I watched the movie, “Valkyrie,” starring Tom Cruise, last night with my
family. It’s based on a true story that recounts one Nazi colonel’s attempt
to assassinate Hitler and reorganize the German government in order to
change the direction of the war.
According to the movie, large numbers of Germans wanted Hitler out of
office, including generals and military leaders in high places. I don’t want
to give away the story, but I think you can guess what happened if you know
any World War II history. The result was not a happy ending for those who
planned the coup.
The movie concluded with a byline stating that 15 assassination attempts
were made on Hitler’s life during his rule.
I wondered why so many attempts on his life had failed, not because I was
rooting for success, but from wanting to understand more why things happen
the way they do.
Hitler was not a good guy. His thinking was filled with prejudice, hate,
malice, racism, vitriol, anger and a whole lot of other evil qualities that
I’m not thinking of at the moment. Anyone who can sentence millions of
innocent people to concentration camps as he did is manifesting a void of
any kind of compassion, understanding or humanity normally associated with
sane people.
And there I found my answer to why all the assassination plots had failed.
They were likely predicated on returning evil for evil-motivated by revenge,
hatred and anger. And no matter how justified the would-be assassins felt, their sense of power in evil was not anything as large as Hitler’s.
As far as evil planning, conniving, deceiving and thwarting good intent was concerned, none of the assassins rose to Hitler’s level. He outdid them all. So, any assassination attempts were basically little evil verses huge evil. And which was going to win out? The bigger of the two!
I thought about competing in tennis. If I have an opponent who is vastly more muscular than I am, and he wails on the ball, hitting it far harder than I do. If I try to play his game and wail on the ball back, I will lose. I’m trying to play his game, and he’s far better at it than I am. To win, I have to come up with a different strategy. I have to use wisdom instead of muscle to find his weak spots and capitalize on my strengths.
Likewise, in the world of good vs. evil, returning evil for evil against someone who is much better at it is a losing proposition for the opponent.
Hitler was stopped militarily, eventually, but at a huge price for the world. It was inevitable that he lose the war, for the world was filled with enough morality and spirituality in high places to counter the tidal wave of hatred he sent out when attempting to rule the planet.
The lesson I picked up from this line of reasoning was, don’t fight evil with evil. Go higher, to love and wisdom, as Jesus Christ did in his battle with the dark side, and then you’ll win.
For a moment, I was feeling grateful that Hitler was gone, but then a little voice said, “But is he?”
What about cancer, heart disease, obesity, poverty, famine, pestilence? These claims on humanity take millions of lives every year, in much larger numbers than Hitler’s concentration camps murdered innocents.
Isn’t a medical diagnosis of terminal illness today equivalent to being sentenced to a concentration camp in the 1940s? This was a sobering assessment for me to consider.
Christian Science is constantly teaching its students to look beyond person to the thought forces at work behind the scenes. Hitler personified a horrendous evil in his time, but unfortunately, the authoritarian, absolute control evil wants to wield over innocent humanity is still around in different forms.
Another lesson to learn well…we must remain metaphysically ready and alert to meet the despotism of evil at all times to prevent becoming its servant, such as the Germans did when they elected Hitler into office.
I thank God for the tools Christian Science gives us to defend ourselves from modern-day Hitlers and enable us to keep thought and body out of the concentration camps of mortal mind.
“Mankind must learn that evil is not power.” Mary Baker Eddy
Put things into historical context. The national and professional military sentiment turned against Hitler only AFTER the German war machine started to lose.
Nonetheless, it’s Love to never return evil for evil.
“Hitler was stopped militarily, eventually, . . . . . . for the world was filled with enough morality and spirituality in high places”
When I was younger I loved to hear the stories of the war in Britain, how peopled coped and also of healings. The spirit of the people in Europe manifested via Spirit was not to be thwarted.
“Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring theseinto your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.” S&H261:4
Thank you for your uplifting thoughts on the “matter”;-)
Are you aware of Helmuth Janes Von Moltke? He was born in 1907 to a leading German Military family. His father was a Christian Sience Teacher and practioner in Berlin. His father was involved with translating Science & Health into German.
His son Helmuth was a lawyer and part of the German Government during Hitler’s time, which gave him opportunities to help people. He was also part of a secret anti-Hitler group. Helmuth advocated non-violent resistance to Hitler and refused to be part of an assassination attempt. Helmuth James Von Moltke wanted a New Germany based on moral principles. The Gestapo considered this treason and he was tried and executed in January 1945. Von Moltke waid that he was on trial for being a Christian and that he was …thankful and moved by this “proof of God’s presence”
You can read about Helmut James Graf Von Moltke in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_James_Graf_von_Moltke
Be sure you look for Helmuth James Graf Von Moltke because there are articles about other members of his family.
And Baron and Baroness von Tucher
And Friedrich Preller, CSB, and countless stories of CS folks in France and Germany and England.Those of us of riper years and larger lessons have many recollections. And the little dutch girl in the Japanese concentration camp in Indonesia, who became a beloved practitioner in later years, and the CS prisoner who would not escape with a group of fellow prisoners, but who forged ID papers for them all. That became a movie and a TV series. .There was my German friend who went to school in the morning, and when she came home in the afternoon, there were not two bricks standing where her two story large brick home had been. Or the two German sisters who missed their education, but arrived in the US after the war, Most of these were friends from church, And I’m sure most branch churches could add on.
One is only dealing with types of thought, not persons, and There is so much Truth available for us to work with daily when we see in the news that the same old evils are needing to be denied.