Two events make the calendar today, both stemming from 1945. This is the day when Auschwitz was liberated and “on January 24, 2005, the United Nations General Assembly marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. Later that year on November 1, the UN General Assembly designated January 27th as the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.”1
It’s hard to imagine how Adolph Hitler could lead a culture of hatred towards Jews as well as others that were deemed undesirable. “From the very beginnings of the Nazi Party in the 1920s, Adolf Hitler and the ideologues of National Socialism promoted this concept. They adapted, manipulated, and radicalized the unfounded belief in the existence of an “Aryan race” and its superiority to fit their ideology and policies. Nazi officials used this concept to support the idea that Germans belonged to a “master race.” Furthermore, they specified that “non-Aryan” applied foremost to Jews, who were identified as the main racial threat to German society. The term was also applied to Roma (Gypsies) and Black people.”2
The horrors endured during the Holocaust are unimaginable and unthinkable. “Auschwitz was really a group of camps, designated I, II, and III. There were also 40 smaller “satellite” camps. It was at Auschwitz II, at Birkenau, established in October 1941, that the SS created a complex, monstrously orchestrated killing ground: 300 prison barracks; four “bathhouses” in which prisoners were gassed; corpse cellars; and cremating ovens. Thousands of prisoners were also used for medical experiments overseen and performed by the camp doctor, Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death.”3
When the numbers were tallied after the liberation, it was discovered that over six million
Jews were killed, equaling about 2/3 of the European population at that time. Along with the Jews who were murdered, there were believed to have been:
- 7 million Soviet civilians
- 3 million Soviet prisoners of war
- 1.8 million Polish civilians
- 312,000 Serb civilians
- Up to 250,000 people with disabilities
- Up to 250,000 Gypsies
- And thousands of others.4
Many who tour the death camps are struck by the terror of the events that took place there, even though the buildings stand empty. Visitors can still hear, as it were, the cries of the deceased and feel the sheer terror of the moment of their experience.
I, too, am overwhelmed to imagine what they all must have gone through. To say that Hitler and his regime were monsters in an understatement. Only Satan could drive a human to have that much disregard and lethal contempt for others.
Do you suppose this is a picture of what antichrist will be like?
Several passages in the Bible give descriptions of the antichrist. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 says, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; (4) Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 reminds us where antichrist derives his power. “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, (10) And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”
Multitudes of believers will be killed in the Tribulation. These are not a part of the church that was raptured out prior to the start of the Tribulation Period but rather those who were saved during the Tribulation. Revelation 13:7 says, “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.” Earlier, in Revelation 6:9-11, we are told “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: (10) And they cried with a loud 
voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? (11) And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”
Evil is personified in Hitler as it was with Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the intertestamental period and as it will be by antichrist in the future. Rest assured, dear Christian. We will not experience the evil of antichrist because of a promise given in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 and demonstrated in other Scriptures. “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”
1https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/january/holocaust-remembrance-day-january-27
2https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/aryan-1
3https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-liberate-auschwitz
4https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/january/holocaust-remembrance-day-january-27
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