Forgiving Hitler

After surviving unbelievable horrors in war-torn Hungary, Kitty escaped to Vienna and then as a refugee to Australia. It was there, years later, that she was visited by Ken Short, the minister of a local church...

As their conversation went on Kitty found herself explaining to Ken how she felt that she didn't belong. She didn't belong to Hungary any longer, and she only belonged to Australia as a late-arrival, not a native; she didn't belong to the Jews; she didn't belong to the Roman Catholics - she didn't belong anywhere. That was how she felt. Although her mother was still alive, her father and all her male relatives had been killed in the death camps. If she had gone back to Budapest she would have found not one single living relative there.

'You are God's child', replied Ken, 'and he sent his one and only Son, Jesus, into this world to rescue you - to reclaim you, to forgive you, and to change you. What you need to do is trust the God who loves you like that.'

Somehow the word 'forgiveness' kept coming up in his conversation. And somehow Kitty understood that she needed to understand what he was saying and how it applied to her. The next day she went to church. Gloria Short had kept her word, and was at the front door watching out for her.

She introduced Kitty to some others who were members of the church 'family'. Some of them became close friends, whose friendship would last for many years. Gloria took her inside the church, and Kitty was surprised to discover that the large building was full - every pew was packed.

The following Wednesday night Kitty went to a Bible study led by Ken and continued to attend for the next few years.

On those Wednesday nights Ken's practice was to teach the group from carefully researched and prepared notes on the Bible passage they were studying. 'But every so often', he says, 'I would pause to draw breath and that's when the questions would come from Kitty. And in her questions there was often a sense of her dark, difficult personal history, a sense of the past that she was wrestling with. Her ñwhat ifƒî questions hinted at the horrors she had seen, and the terrible experiences she had endured. There was clearly a lot of unresolved anger and bitterness there at first. She was clearly re-living these things, and allowing the Bible to speak to them. She seemed to move forward just a little each Wednesday night, not a lot. It was a gradual process.'

To Kitty it was all so new that she was like a sponge, just soaking up all this information from the Bible. Slowly, over time, the shadow hanging over Kitty's heart began to dissipate. The hard lump of bitterness deep within began to dissolve.

The following year, 1974, Kitty's birthday, June 16, fell on a Sunday. That particular Sunday Ken preached a sermon in which he made it clear that knowing about Jesus and the Bible was not enough. This was, he said, a message that required a response. It was more than mere information - it was an invitation from the Living God. It required a response of the heart and mind: a deliberate, conscious, knowing response of commitment. That day Kitty responded. She asked Jesus to forgive her, and change her, and take over the running of her life both now and forever.

'This is what I really want', she was able to say, 'for myself and my daughter'.

Reconciliation

In January 2001, Kitty attended an annual Summer School run by the Church Missionary Society (CMS). As she struggled through the gate of the conference centre with her bag, Kitty heard a woman's voice saying, 'Here, let me help you with that.'

'No, no I can manage,' Kitty replied, but the younger woman insisted. Kitty noticed that the she had a thick European accent.
'Where are you from?'
'Germany, originally.'

The young woman introduced herself as Hanna Collison. Hanna and her husband Max were CMS missionaries in Kenya.

Over the next few days Kitty came to know the Collisons well, as they too were staying at the CMS Centre.

That last night they sat in the dining room and began to talk about themselves and their backgrounds.

Kitty went on to explain about growing up Jewish in Hungary, about losing every male member of her family in the death camps during World War Two, and about some of the horrors she, herself, had experienced. As she did so Hanna froze.

Hanna felt that sudden hollow feeling in the pit of the stomach that comes when something has to be confronted that has been avoided for a long time.

The history of the Second World War and the holocaust haunted Hanna, even though it had all happened before she was born. Her father had been a soldier in Hitler's SS - compelled to join when he turned 18. He had been a foot soldier during the advance into Poland in 1939. In January 1941 he was seriously wounded, and took no further active part in the war.

Now, she was facing a woman who had suffered at German hands in World War Two. This was the first time Hanna had ever met a Jewish man or woman of that war generation face to face. Could any Jewish person ever forgive a German for what had happened? She felt the colour drain out of her face.

When Kitty had finished speaking Hanna said quietly, 'Then I'm sure you must hate me. I am German by birth. It was my country that did all of those things to your family.'

'Not at all!' Kitty cried. 'You are my sister in Christ and I love you. When I became a Christian I forgave everything that had ever happened to me or my family. You mustn't feel that way. We are together, we are sisters, there is no barrier between us.'

Both women had tears in their eyes. A moment later they were hugging and weeping. Hanna felt that Kitty's words were a gift from God - liberating her from a lifetime of guilt and concern over the suffering her country, her people, had inflicted. Kitty and Hanna were no longer German and Jew - they were one in Jesus Christ. Kitty had found the place where the human heart finds rest. She had found forgiveness. And in that forgiveness she had found a rich treasure she could share.

'Forgiving Hitler' is available from The Good Book Company, 0845 225 0880, www.thegoodbook.co.uk, price £6.00 (inc p&p).

The Kathy Diosy story - second part

Reconciliation

Kel Richards

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