Warn Them

Hans Calmeyer Righteous Gentile 1903-1972

“Dutch Schindler”

Lawyer for Life


	WHY SAVE LIVES ?


	From a letter by Hans Calmeyer (complete letter here) to Jacob Presser, praising that Dutch author’s 2-volume work on the Destruction of the Dutch Jews, which seemed to fall on deaf ears after the war, when people seemed to not want to remember, not want to re-live the outrages of the Nazi years:

		“I have friends in Israel, whom I did not help, who are nevertheless alive. These friends have been counseling me for years on the topic that lies like a massive stone on my heart, to finally give up my desperation to tell the story. This does not work for me, and in fact should not. God said to Ezekiel: “You must tell them. They will not hear you. Nevertheless: you must tell them !” You have said it all ! All the bitterness of Ezekiel and other un-heeded prophets is contained in what you have written in desperation. But you should know, that the one or the other, and in fact one man of the German language, is reading what you have written, drinking in and listening to the heap of bitterness and exasperation which for him is a bitter swallow indeed. To that belongs the responsibility to pass on those words. Alas, on German territory there are even fewer listeners (I cannot even call my compatriots compatriots anymore. Since 1941, if not already since 1933, I see as compatriots really only the victims. Only they are clean, or through their death cleansed as righteous).” Hans Calmeyer


	and of course Calmeyer was intimately aware of Ezekiel 3:17:

		¹⁷ Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. ¹⁸ When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. ¹⁹ Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. ²⁰ Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. ²¹ Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.

a quote from Holocaust survivor, Elie Weisel

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Hans Calmeyer was deeply aware of the notion of saving his own soul, as well as having had power and influence ov er other souls during his time as a watchman. In fact, an interesting case can be made that his interest late in life in the Magi was not only archaeologically fascinating but an example of watchmen themselves: they were watching for signs of the coming of the Messiah, were learned, wise astronomer-astrologers who were entirely attuned to the spiritual event that would change everything, foretold to them in their traditions and scripture to be happening in a place identified by the alignment of the stars.