Mauthausen Moments

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Many Americans seem surprised to discover how many Germans deny the existence of the Concentration Camps during World War II. We trust those who tell us about the atrocities they witnessed, particularly when those people are grandparents who helped liberate the camps. We marvel that the locals could deny the existence of camps in their own backyards. However, at the same time, many of us have no idea that German and Japanese citizens (Korimatsu v United States) were interned in the United States or that after the war German civilians were housed in camps under atrocious conditions (Rheinwiesenlager). Perhaps we feel this way because we just weren't taught any better, because the time we have in school to learn is limited to the amount of information we could absorb. Perhaps we feel this way because we do not want to know any better. At some point, each of us experiences a Mauthausen Moment, where we decide if we want to only see the land of our nativity through only rose colored glasses. Despite evidence to the contrary, despite experience, and despite the duplicity that exists when some atrocity of that scale looms in our own back yard, we lionize ourselves and paint all others in caricature. You see, acknowledging the true purpose of Mauthausen means acknowledging that some of what we believe and value and "know" is based on half-truths and whole lies.

Experiencing Mauthausen

While working as a missionary in Austria, our mission zone opted to use one of our monthly activities to visit the Mauthausen main camp near Linz, Austria, which was the center of our Zone. The approach to Mauthausen is mostly clear, but on the path we tred, shortly before you spot the main camp, it is obscured from view. Before you see the buildings still extant, the stench assaults your nasal cavity. You can smell death. At least one of our company vomited at the smell. Even if you've never smelt burnt human flesh, you know that's what it is, because you know where you are going, even though this was not an extermination camp. Many of the prisoners here, since most of those sent to Mauthausen were Polish and Soviet POWs, were shot for failure to salute their captors or died in accidents. Only 25% of those interned in Mauthausen survived the war. Mauthausen had one of the highest rates of death of all the KZ Lagern. Mauthausen is centered around a stone quarry, with its infamous stairs of death, from which a fair few number of prisoners fell. In subsequent visits to the towns between Wels and Linz, Austrians with whom we spoke denied having any idea there was a camp there. In some cases, they deny the existence of the camp even now. I think they didn't want to know. You see, in order to have a Mauthausen Moment, you must deny things that you know because to acknowledge them means that many of the things to which you desperately cling as virtues in yourself, your nation, your dogma, or your world of view must wash away because of the sandy foundation on which they are predicated. You see, if Austrians admit that Mauthausen existed or what happened there, they would have to admit everything complicit in their own actions that made it so.

Evidence of Mauthausen

Every psychological attempt to conceal the Mauthausens of our lives ignores the evidence of its erection. Whether we're ignoring our own flaws or duplicity or we weigh our strengths against another's weaknesses, Mauthausen Moments are preceded by a campaign of misinformative propaganda. Imagine the scope of building the camp, the construction in a time when employment in Austria/Germany were very low, when jobs were few and when the people were poor. Nobody noticed? Imagine the nationalization of industries and how the industries ran but the employment rolls never decreased because they were worked by slaves and prisoners. You stand on the train platforms in Attnang-Puchheim and see freight trains full of people roll through and never bother to ask where they went or who they were? I mean, it's not like the passenger trains; these people were shipped as FREIGHT. Yet, they were "deplorables" and not worth the time and attention necessary to really worry about their disposition. By the time the war ended, greater Mauthausen stretched over hundreds of miles, dotting the countryside with camps in places like Ebensee, Gusen, Amstetten and Melk, all of which are places I walked as a missionary. People living there today act as if nothing bad ever happened there. You can be sure that locals participated in the erection of the camp, its staffing, its supervision, and its supply. You know that because some of the people living there were good National Socialists. I know; I met a few, including an Oberscharfuehrer whose rank I recognized when he brought his uniform to the door. And just who did the Germans think built their Messerschmidt fighter jets that came from caves under the camps? The smelters and industries ran, and the allies bombed the steel factory outside Linz, but American bombers didn't bomb Mauthausen. Why not?

Deciding to believe despite duplicity

People will believe a lie for two reasons. Either they are hoping that it's true or they are afraid it might be. IN the modern world we see the same trend, whether with politics, religion, economics or even romance, people delude themselves into thinking that what they hope is the same as what they have reason to think is true. Reasonable thoughts come from evidence; hope persists despite its absence. Life is then full of Mauthausen Moments, where we commit to something either believing it or ignoring it despite evidence to the contrary. We hold onto beliefs despite evidence to the contrary and we imagine evidence for other ideas where none exists. You come to believe in a thing, a person, or an idea, and you commit to it, because if you admit you are wrong you must admit that effort and energy and belief has been cast behind a fraudulent or corrupt thing. You revere it, see only it's virtues, and you throw your weight behind it to make it possible and sometimes even to help it succeed. Then, you learn that the rosy parts aren't the only parts or worse that the rosy parts are not even true. At this point, your Mauthausen Moment requires you to admit that you were wrong and that you helped or at least sat by while something atrocious went on right under your nose. Every German had to endure a Mauthausen Moment. Many of them realized that they had been fed a lie. Those Germans greeted me with open arms, grateful for the ancestors of my countrymen who treated them kindly, offered them food, and helped rebuild their shattered cities and world view. Denying Mauthausen means denying yourself the ability to move on, to move forward.

