Hans Schaefer was, in 1985, the Oberkirchenrat—like one of our synod deans with more power—of the Weimar District of the Lutheran Church in what was then East Germany. As such, he was periodically permitted to travel to conferences in “the West,” which is where Wendy and I met him. We were in Berlin for my internship year at the American Church. He issued us a heartfelt invitation to come visit his family in Tiefurt, a small village outside of Weimar.

So we did, several times. We would take things they couldn’t easily get in the East. Lemons, bananas, anything citrus, and cognac. Hans and his wife Christa were exceedingly gracious hosts, and though they were a generation older than us, we became good friends who were able, through the church, to bridge the gaping Cold War divide between West and East.

On our second trip there, we stopped at Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Hans and Christa had both grown up nearly within sight of Buchenwald, and they recounted how the laundry they hung out to dry would get covered with ash from the furnaces of Buchenwald. But, they declared, they had no idea that this ash came from burning Jewish bodies. In fact, they insisted, they had no idea whatsoever of the Nazi atrocities in general until AFTER the liberation of the camps. “We didn’t know,” they hung their heads and whispered.

So rang out the post-war mantra across all Nazi-occupied territories in response to these atrocities of fascist rule undergirded by nationalism and antisemitism. “We didn’t know.” Didn’t know that not only Jews, but handicapped, LGBTQIA+ persons, anyone who disobeyed, Roma, Poles, prisoners of war, Blacks, were systemically exterminated. A state church’s complicity only exacerbated the horror. Resisting on Christian principle, despite the 1934 Barmen Declaration or Bonhoeffer or Niemoller, constituted a capital offense.

Even at 25, I sometimes said what I was thinking too quickly, but having just seen the Buchenwald camp’s gas chambers and ovens, I erupted, “How could you not know? You saw the ash, heard the guns, the screams?!” Again, they could only hang their heads and repeat, “We didn’t know.” “And if you HAD known?” I asked Hans privately out on the porch. Only then did he slightly confess, “We didn’t WANT to know. Couldn’t bear to know.”

And there is where we left it. Turns out that five years later, after the wall between East and West came down, Hans Schaefer was convicted of espionage—working for the Stasi, the East German secret police, and spent the rest of his life in prison. He was a “double agent,” allowed to travel in the West as an agent of the East to keep an eye on what subversive activities might happen through the church. Remember that the underground church, largely thought inert or even dead in East Germany, played a key role in the Leipzig protests that led to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. We were helping funnel hard western currency to the church there, and Schaefer must have suspected. Explains why we were so harassed at the border by the Stasi, including cutting apart the upholstery and the interior ceiling of our car to try to find the money. (They never did because we never had it!)

Quite apart from any partisan politicking and having voted through the years for both Republicans and Democrats, I feel compelled especially in my last months in this more public (in church terms) role, to say, as I did to Schaefer, what I think. It frightens me to see blame and ludicrous accusations of money laundering levied against our own Lutheran Social Services and similar faith-based organizations. “Refugee” is a legal status in the U.S. by an Act of Congress. We Lutherans have been helping with that at the government’s request since 1946. All the social media posts you see to the contrary are simply ignorant or intentionally misleading. In keeping with our 8th-commandment guide, let’s go with the former.

It disturbs me greatly to witness the politicization of the military, governance by Executive Order, the apparent alliance with Russia against Ukraine without precious mineral rights in Ukraine to sweeten the deal, and the curtailing of aid programs for the poor, the ill, and the elderly, largely at the hands of a coalition of billionaires. My LGBTQIA and Black and Brown siblings are living in fear. It’s not 1942 anymore, but I perceive that the ash is settling thickly on the laundry. We see. We know. The world knows. I have six grandchildren who will look at me as I looked at Hans Schaefer, wondering how I could NOT know and why I didn’t DO anything in the name of the Jesus whom we claim to follow. Is there government waste? I’m sure there is! Must we penalize the marginalized before we tax the rich? You can balance those books on both the income and the expense side.

Go read Luke’s Gospel again. Or Micah 6:8: God has told you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. No matter how you decide to respond in these times, let’s be clear. I know. You know. We knew. If you welcome what is going on, own it. If not, we have work to do.