But He was a Jew

Peter Malkin participated in the capture of Adolf Eichmann, the famous Nazi who helped to carry out Hitler’s outrage against the Jews in WW 2. Eichmann escaped to Argentina, but was tracked down by Israeli operatives and brought to justice. It was Peter Malikin whose own father had died in the death camps. For all of his life he had lived with the desire to capture the one at least partially responsible for his father’s death. When he finally finds Eichmann and captures him, he is powerfully moved. He sees this monster living a normal life in Argentina with a family of his own. When Malkin captures him, he asks him, “How, when you have a family of your own and a little son like I was at the time, how could you have killed my father?” Eichmann is reported to have turned, looked at him with a shrug, and replied, “But he was a jew.” Isn’t that what we often do? We know that those around us are perishing and going to hell, but we just shrug and say, “But he’s gay; but she’s on drugs; but he’s a professor; but she’s had a hard life.” We allow prejudices to keep us from becoming the missionary God wants us to be, but here’s the deal: We will become missionaries when our priorities change and we value people over prejudice.