Hollowell:  Second Sunday Before Advent

In recent weeks I have been an occasional listener to a series on BBC Radio 4 called  " Memories of a Nation" narrated by Neil Mc Gregor, the very learned and articulate  Director of the British Museum and formerly of the National Gallery   In one of these programmes he talked about the German phrase    please my Anglo-German accent  -  " Jedem das Seine "  meaning   " To each what he deserves".  
It is apparently a phrase that resonates with millions of Germans today , having been used by  Martin Luther, by the poet Goethe and set to music in a cantata by Bach.   
But it also has another more sinister connotation.  The words were cast in wrought iron above the gate of the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp near  Weimar., the only such camp reserved for women. 
It was there that 92,00 women died: Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah Witnesses, people with physical deformities etc.  Inside the camp the prisoners could see painted in  red  inside of  the gate and apparently repainted eight times between the opening of the camp in 1938 and its liberation in 1945 were the words " Jedem das Seine"  To each what he deserves.  

