On April 24, 2015, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, the Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave the keynote speech at the inaugural John A. Widtsoe Symposium at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
President Uchtdorf related the experience he and his wife had in visiting Auschwitz, the concentration camp where millions of Jews were murdered as part of Adolf Hitler's "Final Solution."
"One cannot visit such a place without coming away from it changed," the LDS Church leader said. Later he added that, "As Harriet and I walked away from that place that has been hallowed by the blood of so many innocents, we felt changed. We were different. We had learned and relearned important lessons that we must never forget."
President Uchtdorf discussed the thoroughness with with the history of the Holocaust is taught in German schools, so that its cruelty and inhumanity is fully understood. Thus, he was not surprised by what he saw on his visit to the death camp, yet, at the same time, he found it to be incomprehensible.
"How could anyone be so heartless and beyond feeling that they would do something like this," he asked. "Who but a demon could do such evil?"
President Uchtdorf focused for a moment on the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, who had been raised in a strict, religious family. Entering adulthood, Höss turned his back on his father's hopes that he would enter the priesthood, opting instead for politics.
"Rudolf Höss described himself as 'gentle, good-natured, and very helpful'," noted President Uchtdorf. "His daughter remembers him as 'the nicest man in the world.' Later, at Nuremberg, his defense rested on the fact that he was only following orders—that he was doing his duty. Rudolf Höss supervised the murders of perhaps millions of people."
The LDS Church leader then brought the subject closer to home. "The first Jews to be executed at Auschwitz were from Upper Silesia," he said. "I was born in Ostrava, not far from Upper Silesia. I am troubled to know that at the very time when I was taking my first steps, not far from my hometown, soldiers from the Gestapo were rounding up terrified families and transporting them in railroad cars to that horrible place where they were destined to take their final steps.
"Although I was only a small child during the war, I still recognize that the actions of my people affected me and the entire world. They left an inexpressible sorrow and an inextinguishable agony that is still felt to this day throughout the world."
President Uchtdorf then discussed three insights that "forcibly" entered his heart during that visit to Auschwitz:
1. We Hate Those We Do Not Really Know
2. We Must Speak Up
3. Divine Love is the Answer
"I am convinced that one of the major reasons these atrocities happened is because it is human nature to be suspicious, envious, distrustful, and even hateful of those we do not really know," said President Uchtdorf. "I suppose we are all guilty of this to one extent or another. Do we really know even our neighbors and colleagues -- people we greet daily? It is one of the most disconcerting qualities of being human to distrust or dislike those who are different from us in a variety of elements. The great tragedy is that if only we could take the time to truly know a person, we would discover that perhaps we are not so different after all. He who once was our enemy can become our friend."
Regarding the second insight, President Uchtdorf, a former pilot, used an example from aviation history. In 1990, an airliner crashed because not one member of its crew spoke out about the aircraft's dwindling fuel state as it circled, waiting its turn to enter the landing pattern. Then he said:
"In a world where intolerance, meanness, and hatred are so easily accessible, we have a responsibility to speak up and defend what is good and right. We have all heard the profound statement attributed to Edmund Burke: 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.'
"This applies to us today. We have a responsibility to speak up for goodness, for virtue, for kindness and understanding. We have an obligation to defend the weak and stand up for the downtrodden. In this age, perhaps more than any other since the beginning of time, we are exposed to bullies and braggarts—people who belittle others and preen themselves in prideful arrogance.
"We can and must stand and let our voices be heard. We don’t need to be provocative or belittling, but we must not allow our fears to prevent us from lifting our voices in defense of what is right and good and true."
Finally, President Uchtdorf spoke about the "one virtue -- one quality" that he believes could "solve all the world’s ills, cure all the hatred, and mend every wound":
"If we only learned to love God as our Father in Heaven, this would give us purpose in life. If we only learned to love our fellowman as our brothers and sisters, this would give us compassion
"After all, these are God’s great commandments -- to love God and to love our fellowman. If we distill religion down to its essence, we nearly always recognize that love is not merely the goal of religion, it is also the path of true discipleship. It is both the journey and the destination.
"If we love as Christ loved, if we truly follow the path He practiced and preached, there is a chance for us to avoid the echoing tragedies of history and the seemingly unavoidable fatal flaws of man.
"Will compassion for others bring light into the darkness? Will it allow us to part the clouds and see clearly?
"Yes. For though we are all born blind, through the Light of Christ we can see past darkness and illusion and understand things as they really are."
President Uchtdorf concluded by saying, " It is my hope that we will look past our differences and, instead, see each other with eyes that recognize who we truly are -- fellow travelers, brothers and sisters, pilgrims walking the same path that leads to becoming more enlightened and more refined, as our Father in Heaven intends us to become."
I have linked to a transcript of President Uchtdorf's talk below and highly recommend that it be read in full.
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Uchtdorf, D. (2015). "Fellow Travelers, Brothers and Sisters, Children of God". Accessed September 1, 2017 at https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/fellow-travelers-brothers-and-sisters-children-of-god?lang=eng
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