DVD Review - Making Choices
Though I have no Dutch heritage, I grew up among the Dutch. During my childhood, the vast majority of my friends were the children of Dutch immigrants who made the journey to Canada in the years following the Second World War. I went to Dutch churches and Dutch schools. I even learned to like Dutch food (Dutch soup, chocolate or brown sugar sandwiches, olibolen, and of course, dropjes). The Dutch, like many immigrant populations, have a deep cultural heritage and one they cling to even in this new land.
Deeply ingrained in the Dutch heritage is the lingering memory of World War 2. All of my Dutch friends had parents or grandparents who had been living in Holland in 1940, when the German army invaded and quickly destroyed all opposition in a war that lasted less than a week. The Dutch people were subjected to years of oppression. The Jewish population, many of whom had lived in Holland for generations, were rounded up and transported to Germany and Poland, never to be seen again. The Dutch, a proud and fiesty people, organized themselves into various Resistance groups and did what they could to torment the Germans, to prepare for the coming invasion, and to protect the Jews and other fugitives.
Making Choices: The Dutch Resistance During World War II tells the stories of four members of the Resistance all of whom have since moved to the United States: Diet Eman, John Witte, John Muller and John Timmer. Diet’s story is particularly compelling and moving. The viewer cannot help but be stirred as he hears of her courage, of her brushes with death, and of the loss of some of those she loved. This film helps the viewer understand what motivated these people to risk their lives for others and to face the heavy toll exacted on those who aided the Jews, for those who helped the Jews were to be treated as Jews. Many brave Dutch men and women, having been caught in acts of rebellion against the Germans, were sent to concentration camps.
Each of these former members of the Resistance provides his or her motivation for helping the Jewish people. Each of them affirms that it was their faith that drove them to protect the Jews. They could not stand silently by and watch as the Jewish people were herded like cattle and driven to their deaths. In a moving scene near the end, John Witte reveals that despite all that was done by himself and the other Dutch citizens, he still feels guilt that they could not do more.
There is one thing that has always struck me as strange and it was affirmed in this video. In all the times I have read about the work of the Dutch Resistance and have heard Dutch people speak about aiding the Jews, there has not been a single time that I heard of them sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the Jewish fugitives. While they were faithful in protecting human life and in sheltering those in need, I never heard of a Jewish person who was converted during this time. I never heard of a person who made it his mission to ensure that the Jewish people were introduced to Jesus Christ. And indeed, in this video, there is no mention of the Jewish need for Christ. It is very odd.
Making Choices is one of many presentations I have seen in the past few years that recounts the first-hand stories of ordinary people who were driven to extraordinary measures during the Second World War. As that generation grows older and their numbers diminish, historians are racing to record and preserve their stories. The stories of those who served the war effort in Holland are worth preserving. These stories are moving; inspiring. I was glad to be able to hear them.
Making Choices is available from Vision Video or from Amazon:
Comments (11) »
1. Mike Noakes
February 24, 2006
2:18 PM
I love this site!!!
I am so challenged in making tamplates and stuff… it’s actually kinda sad…
2. Angela
February 24, 2006
3:23 PM
I had the same thought when reading The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, another Dutch Christian who protected Jews from the Nazis, and later became a great missionary. Although Ten Boom’s story does tell of reading a smuggled Bible to her fellow inmates in concentration camps, there is no mention of any conversions, or attempts to convert. There was only the sharing of Christ in the form of service and love. The book challenged me to examine my own relationships with nonChristian friends, of which I have many, and with whom I regularly dialogue about faith matters (how could I not—it’s just who I am).
The best witness is to love our friends with Christ’s love, and prayerfully, with His wisdom. “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” (Romans 12:15) A few years has taught me greater patience and trust that God knows and cares for my nonChristian friends and family members much better than I ever could. Do we trust in His sovereignty even as we strive to live in His will? It’s possible that I am able to arrive at this equanimity because I became a Christian later in life, and can look back and know that God knew me even when I did not know Him.
