Every Sunday, Kai Hess takes to the podium in a small church in Germany to share a message of salvation, God's grace, and forgiveness.
He is the senior pastor of Stuttgart Bible Church. The church is a nondenominational church serving the English-speaking international community and the U.S. military and their families stationed in the region.
He is also the grandson of former Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hess, a high-ranking Nazi official. oversaw mass murder The notorious extermination camps in southern Poland held an estimated 1.1 million people, the majority of them Jews.
Rudolf Hoss (right), former commandant of Auschwitz, and, from left, Richard Baer, commandant of Auschwitz, and Dr. Josef Mengele during the evacuation outside the camp in 1944. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images)
Rudolf Hoss during the handover of German officers and former Nazi officials to Polish authorities by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg Airport. (ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Hess spoke to Fox News Digital from his home in Germany about his thoughts on today's anti-Semitism and how he reconciles his Christian faith with what his grandfather did nearly 80 years ago. .
He grew up in a non-Christian household with unbelieving parents, but his grandmother, Caroline, was a believer and “got” Christ and the gospel.
“I thought she was really weird,” Ms. Hess admitted.
He graduated from school and trained as a chef. joined the army After that, I studied hotel tourism management. He worked overseas for about 20 years, spending most of his time at major hotel chains such as Sheraton and Shangri-La.
“I was a young urban professional who was crazy about himself, loved Rolexes, gold Amex, Mr. Cool, went to clubs, went out every night. That was my life,” he said. .
Pastor Kai Hess preaches at Stuttgart Bible Church in Germany. (Credit: Kai Hess)
It was when a medical operation went awry that he turned his life around. He found a Bible in his hospital room and at first he told himself he wouldn't read it, but he kept reading one book at a time.
He was saved in Singapore in 1989. “God saved a wretch like me, right? And that's what God does. And it never stops. God's grace is abundant,” Hess said.
The father of four is outspoken about his family's past and his own salvation, going into schools to share his story. speak out against antisemitism.
Hess learned that Rudolf Hess was his grandfather when he was in sixth or seventh grade, and was extremely embarrassed.
Shock of World War II: Auschwitz Museum receives baton of Nazi death camp commander
Rudolf Hoss, March 31, 1947. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
“I didn't go around telling people, 'Look, I'm the grandson of the greatest mass murderer in human history,'” he told Fox News Digital. “So I just kept quiet.”
After becoming a Christian, he felt compelled to share his grandfather's dark legacy and share his message of forgiveness, grace, and reconciliation. He shared his testimony at a U.S. military retreat in Germany, where he was hugged by a Jewish serviceman whose family was murdered at Auschwitz.
“I started thinking, 'How can I give something back? How can I do something?' — I know we can't undo it. We can't undo history, but… , I thought I could do something. I could just love them and all I could do was proclaim the truth from God's Word to Christians,” Hess said.
He believes that God's grace, through Jesus Christ, can rescue even the darkest of pasts.
When speaking to German students, Hess talks about anti-Semitism, drawing on connections between past and present. with particular reference to World War IMe, his grandfather's role and the power of hatred.
He explains the concept of Social Darwinism that the Nazis used to justify their belief in racial superiority. He describes how Darwin's theory of evolution has been misapplied to humans, with certain races being “stronger” and “better” than others, thereby dominating or eliminating “weaker” races. It explains how this led to the idea that there is a right to
Mr. Hess emphasized that this false ideology fueled much of the hatred against Jews, along with other marginalized groups, during World War II.
Nazis select prisoners on a platform at the entrance to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp on May 27, 1944. (Yad Vashem Archive/AFP via Getty Images)
He connects his presentation to today's social media platforms, and how TikTok, for example, can have a huge impact, especially with short, emotional clips. He warns students about the dangers of being swayed by superficial or biased content, and encourages criticism rather than simply swallowing information as “hook, line, and sinker” without considering deeper truths or questioning the narrative. It emphasizes the importance of thinking objectively.
“One of my friends We called it the TikTok spirit.your TikTok brain releases endorphins and secretes little hormones every time you watch a little clip. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it becomes so addictive, right? And people get caught up in the wrong thinking. They don't seek deeper truths. They don't analyze it,” he told FOX News Digital.
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Protesters gather at the gates of Columbia University in support of anti-Israel demonstrators barricaded in Hamilton Hall in New York City on April 30, 2024. (Reuters/David Dee Delgado)
Professor Hess responded to the anti-Israel protests that erupted on US university campuses after Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel, arguing that much of the support for violence on campus was emotionally motivated and often historically , pointed out that it comes from people who don't fully understand the political context. complexity of the situation.
Julia Wax, a student at Georgetown University School of Law, told “Fox & Friends” Following the October 7th incident, university campuses have become a “hostile environment” for Jewish students.
“People are scared to go to class. They have to sit next to classmates who are posting anti-Semitic rhetoric and promoting rallies spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric. People are scared. The university is not doing its part and is not stepping back. Wake up, they are silent,” Wax said.
Hess told Fox News Digital he could hear people screaming. “From the river to the sea” But when you ask them what those rivers and oceans are, they say, “They don't know.'' “They want to be a part of something. They're comfortable with it. They understand the basic message, the story. They've never seriously questioned both sides of the coin. So we don't really have the complete information. They're not really interested because, again, this is an emotional response.”
Anti-Israel demonstrators at Columbia University. (Fox News)
He criticized how people, driven by ideology and emotional narratives, translate hatred into action, leading to harm and violence against others.
“We become imbued with ideas, ideologies, thoughts, feelings. And then we begin to strive for it with all our might. We immediately go out into the field and turn these thoughts into actions. And in time… One is that hatred and hatred turn into bloodshed. That's what it is. we see you on campus. You can see that people are willing to do bad things for this idea. In other words, [they] They don't realize that this Jew over there is a normal human being just like them,” Hess said.
“He's made of flesh and blood, right? He's a student. He's a normal person. And I hate someone here for something the government did somewhere on the other side of the world. And is everything that happened right? 'Probably not in that whole conflict,' he added, referring to the Israel-Hamas war. “I hope they get to a point where this whole situation slows down to some extent and people are willing to help.”
Hess noted that much of the support for violence on campus comes from people who often act emotionally without fully understanding the situation. (Getty Images)
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Hess and her father visited Auschwitz three years ago while filming the HBO documentary “In the Commander's Shadow.” They met Holocaust survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch at her home and came to terms with Rudolf Hess' brutal past.
“We will pray for her,” he added. “And I feel so honored and grateful and humbled that my dad and I were allowed to go there and just meet her and spend time with her. That forced… He is a man who suffered greatly under his grandfather's cruel and brutal system in the concentration camps.'' ”
Hess is scheduled to speak at a synagogue in Freiburg, Germany, in January as part of a service commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
”[It’s] “It's a great opportunity to have a voice and be a part of something like that,” he told FOX News Digital.
