Spotted this article in a Mennonite periodical. It's quite surprising to me. "For all have sinned ..." holds true.
Do any of the Mennonites here have more to contribute to this article?
From collaboration to perpetration
We are publishing a 4,000-word article for the first time because the subject is so disquieting: Mennonites helping kill Jews and Communists during the Holocaust.
Last edited by MaxPC on Thu Jul 13, 2017 11:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Max (Plain Catholic)
Mt 24:35 Proverbs 18:2 A fool does not delight in understanding but only in revealing his own mind.
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God
Anabaptism and Mennonites have stood for nonresistance for a long time, since the 1500s, and usually have also not been participants in cooperating with government violence, serving in the military, or engaging in violence themselves.
When Anabaptists and Mennonites have been assimilating to the world and the broader culture, they tend to take on the values of the society around them and usually become more subservient to the government as well. This happened in Ukraine in the late 1800s, it happened in World War II, and it is happening right now. Those on the left wing are identifying more with left wing political causes and factions, and those on the right wing the same.
True-hearted Anabaptism will always eschew being involved in such political endeavours, particularly when they call for violence.
Josh wrote:Anabaptism and Mennonites have stood for nonresistance for a long time, since the 1500s, and usually have also not been participants in cooperating with government violence, serving in the military, or engaging in violence themselves.
When Anabaptists and Mennonites have been assimilating to the world and the broader culture, they tend to take on the values of the society around them and usually become more subservient to the government as well. This happened in Ukraine in the late 1800s, it happened in World War II, and it is happening right now. Those on the left wing are identifying more with left wing political causes and factions, and those on the right wing the same.
True-hearted Anabaptism will always eschew being involved in such political endeavours, particularly when they call for violence.
Doesn't this have something to do with why that group of former Amish, went to Israel to apologize for the holocaust? I remember that VERY long thread on mennodiscuss about them- but they ended up feeling a personal responsibility on behalf of their ancestors during the time of the holocaust- so they were trying to make this right and ask forgiveness on behalf of them- I gather most Anabaptists would not agree with them doing this- but you have to appreciate their heart.
Amish don't have any ancestors who were complicit in the Holocaust and aren't even related to the group in Germany in WWII. Those are of Dutch Mennonite background, Amish are of Swiss Brethren background.
Perhaps they apologised for not enlisting to fight in WWII.
Josh wrote:Amish don't have any ancestors who were complicit in the Holocaust and aren't even related to the group in Germany in WWII. Those are of Dutch Mennonite background, Amish are of Swiss Brethren background.
Perhaps they apologised for not enlisting to fight in WWII.
I don't think ALL Amish are Swiss Brethren, are they?
Josh wrote:Amish don't have any ancestors who were complicit in the Holocaust and aren't even related to the group in Germany in WWII. Those are of Dutch Mennonite background, Amish are of Swiss Brethren background.
Perhaps they apologised for not enlisting to fight in WWII.
I don't think ALL Amish are Swiss Brethren, are they?
Nearly all. There are definitely not any who are descendants of people who lived in Europe in the 1930s, other than adoption etc
MaxPC wrote:Spotted this article in a Mennonite periodical. It's quite surprising to me. "For all have sinned ..." holds true.
Do any of the Mennonites here have more to contribute to this article?
From collaboration to perpetration
We are publishing a 4,000-word article for the first time because the subject is so disquieting: Mennonites helping kill Jews and Communists during the Holocaust.
Yes, they were so assimilated by that point, both non-conformity and nonresistance had been abandoned. The pre-war German church could not properly be called a mennonite church, as it's distinctive have gone away. What little of the church in the Ukraine had been so brutalized by Stalin, they may have done anything to get rid of him.
Herein we have the confusion of the "mennonite" ethnicity as compared to the mennonite faith.
Josh wrote:Amish don't have any ancestors who were complicit in the Holocaust and aren't even related to the group in Germany in WWII. Those are of Dutch Mennonite background, Amish are of Swiss Brethren background.
Perhaps they apologised for not enlisting to fight in WWII.
I don't think ALL Amish are Swiss Brethren, are they?
I'm not aware of any who have Dutch Mennonite background.
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The old woodcutter spoke again. “It is impossible to talk with you. You always draw conclusions. Life is so vast, yet you judge all of life with one page or one word. You see only a fragment. Unless you know the whole story, how can you judge?"
