Let's talk about Christian heroes

Christians don't have good press at the moment - especially not that of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cologne. Publicly, it appears almost only when it comes to abuse and its sluggish processing. Yes, Cologne's Catholics are currently the epitome of the miserable Christian image, so to speak. And for months, changing communications experts in the diocese there have been racking their brains about how to connect the faith of Jesus with something positive (and thus publicly penetrate it).

The Catholics received an invitation from the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia to present an exhibition about martyrs in the "Third Reich" to refer to the treasures of Christianity: to 30 heroes who, out of their faith, fought with the Nazi criminal regimes - and went to their deaths for it. This exhibition could be an example of a way out of the permanent Christian crisis: Christians must (of course, in addition to thorough clarification of their cases of abuse and other dark secrets) bring their strongest points, their best practice examples to the people.

And of course this chocolate side of faith is embodied – also – by the martyrs who dared to stand up for humanity in totalitarian systems. Their biographies bear witness to their courage, willingness to make sacrifices and charity on an extraordinary scale. In contrast to this is the presentation of these stories in the current exhibition: on around 30 display boards with brief captions in the citizens' hall of the Düsseldorf state parliament. Set up in a corner, around a staircase - leading to the toilets.

The people portrayed deserve more attention. For example Everhard Richarz, a priest in Cologne and Oberhausen, who lived until 1941 – in the way many more Germans would have lived between 1933 and 1945 in an ideal world. From the beginning he openly warned against the racial ideology of the Nazis. Whereupon he was given warnings and fines by the Secret State Police. In 1939 she arrested him for helping Jews flee to the Netherlands and taking their fortune abroad with them. Richarz contracted tuberculosis in the cell. He was discharged terminally ill. And died shortly thereafter.

Destinies like this are instructive. They show what powers faith can unleash – even if the contents of this faith may seem strange to some contemporaries. Many of the so-called “martyrs” justified their resistance with the conviction that one day they would have to stand before God and justify their lives before him. The exhibition was aptly titled "If we don't risk our lives today, how are we going to stand our ground before God?"

This power of faith is also illustrated by a man like the philosophy professor Johannes Verweyen. He was a convert, so, as we would say today, a 150 percent. But this gave him the courage to attack the Nazi racial doctrine in an extremely harsh manner. Among other things, he publicly accused them of "blind, devilish hatred". His writings were confiscated, then he was forbidden to speak. But Verweyen tirelessly continued to warn. Until he was arrested. And died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Finally, the exhibition tells (as with all portraits much too briefly) the life of the Bonn medical student Willi Graf, who embodies the often ecumenical character of the resistance. Graf went to the University of Munich, where he met two fellow Protestant students named Sophie and Hans Scholl. They were joined by Orthodox Christian Alexander Schmorell.

They formed the world-famous White Rose resistance group. As is well known, they were all executed in 1943. What is less well known is that the White Rose exemplified ecumenical resistance par excellence. At the time of Hitler, "the Christian denominations had united to fight the common enemy," according to Prelate Helmut Moll, representative of the German Bishops' Conference for Martyrs in the 20th Century and one of the people responsible for the exhibition. After the war, however, this path was not continued. Which leads to another irritating insight: the so-called “ecumenism of blood” was apparently easier to establish than ecumenism in freedom. But that unfortunately leads away from the topic again - from the strong sides of faith.