In the small Ukrainian village of Annovka, Lydia hurried home from school as the wind carried clouds of black artillery smoke across what had been a blue sky. She was five years old when the soldiers occupied her little village in the county of Kirovograd, in 1944.
In 1941, when she was two, the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, breaching a mutual peace treaty of non-aggression. Hitler ordered that southern Ukraine and Crimea was to be “cleaned out”. The Reich slaughtered 5.2 million “unwanted and inferior” Ukrainians and Jews.
Lydia ran up the steps to the safety of her apartment. When she let herself in, to her horror, three German soldiers sat on couches and chairs in her living room. Her mother set a tray of tea for the men on the table. She turned to Lydia, and with a tense cheerfulness, motioned for Lydia to come by her side.
“This is Lydia,” she said, introducing her to the soldiers.
“Lydia, these nice men will be staying with us for a little while, they will be staying in my room and your room, and you and I can sleep together on the couch. Her father was away fighting for the Ukrainians.
All three of them were in their starched olive-green uniforms. Lydia just stared at their shiny black boots. Years later, Lydia could still remember the patches on one officer’s coat, which designated him as a commander. Lydia was too young to understand all that was happening in her country. All she knew was these men were scary.
Lydia’s mother told her it was good that the men lived with them. She could cook and clean for them and their family would survive. The Germans had rations from Germany, and Lydia was very curious about them. One day the Commander left a piece of cubed sugar on the table. Lydia stared at it with her mouth watering, wondering what it tasted like. When she was sure the German wasn’t looking, she snatched it from the table and quickly slipped it onto her tongue. She began clearing tea from the table so she could escape to the kitchen before anyone realized she had anything in her mouth. The Nazi soldier returned to the table and seeing his sugar was gone, called Lydia back to the living room.
“There was a cube of sugar on the table here, and now it’s not where I left it”
His steely black eyes settled on her little frame. Lydia’s mother stood frozen in the doorway of the kitchen. This man had executed Ukrainian civilians already. Why would he spare this one little girl for the insult of theft?
The man took his place at the table and spoke with a softer tone, he said to her, “hold out your hand” She knew she had to obey, and when she did, he placed a whole chocolate bar in it. Then, he picked her up, placed her on his knee.
“I have three children at home,” he said, “I miss them very much” the words caught in his throat. His eyes grew moist as he looked at Lydia’s mother. From that point on, Lydia was not afraid of the soldiers.
Stories about Nazi soldiers doing nice things make us uncomfortable. This man was a murderer. And this one act did not change the fact that hundreds of Ukrainians died at his word. Why did he offer mercy to this little Ukrainian girl?
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you Matthew 5:44
Jesus said this because he loved all humanity, he died for all humanity. It is easy for us to dehumanize our enemy. When we read the atrocities committed by the Reich, we tend to shelve them in the ‘monster’ category. But God looked at them and he saw a part of his creation that was hurting, and he asks us to love even them.
Lydia’s country is once more under attack, and this time it is her grandson who is in the Ukrainian military. She recognizes who is the real enemy. It is not the Russians; it is not even Putin.
A few years ago, we combined Sunday morning services with our Vacation Bible School. My son was playing the part of Satan, I took a picture of him, sitting in the pew of the church. I thought it illustrates a point. Satan attends church with you every Sunday. He goes to work with you, sometimes he even sits at the dinner table with your family.
Understand who the enemy is, then we can fight the right battle. Satan has all of us misassigning blame and bickering about politics, ruling my make-believe kingdom on social media. We completely misassign the blame and drive dissension amongst ourselves. The battle needs to be fought but we need to aim the canons at the enemy and not at each other.
You’re absolutely right, Katie! It’s not only the war that has people pointing fingers. It’s the whole Covid-19 rules and leaders and “us vs. them” mentality. It seems our world has turned into one big “hurt the enemy” fest. It’s sad. In the end, anyone who is hurting us is either hurting deeply themselves, or else is a pawn of the devil, doing his bidding, and should be pitied. Of course, this is hard to remember when someone is directly hurting me! We need the Holy Spirit to change our hearts into hearts that love even our enemies, cause I sure can’t do it in my own strength.
Katie, this article is fantastic. Thanks for writing this. My grandfather Vittorio had been a prisoner of war at Buchenwald. I was fortunate to have heard some if his stories before he passed away.
I’m so glad to to provide a little perspective. Thanks Sara, for the encouragement