The house at this address was a house prison. The house at Prinz-Georg-Straℬe 10 is where people can find freedom in Christ. Both addresses are in Berlin. While prayer-walking some dark places in this city, I have looked for links to my past in 1978 and to the 1933’s-1945’s, thirteen of the most horrible and despicable years in European history. First we have to look at the definition of the time for ‘asocial’. Asocial elements were described as people who could not or did not want to ‘integrate into free community life’. Everything in that definition is subjective and so the crime police could say – show me the man and I will show you his crime. Something else about being taken into ‘protective custody’, we think of it as being saved but these people were put away to protect the others in society that would tow the line – not matter how insane the line was. This label allowed the administration or crime police to take action against any person who was at all conspicuous. Some were ridiculed by public humiliation. Small things at first like a sign around someone’s neck describing how he/she was not fitting in like in the public humiliation of a man who had voted no in the Nov 12, 1933 referendum in Germany’s withdrawal from the League of Nations. Then by 1939 it was the arrest and public humiliation of Polish Jews during an Order Police raid near Lupin. Sin and horror escalate. The next time the action is not as shocking and so the devaluing of life got easier and easier. From house prisons to gas chambers in a few short years. That is what struck me about the similarity in the two addresses across town. I have been spending time at Connections which a sister ministry to the library in Prague called Crossroads. Each has its own flair (as do the other partner libraries) but the mission is the same. Provide books about Jesus. Provide them to everyone in the local language and English. As people learn English for school or career reasons, good books are difficult to come by in this part of the world. I’ll be writing more about the oppression of the Nazi’s and the failure of people, even believers in Jesus, to protect their neighbors. It is disgusting so these ministries are necessary to shine light in the darkness. To avail conversations about life and our stories and the story of God’s love for all sinners. As Paul said, “Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord”. – Eph 3:7-11. You see the importance. I have been riding on buses next to people who were there or lost people who were there and still have those landmarks to remind them of their losses. Berlin also has a flood of people fleeing current hard places where freedom is not an option. This is important work that takes dedication to God’s call above anything else.
