Often when I give presentations about my parents and their experiences in the concentration camps in Germany, people ask me to talk about how those experiences shaped my parents' faith. It's not an easy question to answer. My own parents came away from their experiences with very different attitudes toward God and religion. My mother's faith was shaken by what happened to her family and what she went through under the Nazis. My father's faith on the other hand was strengthened. I've written about this in various poems but two that I usually bring up when I'm talking about faith and my parents are "What the War Taught My Mother" and "What My Father Believed." If you click on those titles, you'll be able to read those poems.
Recently, I saw a film that focuses on the faith of prisoners in Auschwitz. The film is called God on Trail, and it takes place in Auschwitz where a group of Jewish prisoners put God on trial and argue about whether or not He has abandoned the Jewish people. It is a BBC/WBGH Boston production and was originally aired in the US in 2008.
The complete film is available through the following youtube link:
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For her efforts to hide Jews from arrest and deportation during the German occupation of the Netherlands, Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983) received recognition from the Yad Vashem Remembrance Authority as one of the "Righteous Among the Nations" on December 12, 1967. In resisting Nazi persecution, ten Boom acted in concert with her religious beliefs, her family experience, and the Dutch resistance. Her defiance led to imprisonment, internment in a concentration camp, and loss of family members who died from maltreatment while in German custody.