Concentration of Evil

I used to teach middle school, and one of the works on our curriculum was Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It relates the story of a scientist who develops an elixir that concentrates extreme evil in one part of his personality in the hope that another part of his nature will reflect sublime goodness. His experiment succeeds partially. He creates an alter ego, Mr. Hyde, who manifests intense evil. But the exalted alternative never develops, and the evil Mr. Hyde takes over. I thought of this during the trip to Terezin (Thereseinstadt) I made with our mission team the day before leaving the Czech Republic. The Holocaust was an unbelievable concentration of human evil, the more staggering because of its use of twentieth century technology and its roots in the civilization that produced Beethoven, Wagner and Bach. I have a personal connection to Terezin. Elizabeth Stark, my second Great Aunt died there. Her son, my Uncle Wilfred made it to America after a couple of years at Dachau. I imagine his mother spent her life savings to get him out. Other members of our family died in the Holocaust, but I don't know their names. Hilda Stark, Wilfred's widow and my Great Aunt by marriage, is the only member of my family willing to talk of these things. I said Kaddish (the Jewish prayer for the dead) in the memorial section of Terezin. I was touched that our team of American Christian missionaries joined me, though for the most part they are less familiar with this ugly chapter in human history. Below: The sign at Terezin's gate translates as "Work Makes You Free." The inmates were initially told Terezin was a work camp and learned their fate only gradually.