran home from school crying and bleeding. I had just walked past Epiphany Catholic high school in Manhattan when I was surrounded by a gang of older kids. "Hey sheenie, you're a Jewboy aintcha?"
 
 
      Lying was wrong, so I instinctively nodded yes. Some of them held my arms and legs while the others beat me, screaming "You rotten Christ killer, we're gonna kill you!"
 
      Mercifully, when they were finally bored with their fun, they let me go. No one was home so I went into the bathroom to wash the drying blood from my face. Papa returned just then and through my copious tears, I told him what had happened.
 
      Papa had not been formally educated, but he was an extremely wise person, an avid reader and quite perceptive. He explained something to me that I only remembered in 1945. I remembered it when, after finishing my tour of flying 50 combat missions in my B-24 Liberator bomber, I ended up in Naples, Italy awaiting transport home. There, I came upon a few hundred skeletal survivors from Treblinka, a Nazi death camp. They were also awaiting transport--through the British blockade to the safety of the Holy Land. It was an eerie coincidence to learn that Treblinka was just a few miles from the small town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire where Papa was born and raised. Alone, he migrated from there to America as a boy of 14. His entire family, parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles were rounded up and burned in Treblinka in 1941-42.
 
      Papa's explanation from 15 years earlier came back to me. He said that it was a very sad puzzle that defied logic
 
      He pointed out that if Jesus had not been crucified and had died in bed of old age, there would have been no cross, no sacrifice of "God's only begotten son," no redemption for the sins of the world, no resurrection as described in the Gospels with its lesson of "eternal life" -- in short, there would have been no Christianity or Christian doctrines as they are known.
 
      Papa said that they hate us because we do not accept the rabbi named Jesus as the long awaited promised "Messiah," a word whose Greek translation is "Christ."
 
      Although not truly understanding all of his profound talk, I remembered him saying that there have been many false messiahs in Jewish history. Their falsity was always exposed when no messianic age appeared with them. "What's a messianic age, Papa" I asked. He said it would be a world where people would have love instead of hate in their hearts, where peace would reign, where nations would make plows and tractors out of swords and cannons. He said that a messiah without a messianic age was as meaningless as a farm without crops. Such a barren farm disappointed the farmer and gave nothing to the multitudes of hungry people.
 
      He said that to blame us for the death of Jesus was like blaming our neighbor, Mr. Locelli, because 2000 years ago, his Italian ancestors in Rome were said to have fed Christians to the lions in the Coliseum. No one thanks Mr. Locelli for coming from people who gave the world Verdi with Aida and Traviata or Marconi with the miracle of wireless. No one knows for sure who killed Jesus, even though his manner of dying made Christianity possible. For too many centuries, too many pious hypocrites have wanted it both ways. That is the incredible religious paradox of our time.
 
      Last year, I enrolled in Vanderbilt Divinity School for non-credit classes in Gospel and church history. As a retiree, I still enjoy learning for its own sake and I had discovered that an active mind encourages a healthy body. Studying the Gospels, verse by verse, I learned some facts that astounded me while convincing me that the Holocaust was above all, the culmination of 2000 years of accepted Christian teachings. Papa's explanation was never even alluded to or discussed in the texts I read. Keeping in mind that no major Christian doctrine would made sense without a crucified Jesus, no matter who was responsible, consider the following:
 
His blood be on us (Jews) and our children.--Matthew
 
He would not walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him.--John
 
Jews agreed that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.--John
 
The Jews saying that he "hath a devil and is mad." The Jews took up stones to stone him.--John
 
The officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him.--John
 
Ye men of Israel, Jesus did you have in your midst and by wicked hands ye have crucified and slain Him.--Acts
 
Ye killed the Prince of Life whom God hath raised from the dead.--Acts
 
The Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women.--Acts
 
And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him.--Acts
 
The Jews, which believed not, set the city in an uproar.--Acts
 
The Jews made insurrection against Paul.--Acts
 
So shall the Jews of Jerusalem deliver him (Paul) into the hands of the gentiles.--Acts
 
Give no heed to Jewish fables and commandments."--Titus
 
Behold, I will make them of the synagogues of Satan which say they are Jews.--Rev.
 
