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In this episode, Zach delves into the horrors of the Holocaust as revealed by a newly published diary from a Polish journalist in 1940s Lithuania. Zach discusses the harrowing stories of mass executions of Jews by the Nazis and reflects on the idea of accountability. While Nazi soldiers may have thought they were getting away with their crimes, the diary serves as a testament to their atrocities, now known to history. Zach connects this to an important spiritual truth: God sees everything, and no one escapes His judgment. Yet, through Jesus Christ, forgiveness and grace are available to all.
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What is Wake Up, Look Up?
Check out new episodes of our daily podcast, Wake Up, Look Up, with Zach Weihrauch as he interprets what's happening in our world through the lens of the gospel.
[Applause]
[Music]
hello everyone thanks for listening to
wake up lookup a podcast where we
connect events happening in real time to
the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach
wrock and today's episode we're talking
about getting away with mass murder this
is not a how-to episode wouldn't want
you to think we're endorsing that this
is actually prompted by something I read
in the Atlantic this week about a
fascinating story about a Polish
journalist I I cannot possibly say his
first name I'll just call him Cass
salowitz who ended up in lith Lithuania
in the early 1940s so right as the rise
of the Nazis was really reaching its
fruition in that part of the country and
he was a journalist but at the time
because of the economy wasn't working as
a journalist he was doing odd jobs
around town but he was also secretly
keeping a very detailed and descriptive
diary of the events happening in
Lithuania at the time including the mass
murder of the Jewish population there uh
recently his diary was just published
and so it's been uh kind of in the news
lately his writing and there are some
harrowing counts I mean two stories that
stand out to me the the first is he
talks about one day where 200 Jews were
taken into the woods and shot the next
day 300 Jews were taken and shot and
Cass goes on to say that for the next
week every day hundreds of Jews were
taken out into the woods and shot you
see the town he was in in Lithuania was
on a railroad line so they would bring
them in on the trains March them into
the forest and shoot them every day for
one week he tells another story where
there was a time where he was at the
train station and they were unloading
Jewish people and walking them into the
forest he talks about a crowd of women
and children that was so big that it
took 15 minutes for the crowd to pass
wholly in front of him from start to
finish he describes it as as they're
walking into the woods the women are
looking at him knowing what's coming and
asking him to save them which of course
he was powerless to do eventually that
entire crowd was shot by the Nazis it is
gripping stuff heartbreaking tragic
stuff it's also stuff we wouldn't have
known about at least not in particular
if he had not written about it which
brings up an interesting spiritual point
you see at the time this is happening at
a remote town in Lithuania later on we
would come to know that the Nazis were
evil we would come to know about
concentration camp in a variety of other
ways that they murdered people but
probably we would have never known about
what they were doing in Lithuania except
for this one guy that wrote it down it
made me think that all these Nazi
soldiers perpet perpetuating this mass
murder committing these heinous
atrocities probably thought at least to
some degree that they were getting away
with it that no one really knew what
they were doing and therefore there were
no moral repercussions but of course one
guy did know and he was writing about it
and now his writing is being published
so for all of history everyone will know
what they were doing but of course more
than that God knows you see the idea
that a journalist was secretly recording
so that their crimes were being captured
is a great metaphor for the idea that we
all think from time to time we are
getting away with something but the
Bible makes sure that we know that that
isn't true for any of us us I think in
particular here of Psalm 11 where it
says that the Lord's eyes are always
searching and he sees everyone have you
ever thought about that you see the one
thing that is certain because God sees
everything is that judgment is coming
for us all for these soldiers it comes
now in the form of History judging them
as we modern people look back at what
they did and recognize how awful it is
but that pales in comparison to the
Judgment that is waiting for all of us
can you imagine what it would be like to
stand in front of a God who knows
everything you've ever done everything
you didn't do everything you said and
left unsaid every thought that was in
your brain that should sober us up no
one gets away with anything no act goes
unseen unheard or unnoticed that should
also of course prompt us to lean into
the grace of Jesus Christ without which
none of us would have any hope the the
only way to stand before a God who sees
and knows everything is to have his son
his righteous life and his death speak
on our behalf stories like this are a
great reminder judgment is Certain
Justice is certain but so thankfully is
forgiveness because of Jesus hey thanks
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