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On Monday, August 21 of this year, my family and I visited the Stutthof Concentration Camp, which is situated in the forests near Gdansk, Poland. Construction on the camp began on September 2, 1939, the second day of World War II. (The war, in fact, began when Nazi troops overran Gdansk.) At first, Poles who opposed the Nazi regime were incarcerated there. Then Jews, Russians, and others who ran afoul of the Nazi’s found themselves unjustly imprisoned there. Stutthof’s gallows, gas chamber, and crematorium mark it as a place of execution. Tens of thousands died there.

I thought about my visit to Stutthof when I read Romans 11.17-21. Let’s read the passage first, then I’ll explain why it reminded me of Stutthof.

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

In this passage, Paul is speaking to Gentile Christians. Using a horticultural image, he says that Gentiles are “a wild olive shoot” that has been “grafted” onto the “olive root” of God's promises to save the world. Israel is "the natural branches," that is, the first recipients of these promises. Gentiles have been grafted onto the root, in part, because Israel rejected Jesus Christ. As Paul writes, “[Israel] was broken off because of unbelief, and you [Gentiles] stand by faith.” Therefore, he concludes, “Do not be arrogant.”

It is arrogance that connects Romans 11.17-21 and Stutthof, for me at any rate. Because of an irrational and immoral racial pride, Nazi Germany felt that it could abuse “inferior races” by incarcerating and executing them at places like Stutthof. The Jews received the worse treatment, but Poles, Russians, Slavs, and Gypsies also felt the end of the Nazi whip.

Now, Nazi ideology was not biblically based by any stretch of the imagination. But Nazi propagandists distorted and misused biblical passages to make their case for Jewish inferiority. Hadn’t the Jews rejected Christ? Hadn’t they called for his crucifixion? Didn’t they reject Christianity to this very day? If so, they must be especially devious and dangerous. And so, they must be destroyed.

Romans 11.17-21 refutes this evil conclusion. The nourishing root of Christianity is God's numerous promises of salvation. The first promises were made to Abraham and his descendants. To accept Christ is to be grafted onto this root, which includes the Jews. Reject the Jews and you reject the root, which means rejecting Christ.

In the end, Romans 11.17-21 calls for racial humility. No group is racially superior (or inferior) to another. Instead, all individuals are sinners who need to receive God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.