Wednesday Bible Blurb “Resistance A-5714”
September 23, 1942, Robert Max Widerman was arrested in Paris and put on a train for some distant land called upper Silesia. He was bound for the German camps called Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was only16 years old and small for his age when they were crowded into a cattle car. For three days they traveled without food, water or bathroom facilities. Hundreds of men, women and children forced into a train box car with two buckets to defecate into. The lack of air circulation caused an unbearable stench as the buckets overflowed and people vomited on each other as they were never allowed to empty the buckets.
His family was Jewish, and they had been turned in by his fellow countrymen. Robert’s cousins had joined the Maqui of the French underground resistance. During his years in the concentration camps, he would pray every night to God to save his family. His cousins in Vichy France put up a resistance, but in the camps, Robert could only try to survive. Many times, we think we are having a bad day. Maybe our favorite T.V. show was cancelled, and we have trouble contemplating this. For Robert, his favorite life was cancelled and all he could do was try to resist. When Robert arrived at his destination, he was renamed A-5714. He was now considered to be sub-human by his captors.
There are things in this life that we must resist. Evil, the opposite of God must be resisted. Evil comes from Lucifer and was first unleashed on humanity in the Garden of Eden. Mankind was put on the train to destruction when sin entered the world. Our names and destiny were changed from being a part of the family of God to one of certain death and destruction without the saving grace of Jesus. Be of good cheer, resistance is not futile.
Jesus came to this world and prayed for us. In the Lord’s prayer He said, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matt. 6:13 [NKJV]). We can with the help of God resist the evil one of this world. “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” (Eph.2:1-3). Lucifer fills the airways and our minds with his evil. We must and we can resist!
James, brother of Jesus gives us the tool to fight back and resist the devil and the evil he pours out onto this world. “Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:7-8). By submitting ourselves to God in all humility and faith we can overcome and resist the evil one. In fact, Lucifer will flee from those who submit to God and resist him. Resistance is not futile!
Paul tells us and brings to light that sin happens when we do NOT resist the devil (Gal. 5:19-21). Paul tells us what our lives will be like when we do resist the evil one. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is now law.” (Gal. 5:22-23). With God on our side and us on God’s side we can resist the devil!
There was no roll call on the morning of April 11, 1945. The guard towers of Gross-Rosen and Buchenwald were empty. Silence hung in the air as the bewildered tortured and starved inmates of the concentration camp were wondering what was happening. Soon the sounds of vehicles, men marching and tanks could be heard as Patton’s Third Army entered the camp to liberate those who had survived. The survivors had resisted through the hell of the extermination camps.
“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.” (Rev. 3:12.). We can resist the evil one and God will grant us a new name in His family.
After his liberation, Robert was no longer A-5714. He resisted evil and emerged from the camps with a new name. A-5714 was no longer his designation. He had prayed every night for his family, most of whom were killed in the camps. His cousins in the Maqui survived as did his sister but most of his family had been exterminated like vermin by the Nazis. Some of his prayer was heard as he lived through the torture of Hitler’s nightmare. Robert went back to his singing and acting career on stage in Paris. Eventually he made his way to Hollywood, California. His new stage name was Robert Clary, we know him as corporal Louis Lebeau of the famed World War II T.V. show called “Hogan’s Heros.” Resistance is not futile.
Note: John Banner who played the lovable Sgt. Schultz, escaped from Austria with his family at the start of WWII. Werner Klemperer who played the gullible Col. Klink, was half Jewish and his family escaped from Berlin in 1933. Resistance is not futile.
