ABSTRACT
I am looking at a picture entitled ausweglos ("hopeless"). It is painted in shades of gray with the exception of the wooden color of a cross. The cross lies on Jesus' right shoulder. His left hand reaches over a barbed wire toward a group of veiled women. Behind the women runs a railroad track to the infamous entrance wall of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The picture belongs to a series of posters dedicated to this year's ecumenical Way of the Cross, a widespread church ritual during which young Christians meditatively trace Jesus' walk to Golgatha. The posters together with songs and prayers were published by Catholic and Protestant church organizations in Germany in order to guide and inspire local congregations in composing their Way of the Cross liturgy in the year 2001.1 As a teenager I used to participate in these annual events and glancing through the materials I remember the feelings I had when I walked through the streets of my German hometown with Jesus' suffering on my mind. Looking at the poster of Jesus in front of the Nazi death camp, I also wonder how exactly this year's youth groups combined the memories of Golgatha with the memories of Auschwitz. How did young Germans manage to contemplate the suffering and death of Jesus while at the same time reflecting on the suffering and death of millions of Jews during the Holocaust?
