“You See Me” (Kirchentag)

By Nicholas Baines

This year’s Kirchentag ended yesterday as tens of thousands of people got fried under the sun at Martin Luther’s Wittenberg.

I am staying on for a further week in Berlin (with my wife and friends who live here). So, today we went to visit the house where the infamous Wannsee Conference was held on 20 January 1942 – the meeting of Nazi leaders where they formulated the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question’ (die Endlösung zur jüdischen Frage).

It is a beautiful and peaceful place. One of the Nazi leaders present went by the name of Dr Martin Luther. Irony was not something with which the Nazis were familiar or comfortable.

The theme of the Kirchentag was the words of the slave woman Hagar, mother of Ishmael, spoken in the desolation of the desert, having been banished by her husband’s wife: “You see me”.

The Wannsee Conference is what happens when people think they are not seen – that they are unaccountable and can get away with murder. Literally.