AN UNLIKELY REVENGE

In 1943, I was sentenced to death by a German military court. The gray-haired man who paid his testimony, spoke with a low voice and almost apologetic.

- I had a wife and four children, so the sentence was changed to a stay in a concentration camp in Germany. Nine months later I weighed 40 kg. My body was covered with scars and my left arm had been broken and no physician had ever seen it.

A christmas eve I was in the barracks with the other men as the camp commander sent for me . When I came to him, he sat at a festive table, covered with the table set for Christmas. He let me stand right in front of him throughout the entire meal, which lasted an hour, and teased me because I was a Christian and preached to my peers. I was very tempted by the devil, who said to me:
- Dapozzo, do you still believe Psalm 23?

I prayed to God, and it was possible for me to answer him:
- Yes, I do!

A guard came in with coffee and cookies. The camp commander began to eat them, and then he said
- Your wife is a great cook, Dapozzo.

I did not understand what he meant, so he came with the explanation himself:
- For 7 months, you wife has sent a packet f biscuits to you every month. These I have now eaten up .
Again, I was tempted. I knew that my wife and my children lacked food and that of their inadequate rations they had scraped together meal, fat and sugar to send me something. This man ate all the food that was supposed to be for my children.

The devil whispered to me:
- Hate this man!

Again I prayed to God, and I could not hate him. I wished that he would give me just a biscuit thereof, not that I would eat it, but I would like to see it and think of my children. But he ate everything - and cursed me.

I said to him :
- You are a poor man, Mr. Camp Commander, and I'm a rich man, because I believe in God and is saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ!

He became very angry and sent me back to my barrack.

When the war was over, I began searching for him. Most of the camp commanders had been executed, but this one escaped and hid. I was looking for him for several years, and finally I found him. I went to visit him.
- I am number 175! Do you remember Christmas Eve in 1943?
Both he and his wife became afraid, and he said:
- Well , did you come here to get revenge?

- Yes, I responded and opened a package. In this , I had a big cake, and I asked his wife to cook coffee and we drank coffee together.

The man began to cry and asked for forgiveness for what he had done. I told him that I forgave him for the sake of Jesus.

A year later, both he and his wife saved, and they are now living Christian lives. It was very quiet in the room in Roma, as he spoke, the Spirit of God was upon us, and when that happens, humans are quiet for him.