Alfred Hrdlcka's Holocaust Monument pre-Christmas

Book-

ended

It

had

nothing

to do with

baby and tree

It

had

all to do

with death

and suffering

Visting the Hrdlcka Holocaust Monument which is situated in the centre of Vienna a short walk from the famous Vienna State Opera under a steel gray winter sky just a few days before Christmas I wondered how it came about that a nation of Christian people could, in a period of just two decades, be overwhelmed by an almost insatiable appetite for mindless violence towards followers of another faith that is to say the Jews.

But not only the Jews. There were also other peoples such as Gypsies who were victims; not to mention the mentally ill, whose number included the elderly and senile, children in hospitals and psychiatric institutions; in fact any human being of less worth; people who were seen as being a drain on the Reich's almost unlimited resources. And I am the right person to ask these questions since I have no religious corn (or axe) to grind, whichever way you want to look at it.

I left the metaphorical temple early. It was at the age of six when on a Sunday morning in a church I pocketed a silver coin (it was a sixpence) given me by a teacher of religion in exchange for my correct recitation of the Lord's Prayer. I knew then, even at that young age that this silver coin was in the nature of a bribe, and that it was therefore wrong to accept it, let alone to offer it, but I didn't know then why I knew that. I therefore refused to learn the Apostolic Creed in exchange for the next proffered silver coin, one of even higher denomination (a shilling). In spirit I had already left the organization that would have me.

Many years later I made my personal pact with God. I was his servant. He would direct me. The others were merely showmen, opportunists and foot soldiers, followers of little worth. I have been proved right time and again. This brings me back to the Hrdlcka monument, suitably bookended. The contents between the covers are invisible. The invisible contents are the true contents. It is a matter of faith. But it is not a matter of faith in any of the many organized religions with headquarters in the world's major cities. It is the simple faith of one who wonders at the fury of man when aroused. And how easily that arousal is to direct through the power of false prophesy and coin corrupted.