Dachau, first Nazi concentration camp built by on German soil, became the model for torture, slavery, and extermination replicated throughout the Third Reich. Early on morning of April 28, 1945, surviving prisoners were amazed to observe SS officers raising a white flag over Dachau – acknowledging the approaching liberators of the Seventh US Army. Yet Dachau guards continued to keep the prisoners in check with automatic firing guns. And tragically, prisoners continued to be executed until Allied troops arrived the following day.
The parallels with today’s COVID-19 pandemic are striking: Our worlds citizens continue to be prisoner to an infectious agent that has sickened 75 million, killed 1.7 million, and claimed 3,300 lives in the USA today alone. The virus has also confined people to their homes, cost their jobs, closed their children’s schools, and obliterated their savings, and often vanquished their hope.
Yet, hope is on the horizon. Like the prison guards training their guns on the prisoners, the viral enemy continues to infect and inflict miserable suffering upon our human family. But its reign is ending. Liberation is in sight. We need only to cling fast to our survival skills.