There is an article in a 2001 issue of the Adventist Review that gives some helpful background on the connection between Auschwitz and the preceding history of Christian anti-Judaism. The author is John Graz, the director of the General Conference's department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty,
Christians After Auschwitz
Here are some quotes from the article.
Auschwitz was the climax of a deep and centuries-old history of discrimination, persecution, and pogroms. The Nazis did not invent anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism merely helped their ideology to grow. In Christian countries the Jews were seen as a problem. The Nazis came with their solution—the final solution. Instead of discriminating, persecuting, killing from time to time, they wanted to solve the problem once and for all. They planned to eliminate all the Jews. Of course, they were not Christians, but they made use of existing Christian anti-Semitism.
As Christians, we have to recognize our responsibility in this genocide. We cannot say, “It is not I! I have nothing to do with that!” Somewhere I have a responsibility. I agree with Littell when he writes: “In truth, the way in which the Christians relate to the Jewish people after Auschwitz is not a matter of simple prejudice: it has become a question of salvation itself.”
In a section with the title What Have We Learned From Auschwitz?, the author writes:
To Cherish a New Vision of the Jews. Through such a tragedy we have discovered an image of the Jews we had ignored and an image of ourselves that has shamed us. One of the first things we should do is to change our vision of the Jewish people. We are the branches that have grown from the trunk. They are the trunk. Israel is our root, and we need roots to grow. Israel, moreover, is still present on earth through the Jews. In a sense, they’re permanent witnesses of the Word made flesh. And in a sense, hatred, hostility, discrimination against the Jews constitutes hatred, hostility, and discrimination against God Himself. In attempting to destroy the Jews, the Nazis wanted to destroy God Himself, then, of course, to destroy the church.
