Darkness.

The History Channel is running a series on the rise of Hitler. They are showing footage that I have never seen before. I told myself to change the channel. I knew it would depress me, but I watched for awhile.

As they showed some footage of Hitler's officers. I moved close to the TV. I tried to peer into these stone faced men. I wanted to look into their eyes, but their eyes seemed dead to me. Empty and souless.

They showed actual filming of the soldiers shooting Jews lined up in ditches. A soldier stood off to the right side of the camera's line of sight with his back to the camera . Just before the shooting he turns to look at the camera as if to make sure it is getting the shot.

I peer closely to look at his face. My mind asks, "Who are you? What made you such a monster?" But he turns back as they shoot and the line of Jews fall silently and he is watching.

Chilling.

When I was 12 I read "The Diary Of Anne Frank" and cried myself to sleep. I drove my parents crazy with questions about it. Then I read Corrie Ten Boom's "The Hiding Place" about a family who hid Jews and was caught and sent to the camps. Only Corrie survived. And years later I read about the man who became my favorite Saint, Father Maximilian Kolbe who was a Priest who died in the camps. He took the place of a Jew who was asking for mercy from the guards. All true stories of incredible faith and strength.

It was a time of true horror, but these stories proved to me that goodness and love cannot be erased by the darkness of man's heart.