3. Susanna
February 24, 2006
4:15 PM
Tim,
This made me think of some Piet Prins books we had growing up that I loved to read about the Dutch and their help to the Jewish people during WWII. I remember hearing about this one family that had hidden Jews and when the Nazis came into their home and found the place where the Jewish individuals were hidden, God made them invisible and they were not found…pretty incredible!!
4. bchallies
February 24, 2006
5:56 PM
Tim, You were not listening at Christmas when I told you that your first North American ancestors were indeed Dutch religious refugees who landed in New Amsterdam in the 1600”s. They left New York for Canada during the Revolutionary War as they were staunchly loyal to the British crown. They lost all of their land - wish we had it now! I actually have a transcript of the hearing as they tried to claim compensation for it later on. Oral history has it that this earliest immigrant was a direct descendant of Jon Olden van Barneveldt - the great Dutch statesman who was beheaded mid-sixteen hundreds for being on the wrong side of the Arminian-Calvinist controversy…Another ancestor, also on the Belford side , was the Duke of Ormond - on the wrong side in the battle with Oliver Cromwell.
5. Tim Challies
February 24, 2006
7:20 PM
“You were not listening at Christmas when I told you that your first North American ancestors were indeed Dutch religious refugees who landed in New Amsterdam in the 1600”s.”
Hmm. I must have repressed that memory.
6. Carrie
February 24, 2006
8:05 PM
Thanks for sharing that. Corrie Ten Boom’s The Hiding Place is one of my favorite books. I also read Diet Eman’s book.
I have a general interest in the WWII era and love to read these stories of brave Christians during that time. You bring up an interesting point about the Christians not trying to peach the Gospel to the Jews, I had never recognized that fact.
7. David Chalkley
February 25, 2006
3:17 AM
The Nazi holocaust (which the Jews call the “Shoah”) has been profoundly important to me. I have extensively probed and presented “rescuers in the Nazi era.” I think I understand the lack of direct evangelism (I’m not totally sure, but I think so), and I will try to explain what I think. The lack of direct evangelism was not at all a lack of priority or importance, and any true believer should realize that a person’s eternal soul vastly outweighs anything in this world. Whether the rescuers consciously realized so or not, there were reasons not to evangelize directly the Jews being hidden and protected. Surely in such extremity, the Jews would have observed the reality of true believers who were protecting them, that they were genuine in what they professed. Very likely seeds were planted — intentionally or unintentionally — as the Jews observed these who risked all they had to save them. We do not know what conversations there were between Jews and the believing rescuers, but likely Jews discussed with their protectors, “Why do you do this for us?” Surely seeds were planted either from Jews’ inquiries or from their observations of the ones protecting them. I think the rescuers likely had sensitivity not to appear to take advantage in such an extreme situation: an earnest presentation of the gospel could have been very honestly misconstrued by Jews as pressure to convert, even if the Christian rescuers assured them of no pressure, no conditionality: a Jew could easily have an honest misperception of pressure if a rescuer told them directly their need of salvation by faith in Christ. There is much we do not know now. In such extreme danger, when the lives of both the rescuers and the Jews being rescued hung in the balance, there were perspectives we don’t have now. In no way do I mean “relative”or “circumstancial” morality. In no way do I mean that evangelism of lost people is not utmostly important. To rescue one from hell is far more important than any help in this world, and the true believers who hid and protected Jews surely realized this. I once had a serious relationship with a rabbi (whose paternal grandparents were murdered by the Nazis, and whose father came within a whisker of being murdered by them). I very much sensed or realized the same restraint as I conversed with this man. I cared deeply for him, and I knew that if he died without Christ, he would be in hell for all eternity. I never had a liberty to speak with him directly about his need of Christ, and it was not for fear or shame at all. I think he knew what I believed, that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of Genesis 22, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53. I think he saw Christ in me. I also think that a direct presentation to him would have been wrong, though I cannot fully explain why. Finally, I can hardly say the importance of the rescuers in my personal life, especially the rescuers who were believers, born again disciples. I have for several years been strongly convinced that if there were a Kristalnacht in the U.S. today, and another situation identical to the Nazi holocaust, overwhelmingly most of the conservative, orthodox evangelicals I have known would respond like most of the “Christians” in Germany 1933-45, not with the reality of the ten Boom family.
