Ziffer is the author of “The Teaching of Disdain: An Examination of Christology and New Testament Attitudes Toward Jews” (1990) and “The Birth of Christianity From the Matrix of Judaism” (2006).

He has taught classes in Judaism, early Christian history, Biblical Hebrew and comparative religion. 

Ziffer earned a doctorate in theology from the University of Strasbourg, France, and has taught at the University of Maine in Orono, Mars Hill University and UNCA and in the theological seminaries in France, Belgium and Washington, D.C.

A native of what is now the Czech Republic, Ziffer was 14 when the Germans arrested him and placed him in forced labor. He was freed four years later (at age 18), at the end of the war, weighing 87 pounds.

Ziffer began his UNCA speech by noting, “I’m pretty overwhelmed — I didn’t expect this big of a turnout. I spoke last year in another venue on UNCA campus, and nearly filled it up, but it was not as big of a venue...

“For some 13 or 14 years, I’ve been an adjunct professor at the religion department at what is now Mars Hill University... I am here tonight as a holocaust survivor.” He noted that he tries not to dwell on the holocaust on a personal level, but that he wants to make sure it is not forgotten so he addresses groups about it upon request.

On Sept. 1, 1939 — the first day of World War II —  Chechoslovakia was first occupied by the Nazis, he noted. On June 29, 1942, a number of Jews were exported. “It’s hard to believe that 24 hours later they went through the chimneys of Auschwitz” via incineration, Ziffer said.

In the seven different prison camps in which he was kept, Ziffer said he and others experienced “unbelievable conditions… most of them died. I’m one of the very, very few survivors. At this point in my life, I know only two other survivors — who are still alive — from my town.”

After being freed from the camps, he immigrated to the U.S., caught up on his education and eventually obtained various degrees leading to his career as a professor.

“All along, I felt compelled to share about the years I spent in that camp…” and seven camps in all, Ziffer said.

“I feel compelled to share about genocide and mass killings… So tonight you’ll hear of a fear experiences of radical evil acts” from the concentration camps he was forced to endure.

“I’m going to try to explain how such radical evil can happen… and continues to happen.”

He told of coming across the ideas of Waller — and reading Waller’s 371-page book, “Becoming Evil,” which addresses the issue of radical evil.

“I want to raise one caveat as we speak, I am not an expert in psychology… I am merely an ordinary man... I am a theologian and a bible scholar.

“I want to correlate his (Waller’s) insights with my experiences with radical evil. It was committed by ordinary folks, just like you and me,” Ziffer said.

“In order for there to be radical evil, there have to be people to do it....

“It was just before Christmas 1942, when we were marched in ankle-deep snow, with armed guards on each side to a destination unknown. I saw Christmas trees (in the houses along the way). He also heard music. He heard the strains of Mozart, wafting through the air.

“I think it came from the camp guards’ quarters from the camp we were about to enter.

“I felt absolutely miserable. The camp gates opened. We had to line up. It was just chaos. Amid much shouting and cursing, we were arranged in rows four deep. Roll was called and we would answer ‘here.’ When the camp leader heard my name, he called me to be his personal servant. He called me ‘my little one.’

“I went to my barracks, sunk into the straw and fell asleep. I learned it was a convalescent camp.” At first, Ziffer said he was happy to learn it was not a hard-labor camp. However, “There was something more sinister than hard labor, and I was soon to find it out....

“We had no calendars, no watches, we didn’t know the dates at all, but nonetheless the prisoners did their best to keep track of time, he said. “Let me tell you about these six months.”

His first concentration camp held 400 to 600 “Jewish slave laborers. Every day — except Saturdays and Sundays — some prisoners would be killed. Cold and then hot showers ... and beatings. I could hear the screams… One day, I saw bodies contorted on the floor... Our job — the three of us boys — was to transport the bodies in a cart to an unmarked grave nearby.”

In another case, Ziffer told of a Jewish camp scribe, whom he was assigned to serve as his witness. “His eyes were beaten out of their sockets…. We heard him ... finally, the howling became a whimper.”

The camp leader “was a sadist… He invented this type of abuse,” Ziffer noted.

“How such an average person could sink to be such a cold-blooded killer” is a matter of conjecture, Ziffer said noting that Catholic writer-mystic Thomas Merton labeled the Nazi killers “insane.” However, Ziffer said, “This gives us a feeling of comfort knowing we could never be like that.”

To the contrary, Ziffer asserted, citing the work of Waller, “Evil is not just acquired. We humans have the capacity for bad behavior.” He spoke of the wisdom of Original Sin theory and “the ancient teaching about our dark side.”

He told of experiments, wherein 75 percent of the babies reached for good teddy bears, which psycholgists termed “a predisposition uninspired by outsiders.” However, for 7-year-olds, “a whole sub- socialization had taken place.”

After a pause, Ziffer asserted, “I say bravo to our rabbis. They knew what they were talking about” in regard to mankind’s capacity for evil.

“Saying human nature is unalterable puts us on a slippery slope. Inclination or predisposition” are not sufficient explanations.At that point, he noted that “it’s generally agreed that all human beings are capable of evil.”

To that end, the word “design” means it developed gradually, he said. People are “something like a self-learning computer” with a  “need for human defense. Helping ‘our people’ and hurting competitors can be advantageous… We are endowed with psychological mechanisms that can cause us to be evil. I call them triggers... lot depends on the worldview of a society in which one lives.”

Ziffer added, ?This lens helps us make decisions to live. Cultural models can influence us…. Our American society is an individualistic one,” while in a collectivist society “identity is based on the group. When conflict arises, it’s usually intra-group. A worldview like Naziism defined itself as pure-blood-based. Jews were an out-group. With enthusiasm, he (German Chancellor Adolf Hitler) killed Jews. This model attracts those who enjoy obeying authority and giving orders to those below them.”

He quoted Adolf Eichmann (charged with executing “The Final Solution”) as saying “all we knew was obedience to orders.” 

Ziffer asserted, “Hitler was seen as a messianic figure as well as a benevolent father figure. The Nazis induced mass hysteria” and concluded that good, open education could be the antidote to radical evil.