–        And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation. – Genesis 2:3

The number seven in Judaism is a symbol of the covenant of the Jewish people united in holiness and sanctification with the Lord.  In a basement prison cell at Dachau, amidst the apocalyptic horror of World War…we find seven pregnant women.  The Seven escaped the Auschwitz death machine, and were kept safe and warm by a Jewish Capo (prisoner overseer) who would not allow her basic humanity to be destroyed by the Nazi culture of death.

As we suffer the temporary setback of the defeat  of the Albuquerque Ordinance, we can be inspired to remain steadfast and resolute by the Seven Women of Dachau, and their brave pro life protector. 

The Archetypal Culture of Death…Empowered by Denial

 –        And I saw a beast rising out of the sea…and on its heads were blasphemous names.    Rev 12:3

Near the end of the Second World War, even though the German army was in retreat on both fronts, the essential work of exterminating the Jews and other enemies of the Reich pressed on with characteristic Nazi efficiency and diabolic zeal.

Amidst this European apocalypse, a young Jewish couple, Miriam and Bela Rosenthal fall in love and from that love…new life is conceived:

They were married in Budapest on April 5, 1944…The honeymoon was brief. Within a few short months, Bela was sent to a slave labour camp, Miriam to Auschwitz. She was later transferred to Augsberg Germany, to work in a Messerschmitt factory. All the while, her belly grew.  Two men from the SS appeared at the factory one day, with snarling German shepherds, demanding to know who the pregnant women were. They asked a second time. (National Post)

While the Nazis nurtured the illusion of limitless technological and social progress and a racially purified utopian worker/agricultural paradise…they created the archetypal culture of death:

The Germans murdered over a million Jewish children. Like the sick and the old, they were viewed as useless mouths to feed and often among the first killed. Some were used in medical experiments, but newborns were typically murdered at birth. (National Post)

In such a culture of death, it is no surprise that Miriam (like other pregnant women being summoned by the SS) was destined to be sent immediately to the gas chambers upon arrival at Auschwitz.

On the train to what she rightly feared was certain death, Miriam encounters a German citizen:

There was a woman, a civilian, and she said: “Frau, what is with you? You don’t have hair. The clothes you are wearing. What are you, from a mental hospital? “She didn’t have a dream, this German woman, of all the horrible things the Germans were doing. I told her I am not from a mental hospital, I am going to Auschwitz — I am going to the gas. She looked at me like I was crazy…(National Post.)

Does this reflect the sentiments of so many us and our fellow citizens, decent people not directly complicit but clearly in denial of the atrocities perpetuated in their own communities? How many dismiss the fact that babies are being tortured to death in the womb in many abortion procedures as exaggerated propaganda by pro life fanatics?

A Pro Life Hero Creates a Womb of Safety for Pregnant Prisoners

  –He placed the lampstand in the tent of meeting opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle…And you shall command the children of Israel that they  bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn  continually. Exodus 40:24,  27:20-21

Thanks to the advancement of allied forces and the attempt by the Nazis to hide their criminal acts, the killing machine at Auschwitz was destroyed and Miriam was sent to Dachau where she was surprised to find herself imprisoned with six other pregnant women.  During a historical period marked by merciless cruelty and massive death and destruction on an unprecedented scale, we meet a nameless hero:

A “Capo,” a Jewish woman charged with overseeing
the women, smuggled a stove into the room, keeping the expecting mothers warm during the freezing winter months of 1945. The Germans discovered the stove and beat the Capo bloody, ripping into her flesh with their truncheons.… “After the beating she told us, ‘Don’t you worry girls, the stove will be back tomorrow.’ ”   It was.  (National Post)

What an example of heroic strength and sacrifice.  We can see in the light and warmth of this stove a symbol of the love of God still burning in the heart of this woman despite her sufferings, like one of the shining seven lampstands of Revelation.   These seven lamps of Revelation are associated with omniscient divinity.  We can see the proclamation by Jesus that he is the Light of the World, as the final manifestation and fulfillment of the Old Testament symbol of God’s presence in the Temple Tabernacle.  In a sense, we can see the presence of Christ, of his love and light still shining amidst the horrible suffering inflicted upon the Jewish people, Catholic Clergy/Religious, and so many other Christians and innocent lay victims by the Nazis and communists.

This Jewish “Capo” worked to create a type of warm safe womb to hold these vulnerable women, to protect them and their unborn children from the deadly cold.  This brings to mind those in our day that offer shelter and resources to pregnant women at risk of abortion.

Forming Men into Monsters – SS Officers and Later Term Abortionists

The SS officers who beat this brave Capo were formed by their over-seers to be devoid of all normal human compassion toward prisoners.  Repeated exposure to brutality and beatings (as an orchestrated part of their training) helped to form these men to not only master any natural resistance to such violence but in time to even take pleasure in the suffering of prisoners.

We see a similar type of mastery of emotional trauma by later term abortion doctors who put aside a normal humane response when dismembering an unborn child and grow to take satisfaction and even pleasure in a procedure performed with clinical efficiency.  In these cases we can see the unborn child as a type of prisoner under the abortionist’s total control. You can read a horrifying clinical description of a D&E procedure from Dr Anthony Levitino a former abortionist. 

God’s Mysterious Presence Amidst Horrific Evil

–        Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on many waters…” – Rev 15:1

The Albuquerque Ordinance, which would have banned abortions after 20 weeks fell to defeat Tuesday evening November 19,  2013.  This is the first skirmish in a much larger battle to raise awareness of the horror of many abortion procedures and the pain they inflict on the unborn and their parents.  We are rightly disappointed that the Albuquerque Ordinance failed.  But we can also be inspired by these seven pregnant women of Dachau rescued from a Nazi death machine that viewed their unborn children as useless fetal tissue, not worthy of life.

There was a time when this Nazi evil reigned supreme, and to those under its power it seemed to possess total control over the hearts and mind of the German people.  The power of the Third Reich was broken in a conflagration of judgment manifest in war and destruction, the natural consequence of the grave offenses against God and his people.  Hitler and the other architects of this madness were consumed by the same demons they unleashed upon mankind.

We are called to use every peaceful means possible to pull our nation back from the brink of self destruction as we battle our own culture of death.   The story of Miriam Rosenthal reminds us that the very evil that our grandfathers, brothers and fathers fought so valiantly to defeat, has taken deep root on American soil.  With their allies in academia, media, entertainment, and government pro death forces have created a propaganda machine and control of information that would be the envy of Joseph Goebbels. ( Goebbels was the architect of the very successful marketing strategy to sell the Hitler/Nazi deception to the German people, and mask the true nature of their genocidal agenda.)

Yet, the Thousand Year Reich fell after a short but hellishly destructive reign.

Let us be inspired by that brave nameless Capo of Dachau, learn from the defeat in Albuquerque and fight on with confidence in the justice and decency of our cause and our final victory in Christ.

–       Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.”   Rev 11:15