8. Susan
February 25, 2006
9:53 AM
While I can relate to what David Chalkley writes above, there is a fantastic example of a guy named Zvi, about whom I originally read in Israel My Glory magazine, published by the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. (You can find them easily on-line with a google search.) His story “Zvi: The Miraculous Story of Triumph Over the Holocaust” by Elwood McQuaid is available through FOI and elsewhere. He is an amazing evalangelist, story-teller, and encourager. He was only 10 when separated from his parents and taken to a concentration camp from his homeland of Poland. He found his way to Israel and faith in Christ. Now he is a witness to the truth for Yeshua (Jesus) in Israel and shares those stories in a book titled “The Best of Zvi” by Kalisher. He writes very well of his encounters, the opposition, his reasoning, his faith, his experiences, Judaism, messianic Judaism, Israeli culture, the works… I highly recommend both books, as well as Israel My Glory magazine. Edifying stuff. It’s encouraging to read of an unashamed Jewish evangalist in Israel. God be praised!
9. David Chalkley
February 25, 2006
2:03 PM
After Susan’s comments, let me say this. In 1997 I met and heard an Israeli couple travelling and speaking in churches. They were both “New York Jews” (the husband’s phrase), saved years after they were married, years later moving to Israel to live permanently. Their son and daughter are believers and young adults, all Israeli citizens. I think the parents I met were named Arni and Jonit Klein. They loved the Lord Jesus Christ. They told us much that I had never heard, and I believed what they said. They said that the Messianic Jews in Israel are a significant, well known group within Israel, taken seriously and respected there. Travelling with this couple was a young lady, Hannah Shiloh, born in Israel and living there all her life, who had been saved in her mid-twenties. She told her testimony. They are very evangelistic. I did not remotely mean that Jewish believers should not earnestly present the Gospel to Jews, nor even that Gentile Christians should not do so to Jews outside of the life-and-death danger of the holocaust. I think that Zvi may have an open door that many or most Gentile believers do not have. A man in California, Frank Eiklor, who was saved when he was 17, in the Marine Corps, later did a Ph.D. in holocaust studies (or antisemitic studies?) in Boston, and has had a long ministry to the Jews and very importantly to Gentile Christians, saying how to reach Jews truthfully and effectively. For example, if a synagogue is vandalized, how to respond. Frank is the head of Shalom International (www.shalom-online.com). I have not spoken with him in 7 or 8 years, but I remember his reality, genuineness, truthfulness. I think he understood how to reach Jews. “Unconditional love,” he said. Romans 9:2 “That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.” Romans 10:1 “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.”
10. Susanna
February 25, 2006
4:20 PM
Growing up in first/second generation Reformed Dutch communities as we did, I would venture to say that for better and for worse, they are a somewhat private group and value acting out their faith through action rather than voicing it. For example, if someone in the community was sick, they would not simply just say, “we’ll pray for you” but would actually help that person through meals, visiting, etc. Therefore during the holocaust, I think that perhaps they focused more on actions than words to present Christ. As David said, I’m sure that the way they willingly put their lives at risk and sacrificed a lot had a great impact on those Jews they came into contact with, hopefully an eternal one for many.
11. Robert Prince
March 5, 2006
2:47 AM
Hi Tim,
As producer/director of this documentary, I wanted to chime in real quick and say thank you for the kind review and say that it’s true—no one I spoke with during this project who had hid Jews said anything about trying to convert them during the war. Honestly I think pushing someone who is already stuck in a horrendous situation like that would have done more bad than good for the name of Christianity.
I agree with Susanna’s comment, just being willing to put their lives on the line was a tremendous testament to their faith—more powerful than words. That is a level of faith we should hope to have.
Post Your Comment Here »