It's the names. As many as have been found.
Germaine was 16 when Josef Mengele removed one of her ovaries in Block 10 of Auschwitz, the "medical experimentation" unit. As the air raid sirens wailed, he told the Jewish doctor to finish the job while he ran for cover. He made the incision, left the other ovary intact, and asked her to hide her cycle and name her firstborn after him.
She survived the war, returned to her hometown of Thessalonika, Greece, and married another survivor. Two pairs of shoes didn't go into the Shoe Room; two names didn't go in the Hall of Remembrance.
Sol(omon) Pitchon was born and named in 1946. You could say he's a survivor, too, since half of his DNA was in that camp, too. Another pair of shoes not in the Room; another name not in the Room.
They immigrated to Ohio, then moved to Clearwater, and raised their sons. Sol grew up, married, had children, became a workaholic, divorced, then met God and became a Christian in midlife. The Good News Bible became his intimate companion; he eventually remarried and came to lead New Life Solutions.
New Life has four elements:
- Prevent unmarried pregnancies through education
- Provide "I'm pregnant and single! Now what?" counsel to young women
- Help post-abortion women cope with silent grief in small support groups
- Give women a homelike birthing center with prenatal and infant/new mom support
I asked him why he does it. "Sol, there's a tragedy on every block. We're having a nice lunch just about a mile from a place that was just busted for human trafficking. Why you, and why this particular cause?"
"My parents survived one Holocaust. I see that we're living in the middle of another one. Florida performs 90,000 abortions every year; nationwide, it's a million a year. I wouldn't be here if a Jewish doctor hadn't risked his life for me before I was even conceived." (Author note: our national abortion rate is identical to Hitler's at its peak in 1944.)
"The other thing is, we bring Christ into this. I believe in evangelism; I was saved this way - a friend reached out to me, a secular Jew, and I got to know a little about Jesus. I learned that Jesus was Jewish! No one ever told me that before. Then after my divorce and depression, I found that I wanted God and the Bible. So, I think it's really important that God and his word be brought into every crisis we see."
Something had to be done. It's getting done because God is working night and day to bring good out of evil, death out of life. It's getting done because people are agreeing with God's word written by Moses in Deuteronomy: "This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Therefore, choose life, so that you and your children may live." Those words are written on the walls of the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.
I think about little shoes, unworn. I wonder, when we walk through the baby stores, do we remember the names? I think about women and men wearing a cloak of guilt and self-condemnation, who believe that they can't be much use to God or others. I think about my own adopted son; I wonder, is he ever haunted by the ghost of empty shoes instead of his own life, now with us for 23 years this coming Monday?
I think about those who are called to this ministry, quoted by Jesus from the prophet Isaiah: "...proclaim good news to the poor...bind up the brokenhearted...proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion - to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."
Thank God for each one, every one, who does this. Pray for them, and peace for those they touch. And pray for the peace of Jerusalem, then and now, there and here.