      I recently finished reading a new book, Hitler's Willing Executioners by Prof. D. J. Goldhagen of Harvard University. The research and documentation that went into this extraordinary work is truly prodigious. Critics have noted Professor Goldhagen's "impeccable scholarship" and the work as been called "astonishing, disturbing and riveting." What bothers me is that there have been critics who condemn the author for excessively "generalizing" the support of so many German Christians for killing Jews.
 
      In my considered opinion, based on personal experiences and the foregoing teachings, the Holocaust is explainable. Nevertheless, it is important to grasp the meaning of the heroic activities of some blessed people like the Schindlers of Poland and their Christian counterparts in a tiny French village.
 
Their humanity proves that there those who value the teachings of Jesus above the teachings about Jesus.
 
Aaron Hiller, aka Skeptic249@aol.com
4625 Shys Hill Road
Nashville TN 37215

      More than 65 years ago, when I was about ten years old, I ran home from school crying and bleeding. I had just walked past Epiphany Catholic high school in Manhattan when I was surrounded by a gang of older kids. One of them yelled, "Hey sheenie! You're a Jewboy aintcha?"
 
      Lying was wrong, so I instinctively nodded yes. Some of them held my arms and legs while the others beat me, screaming "You rotten Christ killer, we're gonna kill you!"
 
 
 
 
      When Papa came home, I told him through tears what had happened.
 
 
 
 
      He explained
something to me that I remembered in 1945 when, after a combat
tour of duty,
I ended up in Naples, Italy
awaiting transport home. There I came upon a few hundred skeletal survivors from Treblinka, a Nazi death camp; they were also awaiting transport -- through the British blockade to the safety of the Holy Land. It was an eerie coincidence to learn that Treblinka was just a few miles from the small town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire where Papa was born and raised. Alone, he migrated from there to America as a boy of 14. His entire family, parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles were rounded up and burned in Treblinka in 1941-42.
 
 
 
 
 
      Papa pointed out that if Jesus had not been crucified and had died in bed of old age, there would have been no cross, no sacrifice of "God's only begotten son," no redemption for the sins of the world, no resurrection as described in the Gospels with its lesson of "eternal life" -- in short, there would have been no Christianity or Christian doctrines as they are known.
 
      Papa said that they hate us because we do not accept the rabbi named Jesus as the long awaited, promised Messiah.
 
 
 
      I remembered him saying that there have been many false messiahs in Jewish history. Their falsity was always exposed when no messianic age appeared with them. "What's a messianic age, Papa?" I asked. He said it would be a world where people would have love instead of hate in their hearts, where peace would reign, where nations would make plows and tractors out of swords and cannons.
 
 
 
 
 
      Papa said that to blame us, the Jewish people, for the death of Jesus was like blaming our neighbor, Mr. Locelli, because 2,000 years ago, his Italian ancestors in Rome were said to have fed Christians to the lions in the Coliseum.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
      Last year, I enrolled in Vanderbilt University Divinity School for non-credit classes in Gospel and church history.
 
 
Studying the Gospels, verse by verse, I became convinced
that the Holocaust was above all the culmination of 2,000 years of accepted Christian teachings.
 
 
 
 
Consider the following:
 
His blood be on us (Jews) and our
children. -- Matthew
 
He would not walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. -- John
 
 
 
 
 
The Jews say that he "hath a devil and is mad." The Jews took up stones to stone him. -- John
 
 
The officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him. -- John
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women. -- Acts
 
 
 
 
The Jews, which believed not, set the city in an uproar. -- Acts
 
The Jews made insurrection against Paul.--Acts
 
 
 
 
Give no heed to Jewish fables and commandments." -- Titus
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
      In my considered opinion, based on personal experiences and the foregoing teachings, the Holocaust is explainable. Nevertheless, it is important to grasp the meaning of the heroic activities of some blessed people like the Schindlers of Poland and their Christian counterparts in a tiny French village.
 
      The humanity of such people proves that there those who value the teachings of Jesus above the teachings about Jesus. �
 
      (Hiller is a retiree of Nashville.)