At one point in your life, if not more, you'll have a Mauthausen moment, the moment where you have to decide whether you are going to admit Mauthausen exists or keep pretending that it doesn't. You can acknowledge the signs or you can ignore them. You can see the virtues only or you can see something warts and all. You can help things fail, you can help evil things succeed either by acting outright to assist or by inaction against it. When we do not protest the establishment of Mauthausen, we essentially allow Mauthausens to be built in our lives, our minds, our communities, and our nations. Only you can make the decision about whether or not you acknowledge Mauthausen exists, and the people who know it's there will not understand you if you deny its existence. For those who deny the existence of Mauthausen, they cannot expect ANY common ground with those who recognize it; for those who recognize it, they must accept there is no convincing those who reject it. For the True Believer, they will either prove their ideology true or die trying. You see, admitting that Mauthausen exists means admitting all the thing that made it possible and admitting, even if you played no part in establishing it, you were complicit by inaction. In the end Mauthausen Moments are invitations to acknowledge truth, admit mistakes and seek correction and direction. Admitting Mauthausen is the first step in correcting the problems that it created and in redeeming those hurt by what happened there. The quote oft attributed to Edmund Burke seems prescient: "All that is necessary for the success of evil in this world is for good men to do nothing." The fact that good people didn't act allowed the Mauthausens of Hitler's Germany to be built, to spread, and to commit the atrocities for which they are known. When your Mauthausen Moment comes, you will learn about yourself, but more importantly the world will know you as you really are.

The Thirteen Particles of Faith

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At General Conference, President Nelson made reference to the notion taught by Alma to “exercise a particle of faith (Alma 32:27)”. As a scientist I teach classes about subatomic particles, or the smaller parts of which an atom is comprised. I submit therefore for your consideration the following particles of which Faith is comprised. This is only an initial list, and it is not to be construed that it I speak in any way for the Church or the Prophet. This list comes from personal revelation following that presentation. For inspiration for each of these particles I include a reference verse from Alma 32.

Particles of Faith Version 1 4 April 2021

1. Desire (verse 27) People make time for the things that match their true desires. If you can honestly no nothing more than desire to believe, to exercise faith, you will make time for the things that feed faith and for the fruits of faith to form. This is often the first particle of faith.

2. Decide (verse 28) Often the only option available in any situation is to decide what response you propose to propagate from here on out. The second particle of faith is to choose, to decide to have faith. Life is full of tough choices, and if we can choose the choicest things, we can enjoy the choicest consequences.

3. Trust (verse 31) With our limited perspective, faith is difficult to keep. Trusting in the Lord however is one of the essential elements to help faith grow and blossom. Without trust, people do not keep faith. So, one particle of faith asks us to trust in the grace, wisdom and timing of the Lord.

4. Effort and Action (verse 37) Faith is a principle of activity. We talk of “exercising faith” which means that movement and activity are essential. Nephi said he would Go and do, not sit and stew. We find that if we start exercising faith, it grows, just as if we exercise a muscle it does too.

5. Study (verse 12) It is almost impossible to maintain faith in something we do not really understand or know. Study is however twopart. In the first part, we must learn about that in which we have faith. In the second, we must come to know Him in whom we place our faith. You cannot love or trust someone you do not actually know, and that knowledge comes from study.

6. Prayer (verse 5) Given that faith is a belief in things we cannot actually empirically define, it belongs to the realm of philosophy. Prayer has always accompanied worship, and prayer affords us an opportunity to seek answers and clarity. On the road to salvation, let questions arise, but never doubts. If something is wrong, God will give you clarity. Doubts come from the devil.

7. Repentance (verse 13) Faith is killed by wickedness. So, in order for faith to grow, repentance is required. In terms of exercising faith, this is often the easiest particle of faith for people to exercise, and it is exercised by people of many faiths, including those beyond and tangential to Christianity. Repentance involves a reformation and a resolve to be a better person, and since that exalted state is part of our Faith, repentance is a particle of faith. As we trust Christ’s mercy and repent, we qualify to once again participate in ordinances once worthy, and these holy ordinances set up circumstances in which the Spirit can come and witness that our faith is real.

