Event explores Jews, Mennonites and the Holocaust
About 80 years ago, Jews and Mennonites lived peacefully together in the Ukrainian city of Khortitsa. Then the Nazis came, and everything changed. In 1941, before the invasion, Khortitsa had about 2,000 Mennonites and 402 Jews out of a population of about 14,000. A year or so later, the Jews were all gone, killed by…
Readers write: May 21, 2018 issue
‘Just one more example of a privileged western interpretation’ Re: “A peace that ignores Jesus’ atoning work” review of A Palestinian Theology of Liberation, April 9, page 24. While I have high respect for reviewer Harold Jantz and his work within the Mennonite church, I can’t help thinking that he has provided just one…
Ugly stories
I don’t like the cover of today’s issue. I don’t want to see it lying on my coffee table. You probably don’t either. At the top, a large uniformed man wields a whip, as armed soldiers ride toward a house below. Red and yellow flames shoot up in the background. The artwork promoted a Nazi…
An eye-witness account of Nazi occupation
At the age of 85, I am probably one of the few survivors of the German occupation of Ukraine/Russia from 1941 to 1943 who still have clear personal memories of that time. When the German army occupied Chortitza, Ukraine, where I lived, we Mennonites were exuberant. I remember vividly the euphoria of being liberated from…
Scholars uncover hidden stories of the Holocaust
In 2004, Joachim Wieler of Weimar, Germany, opened a small wooden box he inherited after his mother’s death. To his surprise and horror, it contained letters his late father wrote while serving as an officer in the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany. “I almost fell off the chair,” Wieler said, speaking to more…
