Below is an excerpt from the epilogue of Anita Dittman and Jan Markell’s Book “Trapped in Hitler’s Hell: A Young Jewish Girl Discovers the Messiah’s Faithfulness in the Midst of the Holocaust.”
Many pastors and churches sold out to the Nazis or else turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the suffering of Europe’s incarcerated. Satan worked himself into the very heart of the church in Germany and caused many church people—pastors and laymen alike—to rationalize and compromise with the Nazis. A hear-no-evil, see-no-evil mentality swept the country with regard to her treatment of the Jews and other “undesirables.” When Germans were questioned about things they had seen, the whole nation suddenly developed a strange form of “amnesia.” Perhaps it was a self-protecting device that helped them forget the terrible ordeal of Nazi Germany.
The nation that had produced Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, and a host of other men and women for whom the world will always be grateful, also perpetrated and, often actively or passively, supported the carnage of the Third Reich.
But the casualties hit home, too, for Germany was a massive, burned-out crater by the end of the war. Three million of her soldiers died, and another million shivered in the prisons of Siberia. More than half a million civilians perished in the air raids over Germany.
But what nation is not capable of the same kind of tyranny? While Germany killed her six million prisoners, Russia killed twenty million in Siberia. Later, Stalin heaped countless other lives on top of that. The bamboo curtain imprisons millions more. The same kind of treatment and torture is inflicted upon those living today in dozens of other countries.
It is clear that the spirit of Adolf Hitler is alive in the world today, for that spirit is Satan. Even as Germany believed Hitler’s lies, the world believes Satan’s lies, for he is the father of lies. Ironically Hitler himself was deceived, saving his most savage attacks for the unarmed Jews rather than for the armies that destroyed him. Even in his final words he denounced the threat of international Jewry.
That same spirit fans the flames of anti-Semitism today. While Russian Jews are less persecuted since the fall of Communism, a Jew is risking his or her life on the streets of many European nations. Some say that the anti-Semitic climate in Europe today nearly rivals that of 1939. The Jews of Europe are fleeing to Israel in fear. In the UK, anti-Semitic attacks have increased 42 percent since 2004.
Evil in the name of God exists in many of today’s Christian denominations. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Methodist Church, Episcopal Church USA, and the World and National Councils of Churches have all voted to divest funds in Israel, strangling her economy. And with the push for a Palestinian state, Bible prophecy is further fulfilled in that all nations are coming against Israel—perhaps even America—as prophesied in Zechariah 12:3. And as bizarre as it is, we have people like Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and others, saying there never was a Holocaust while they plan a second one. Holocaust denial is on fast-forward in recent years.
Anti-Semitism takes on strange features, but the bottom line is that the Jewish people are still cursed by many people, denominations, and nations, even if they do not wear swastikas.
However, the greatest news of all is that God is ready and willing to forgive even an Adolf Hitler, an Eichmann, a Himmler, a Heydrich, a Goebbels, or a Höss. God’s love and forgiveness are that great. God can transform the most wicked individual if he but acknowledges his need of the one Savior, Jesus Christ!
But if the incredibly evil do not respond to God, if they align themselves with the Evil One—God’s people do not need to fear. God delivers. And if He does not deliver, He sustains. And if He does not sustain, He receives us into His everlasting arms—for He is sovereign! God be praised.
Psalms 59:16–17 – “But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.”
HD Editor’s Note: Anita Dittman’s story is a profound example of how possessing a Biblical Worldview alters your perspective on the world around you.
How Anita perceived the threat of death was antithetical to those Jews suffering alongside her who did not have the comfort of a loving Savior. Likewise, while many hearts were blinded with hatred and a desire for revenge, Anita, through the lens of God’s Word, carried a different outlook on those who carried out atrocities and the nation whose populous blindly supported those efforts. Her desire was for Germany to wake up from its delusion and be introduced to the Jewish messiah and savior of the world: Jesus Christ.
During the holocaust, many were convinced that God had forsaken them, but Anita’s testimony showcased God’s continual lovingkindness and protection as she walked leaning on Him daily.
Despite being a young teenager, Anita’s heart brimmed with love for her Heavenly Father, viewing every escalation in the severity of persecution under the Nazis as “another opportunity to trust Jesus,” even when she stood alone in a forced labor camp.
Having read this book multiple times, I wholeheartedly recommend “Trapped In Hitler’s Hell” by Anita Dittman (Who went home to be with the Lord in 2020 at the age of 93) and Jan Markell. As our world becomes increasingly wicked, Anita’s story is a profoundly edifying example of how we, as believers, can have joy, strength, and steadfastness of faith under the most trying of circumstances. — Breanna Claussen