8. Commitment/Endurance (verse 13) Far too many people think that faith is an event. It is not only a process but a life-long journey. Faith is not attained all at once or in a single instant. That is knowledge. So, in order to press forward along the covenant path and continue in faith, we must commit ourselves to the principles and ordinances of the gospel. We must commit to keeping the commandments to show our faith and gratitude are real. Just as when you plant a vegetable seed, you must commit to water, weed, and nurture those seeds, you must commit to nurture the seed of faith.

9. Submissiveness (verse 16) It takes a great deal of faith to move mountains, but it takes a great deal more faith to not allow your mountains to move you. In your life there have to be challenges. You can break down or you can break through, and we break through by submitting our will to the Lord. It takes great faith to accept a disappointing answer or outcome, to acknowledge that His ways and thoughts and purposes are higher than ours, and that sometimes an unanswered prayer or a rejected request are actually for our benefit.

10. Humility (verse 6) Many people reject faith and religion generally, and many people use disappointments in the growing of their spiritual garden as rational to abandon the garden completely. Here in Vegas where the desert threatens to constantly destroy all life, it takes humility to do the work, to get on your hands and knees to dig and plant and dung and weed and nurture and, if necessary, to invoke the blessings of heaven on your feeble efforts. The proud do not plant the seed of faith, and the haughty do not persist long enough for it to grow. It takes a great deal of humility to make a man of faith, time and patience and practice, and for those who are too proud to do the work, their seeds will never grow.

11. Patience (verse 41) Sometimes the seed does not sprout as quickly as we like, and often there is no fruit in the first season. Every seed that grows in a garden, every little spark or new leaf or tiny node of growth is an increase that rewards our faith. Even fruits, if removed too hastily, may not be ripe and yield the rewards. Just because it has not happened yet does not mean it never will.

12. Respect for agency (verse 39) Some of the seeds of faith that we plant involve the agency of other people. We can have faith that others will accept our invitations, but we must respect their ability to govern themselves. If as part of our faith the outcome relies on the agency of another, it may not happen, not because our faith failed, but because their seeds have not grown yet if they ever will. God does not mess with free will, and all the faith in the world will not allow us to do so either.

13. Service (verse 1) How knoweth the man the master whom he has not served, who is a stanger to him? If you want your faith to grow, then you must follow the first admonition of the master to his disciples, the first and great responsibility we have to each other. In service, you get to know the master and the family of man. As you get to know others as they really are, your faith in the goodness of man increases. As your understanding in the goodness of man increases, you become more open to the goodness of God, and the fruit that service bears will blossom in you and cause your faith to increase.

As Alma taught, if you can only exercise one of these particles, do so. It will be enough. Part of faith is some faith, and it is exponentially superior to no faith at all. Some of these particles, like the subatomic particles whose existence inspires this list, will attract other particles due to their magnetic, electric, prophetic, or philosophical nature. All life has balance, and so, when one of these arrives, it will attract others that are like it. One major principle of chemistry is that like attracts like, and so once you have one particle of faith you can only get more. When or how many, I cannot say, but if you can only exercise and maintain one, others eventually will follow.

Of course this is only an initial list, but these individual ideas, which are particles of what Faith in Christ requires of us, will help us establish, nurture, grow and reap from our Faith. If you want to have faith you must have faith, but we learn that it takes only a little part to get more. From small things proceedeth that which is great. As the living Messiah, Christ compared faith to a mustard seed because it is a tiny particle that springs forth to a mighty tree. From any of these tiny particles of faith your faith can grow, and the more you spread the more likely you will have a mighty harvest, a healthy vineyard and the satisfaction of soul that comes only to people of faith. No matter your circumstances, if you can manage even one of these particles of faith, God will be able to magnify your blessings.

When They Own the Information

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Summer 1999, I arrived in Neumarkt am Wallersee Austria as part of my missionary service. President Roth of the Salzburg Stake met with my companion and me and tasked us to perform what he dubbed Operation Ammon (referencing this story). In conjunction with this assignment he told us about how, during the Austrian Imperial time, the Emperor sent his soldiers into the Flachgau region of Austria to ask the residents a single question- what their religious affiliation was. Anyone who failed to give the correct answer (Catholic) was immediately executed. Consequently, he believed that many of the people living in Flachgau were secretly protestant but identified as Catholic. Then, as now, the powers that controlled the wheels of politics and the dissemination of information did whatever it took to silence their opponents. The morals of this story are simple. First, it is dangerous to establish a society in which there is a central authority that decides what people can say or think or believe. Secondly, it illustrates the fact that people will seek peace at any price and that tyrants know this. Finally, it illustrates that a government that is willing to silence critics by whatever means necessary can and will continue to do so and occupies any place besides the moral authority. 

