My neighbor, George Eison, is a professor of history and his books have been so well-received that he has been awarded the American Library Association Outstanding Academic Book of the Year and a Fulbright Scholar appointment. He also has three doctorates from Hungary, Chile and Ukraine. He was also kind enough to give me a recently published award winner, 'A Summer of Mass Murder.'

Briefly, in great detail and brutally described reality, the book allows us to witness the 1943 deportation and mass murder of more than 20,000 Hungarian Jews.

Two of his family were victims. Imagine! He attempts to ask the 'Why?' and tries to understand SS Heinrich Himmler's thinking, 'kill, but remain decent.' He also brings unbelievable pressure on readers, 'Can we reconcile the conflict between faith in God and the Holocaust? He overheard the screams of two neighbors, one who invoked the name of God to help and the other neighbor who shouted back, 'You should not talk to me about God! There is no God. There cannot be a God!'

It was as if these Hungarian Jews were being tested for their humanity.

'What was it all for? What were the oppressors, all these well-educated officials masquerading as statesmen, rational bureaucrats thinking? There are no answers that can explain the human greed, depravity and brutality.'

He speaks of good Jews and bad Jews. There were the intellectuals and politicians, bankers and industrialists who looked like and fit in with the non-Jews, while the bad Jews who seemingly asked for trouble by remaining outsiders who looked like Jews, wore the obvious clothing of a Jew, worshipped like a Jew and very proud of it.

Easily identified and hated for their outsider behavior! 'Look at that man. He is a typical Jew that must be exterminated so that we Germans can live.'

I came to this conclusion on the matter of how could anyone do what those Nazis did. Reduce the idea of humans so that these unfortunates were nothing more than statistics. As George's book would tell us, '23,000 Jews were killed in the summer of 1941.'

I must step back from this book and read from my answer book, the Bible.

Allow me to share Matthew 25:31-46. Jesus separates humanity into groups, the righteous and the unrighteous (sheep and goats).

True faith is compassionate action toward the vulnerable, needy, outcast and unwanted.

Read this passage as often as necessary to understand His message and warning. I hope I am being obvious.

Being faithful should not be interpreted as wearing a cross, carrying a Bible or appearing to be religious. Faithful is being kind, generous to the poor, welcoming to the outsider and standing up for those who are overlooked.

Ignoring our unfortunates is not an option for the righteous. We will be doing what must be done.

We don't get an award. We get heaven!

Thanks, God!