Making a Point

15 Iyar 5774
Day 30 of the Omer


Burst Water Pipe Reveals Murals in Jerusalem

Wall murals portraying Waffen-SS officers and swastikas have been rediscovered in a Jerusalem hospital thanks to a burst water pipe and a storeroom reorganization.

They were the works of a man who believed himself to be a descendant of Nazis. He was a frequent visitor to Jerusalem and had the hospital built ... naming it after Adolph Hitler, Chancellor of the Third Reich and leader of the Axis powers during World War II.

Someone painted over the designs with black paint.... 

More recently, the nuns who run the hospital found some of the forgotten wall paintings while reorganizing storerooms in the building, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). A burst water pipe also stripped away modern paint and plaster, revealing more sections of the paintings.

IAA conservators are now working to clean and stabilize the paintings, and are looking for funds to continue the preservation work. There are no plans to turn the paintings into a tourist attraction, however, as the hospital is still in use for chronic and terminally ill patients. 

...The murals themselves are enormous paintings of Nazi soldiers dressed in full battle gear. ...also painted [were] the names and genealogy of the families of Nazis, including their heraldry symbols. The murals are further decorated with symbols of German power like swastikas and cities conquered during the blitzkrieg....
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Dear readers,

I have taken extreme liberties with the forgoing article which was carried on Yahoo today, in order to make a point. (The original can be viewed here.) For all practical purposes, there is no difference between the real story and my adapted story except for a few hundred years. However, for the Jews - an eternal people - it might as well have been yesterday. 

Evil does not become more palatable and tolerable with time. The people venerated in these murals and the man responsible for it were no better than the Nazis.