The Genesis Project Plus
Josef Mengele, Theodicy, and the Eternal Soul
Hello, and welcome to the first of occasional essays regarding a wide range of topics. The essays’ common thread is how Jewish thinking understands such matters. Their relevance to the Genesis Project—my translation and commentary of the first book of the Hebrew Bible—is based on my belief that the narratives of Genesis contain the essential Jewish guidelines for proper belief and conduct. Today’s post addresses the age-old question: Why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer?
The story of Josef Mengele—a depraved Auschwitz physician—recently brought to mind the problem of theodicy while I had the occasion to once more look into his life—especially post-Auschwitz.
Theodicy means “justification of God”—from the Greek theos: God + dikē: justice. Justification, as in justifying behavior generally seen as illegal or immoral. Here, it refers to the problem of reconciling the notion of a loving, powerful, omniscient, and fair God with an unfair world. At the human level, it asks why the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, if God—Who created and sustains the laws regulating both nature and morality—is just. The least generous assessment is that God is neither all-knowing, powerful, fair, nor loving. There is no judge, no judgment, and thus no justice.
Over the centuries, Jewish thinkers have suggested natural answers to theodicy. For example, seemingly unfair suffering occurs to bring about a greater good, as in pain resulting from curative surgery. A righteous person—compassionate, generous, loving, and pious—may suffer less than that which would result from the strict application of God’s justice. Individual suffering may allow the species to survive. Undeserved suffering may increase one’s devotion to God, as in the classic biblical case of Job.
Likewise, we might understand the success of evildoers—those who lie, destroy, defame, inflict pain, and so on—by suggesting that they prosper in order to bear a righteous child. A long life and success may provide more time and opportunity to repent. Certain evil people may be necessary to combat even greater evil.
Jewish thinkers have also posited a supernatural answer to theodicy; that is, a God-given soul survives after death and then receives the consequences that it did not during this life. The “after-life” is when God punishes the wicked soul and rewards the righteous soul. A variation on this theme is that the consequences of living a righteous or evil life take place after bodily resurrection, which I will mention below. And while reincarnation is another supernatural explanation, this notion does not appear in the Hebrew Bible.
While recovering from serious illness in 2014, I began reading accounts by survivors of the World War II Nazi concentration camps. I was in an unusually weakened physical state, and it was tempting to despair. I was curious how those in far worse straits coped. Did they despair? If not, why not? And how did they distance themselves from despair? Later, I turned my attention to memoirs of life in the European Jewish ghettos during the War, a life only slightly less severe than that of the camps. I found solace and insight from reading these books carefully and with an open heart. (I’m happy to share a reading list for anyone interested in this literature.)
From there, I began investigating the machinery of the Final Solution—the plan to kill every Jew in Europe. How was it conceived, actualized, and finally abandoned? Many diabolical figures emerged from looking into this topic—including Himmler, Heydrich, Eichmann, Göring, Goebbels, Hitler, and Höss. The last-mentioned was commander of the most notorious of the concentration camps, Auschwitz in Poland. One of the high-ranking physicians at Auschwitz was Josef Mengele.
Mengele’s activities at Auschwitz included performing the “selections.” This took place after trains pulled up to the camp gates and emptied their human contents, who then formed a line in front of Mengele. With a subtle movement of his cane or finger, he indicated whether one went directly to the gas chambers or to the slave laborer barracks. Pregnant women, women with young children, the elderly, or the infirm thus were immediately killed. Mengele also selected a small number of individuals for his medical experiments. In this latter capacity, he was joined by several other physicians at Auschwitz as well as at the nearby affiliated female camp, Birkenau.
Mengele was interested in those with different colored irises, dwarves, and the treatment of gangrene. However, he was especially fascinated by twins—he wished to determine if it were possible to increase the fecundity of Aryan women. He also subjected one twin of a pair to diseases and injuries, and compared their responses while alive, as well as their internal organs after euthanasia.
After the war, Mengele fled Europe via the “ratline,” an entity consisting of clergy from the Catholic Church, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and powerful members of other countries’ fascist regimes. This conduit for fleeing Nazi criminals usually ended in South America, as was the case with Mengele. He lived in several countries, evading arrest for the next 34 years—doing business in farm equipment, holding major stakes in several large farm/ranch properties, and practicing veterinary medicine. He traveled freely between South America and Europe, and never swayed from an unrepentant attitude, denying responsibility for his actions. His health in Brazil gradually deteriorated and he died of a stroke while swimming on the beach, 68 years old. A painless sudden death, supported by water, a death many of us might wish for when the time comes. Thus, if ever there were a case requiring justification of God’s justice, this is it.
I acknowledge the existence of an invisible life force—something animating the body—which no longer exists in the dead body. This is probably the closest definition I have for the “soul.” However, I remain agnostic about the “afterlife”—a “place” where one’s consciousness, recognizable as belonging to me—that is, my soul—continues to exist and undergo experiences. However, belief in the existence of such an afterlife is necessary for the supernatural answer to theodicy. The Hebrew Bible itself is never explicit about the existence of a non-material afterlife—either “heaven” or “hell” However, there are allusions to the resurrection of the dead, Daniel 12:2-3 being the most often cited.
How then to reconcile Mengele’s wickedness with the relative ease with which he conducted the rest of his life? If there is no afterlife where Mengele’s soul suffers punishment, one is tempted to conclude that there is no judge, no judgment, and no justice—this conclusion is one that either an atheist or believer can arrive at.
However, I have not reached this conclusion because I see the effects of what I and others do in the world. Good is more often than not recompensed with good, and evil with its own adverse recompense. If this were not the case, there would be no limits to human conduct, no consequences for one’s actions—neither of which seems to be the case. Otherwise, I believe the world would descend into chaos.
How, then, to justify what appears to be an inexplicable/unjustifiable lack of consequences for Josef Mengele’s conduct? A default position that answers—as well as doesn’t answer—the question are God’s both comforting and maddening words as conveyed by Isaiah (55:8-9).
For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and neither are your ways My ways…. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts [higher] than your thoughts.