From October 23 to 27, young people from Ireland, Spain, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Ukraine and Germany came together in Berlin to discuss when and how we need to follow orders or refuse to do so. It had a lot to do with what our conscience and our common sense tell us to do. Sometimes, following ones conscience and /or one's faith in a loving God may lead to danger, even death, as we could learn when we visited Plötzensee.
We began the day with our morning meditation in the very room where more than 1400 prisoners were beheaded or hanged by the brutal justice system of Nazi-Germany. A tough place to pray or sing, but we did sing in Hebrew how "good and lovely it is when people get together in unison". After this we went on to the "Plötzensee Memorial Center" where Michael Maillard welcomed us with tea, coffee and water. Letting the horrors behind us for some time, while we took a good look at what the Bible has to say about obedience or rather about following God rather than people, especially when people clearly have their own, often bad agenda. We heard about two midwives who went against their orders to kill male babies and that one is supposed to obey God rather than people. This was only Bible study part one. Our group was mixed in terms of denomination and religion.
A real highlight was to look at the famous Dance of Death in the Memorial Church, as Michael Maillard gave lots of information on this remarkable piece or art, actually 12 pieces of art by the Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka who never wanted to show the nicer sides of the world because the dark and ugly sides are often so dominant. Only one of the paintings hat a modest light to it, showing people sharing bread even in the face of their own death.
Much brighter but no less sinister was the last of the three stops that day: the Carmelite Convent Regina Martyrum. The open space around the church reminded in Prison court yards, the Church itself, in all its concrete and straight walls of a huge prison cell. But Sister Mechthild was so filled with her love of God and showed us the symbols or light and hope in the huge altar painting.
This post is already way to long, so in brief: we discussed the Jewish perspective on obedience to God and Holy law with Rabbi Ulrike Offenberg and learned that while absolute obedience to God is a must, this doesn't mean one cannot interpret the law to be kinder and more forgiving that it seemed at first glace.
How we react when it is not necessarily a question of life and death but none the less rules and regulation go against our wish to be helpful and kind to our fellow human beings, was our Monday morning complete with case study and Moot court.
And again last but definitely not least the European evening with the presentations on every country represented in our group. Yes, we will do this again. Next year.