The information companies are generally either biased towards liberals or outright owned by/allied with them. Although most of these are technically publically traded entities, they only consider public property to be property to which they don’t own the deed, so they generally only tolerate the public disseminating information through their venues as long as it doesn’t affect their agenda or hurt their potential profits. Most profit is actually made in the public sphere, by securing grants, preferential treatment or exclusive contracts for YOUR platform/product/publication in a political manner, i.e. by convincing a politician to pass laws that favor YOU. The ties between media companies and a particular political philosophy are well documented, and while people like to point out Fox News, as if it’s somehow biased 180 degrees completely, is only an attempt to address an outlier as if it were representative of the entire information climate. With the election of 2020 ceding control of every branch of the legislature and executive to a single party confederate with the companies and the information they disseminated, we now live in a country where a single authority will decide and possibly dictate conscience and expression. 

To this day in Flachgau, or at least in 1999, if you asked the people their religion, they will still answer “catholic”. It became automatic for the people, in order to continue with some semblance of a life, to help maintain the status quo. For generations, the easy answer was to say “I agree with whatever the central authority says”. The people go through the motions of a life. In this way they think they have peace. Talk to them about other things, and you find it is anything but. They dislike oppressive taxes as much as we do. They just don’t vote against it because, particularly in Austria, the defamatory titular association with the Nazis drives their decisions. Any “right wing” entity is associated with the fascists of yore, and even in this nation, starting this month, we have a president elect making direct comparisons between his political opponents and the nefarious villains of that wretched stain on history. Of course, history is written by the victor, and they are already slandering and libelling their opponents in order to establish a peaceable flock of sheep they can herd this way and that. Tyrants learned long ago that if you provide people with food and entertainment, the great majority will simply go through the motions. Whether in the Napoleonic Era, the Crusades, or the Plandemic of 2020, the tyrants give people enough to satiate their immediate needs (like sufficient toilet paper), distract their minds, and know that they will comply. 

Like President Trump or not, he is correct about one thing. HE once said, “They are not after me. They are after you. I’m just in the way.” If you disagree with him, fine, but the bigger issue here is what they did to him. At least as of today, Donald Trump is the sitting president of the United States, and he has been censored by and banned from a slew of social media platforms, including ones of which I was not even aware until today. If they can shut up the President, then they can shut you up too. Maybe it won’t be today, but if the day comes that you don’t give the correct answer the Gendermerie of Political Correctness will ride through the countryside and ask you one question, what your political affiliation is. If they don’t like your reply, they will censor you; if you refuse to be silent, then they will silent you PERMANENTLY, just like they did in Austria centuries ago. Like Trump or not, the fact that the media companies censored him carte blanc means that they feel empowered enough to silence anyone anytime for any aberrant or divergent opinion. For them, the ends always justify the means. For them, a docile population is the easiest one to manipulate. So, they will stop at nothing especially in the absence of pushback to force action, and I would not be surprised if they killed Trump just to end his influence once and for all. Despite the fact that yesterday Trump called for unity, conceded the election, and asked us to look forward to and work towards better days, the only place you will hear that is HERE until Youtube deletes the video as part of their purge. When it goes away, know that they have escalated it to the next order of magnitude. 

Tyranny and deception are the rule of governments. It has probably always been this way, and it will probably always be this way. Politicians like to promise that they will change it, but people in power rarely keep power unless they maintain the status quo. In order to maintain the status quo, you must control the information and control the people who resist or denounce the information you choose to disseminate. When they own the information, they can bend it all they like. In order to bend the information to their wills, they must silence anyone who publishes any information that defies their political wills. If they must, eventually, they must put those critics to the sword. For now, it suffices to simply put them to the censor. Elsewhere, I have written ad nauseum that Liberalism is the philosophy of hell. It will eventually create a world where everyone is preoccupied with himself, with his own survival and advancement, because although it promises cooperation and fairness its fruits generate everything but what it promises. They shut up and shut down a sitting president. They will try to shut up anyone and everyone who opposes them. In a village near Lambach Austria in 1998 an old man told me about his own capitulation sixty years earlier to the SS. The Waffen SS ordered his company to execute a group of naked women and children (probably Jewish) standing in a field, and when his Lieutenant refused, the SS officer shot the LT on the spot. He looked at me and said, “To my everlasting shame, I shot those people. God will never forgive that.” I cannot speak for God, but that man speaks for many who wish they had done something other than fold. Eventually our time will come to decide if we let the British march on Lexington, if we let the Gendermarie ensconce political Catholicism in America, if we let our own government dictate our thoughts and conscience. At that point, we will discover who we really are and what we really deserve.