Mitch Albom’s Novel Set In the Holocaust Has Lessons For Today’s Conflict

The 9th Commandment against bearing false witness seems straight forward as a directive against lying. But what happens if you tell a lie unknowingly because you’re trusting nature is being abused and used for evil? That is the message of Mitch Albom’s novel, “The Little Liar.” Set during the Holocaust, the story revolves around a lie that a Jewish boy in Greece tells the people in his community a lie he doesn’t know is untrue. “The trustworthy boy is discovered by a German officer, who offers him a chance to save his family. All the boy has to do is convince his fellow Jewish residents to board trains heading to “new homes” where they are promised jobs and safety.” In fact, they are trains headed for concentration camps. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Albom, best-selling author of “Tuesday’s With Morrie,” and “The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” explains what happens long-term when a deadly lie is perpetrated against a young boy’s trusting nature, and how the lie kills more than just trust, but people, relationships and even the soul. Albom’s gift is in letting fiction tell the truths about reality. Communities can’t survive without truth.