 YOM HASHOAH COMMEMORATION (cont...) (BACK
TO NEWSLETTER) Rabbi
Friedman's early morning shiur began by
presenting some of the halachic questions being
asked during the Shoah.
"Are you allowed to daven at night
if you are truly unable to during the day? Is a
Jew allowed to give over his children to a Christian
family to be raised? Should you
endanger yourself to save another?"
Rabbi Friedman went on to read a handwritten dedication
inscribed
on the inside-cover of his tikun la'korim.
The tikun la'korim had been lovingly
dedicated to the owner's wife and two
children
who were
burned alive
by
the Ukranians
in World War II; to a brother who had fought and
was killed in the Russian army fighting the Germans;
and to another brother whose wife and two children
were burned alive in Poland in 1942.
"This private tikun la'korim, with
the handwritten dedication in front," said
Rabbi Friedman, "represents another dimension
of the response to the tragedy
of the Shoah. It underscoreds the horrific
circumstances in which Jews kept the practice of
their faith
alive during
World War II."
"Rather than act instinctively, under the most
difficult conditions, they adhered to Jewish law,"
Friedman concluded. "Today, when things are
good, do we have the same sensitivity and commitment
that
people
had
then?"
"Why
this day?" was the incisive opening question
of Rabbi Eliach's presentation later that same
day. In answer, Eliach pointed out several reasons
why Yom
HaShoah is commemorated on 28 Nisan.
He explained the historical link of Yom HaShoah to
the Warsaw Uprising during Nazi occupation in which
Jews "using little more than pistols and
bolt-action rifles" rose up in active rebellion
against the Nazi occupiers of the city.
Eliach also pointed out the link of Yom HaShoah to
the destruction of the second Jewish temple 1800
years ago by the Roman occupiers of Judea and the
resulting loss of Jewish sovereignty.
And, of course, Yom HaShoah is chosen
to commemorate the Holocaust, the attempted genocide
of the Jewish people by Nazi Germany.
Eliach continued his presentation by confronting
some of the commonly-asked questions about the
Holocaust, starting with: "Why didn't the Jews
resist?"
In answer, Rabbi Eliach
described two types of resistance: military resistance
and, so-called, "white" resistance.
"Certainly, the Jewish people
did resist militarily," Rabbi Eliach said, "and the
Warsaw Uprising is an example, despite the overwhelming
numbers and brutality of the German army."
"White" resistance is resistance
in your heart and head.
"The Germans
tried to dehumanize the Jews," Rabbi Eliach
said. "They
tried to treat the Jews like animals. But the
Jews
refused to act like animals. They tried their
best to daven and
learn in these camps. They tried to keep halacha.”
"Under the circumstances,
there was a lot of resistance but bear
in mind that resistance was weak throughout Europe.
The Nazi's introduced the world to the concept
of complete and total terror. They used overwhelming
brutality to silence everybody."
But the Germans reserved a special brand of brutality
for the Jews. Rabbi Eliach described an early form of
extermination employed by the Nazis in which Jewish
residents of a town would be compelled to gather
in the town shul. The windows were
fastened and the doors locked. The Germans would
simply
burn down the shul with everybody inside.
"The Germans were master manipulators
who lied all the way up to the point where the
gas valves were opened," Rabbi Eliach continued. "People
weren’t
going to concentration camps; they were going to
be relocated.
People weren’t going to be gassed; they were
going to take a shower."
The world had trouble believing that pre-meditated
human atrocity on such a scale was possible.
Rabbi Eliach then moved on to address another common
misperception about the Holocaust: some people
wonder why the Jews make such a big deal about
the Holocaust
in
light
of the fact that there have been numerous other
attempted genocides in human history, even in
our own day, and,
after
all,
some 60 million
non-Jews died in World War II, the overwhelming
majority of them civilians.
In response to this perspective, Rabbi Eliach said:
"The attempted genocide of the Jews by Nazi Germany
is a tragedy
like no
other
because
of the
diabolical
and systematic intent of the Nazis in this undertaking.
"The historical evidence is clear on this
point: the Jews were not used as scapegoats to
help the
Nazis gain and maintain power, as some have suggested;
the extermination of the Jews was the reason the
Nazis sought power to begin with.
"If you read Mein Kampf which was
written in 1929, Hitler makes it quite clear
his judgment and intention
in regard to the Jews. To him, the
Jews are sub-human and need to be annihilated.
He was
quite
clear about this from the beginning.”
“It was the premeditated, systematic
and thoroughness of the Nazi methods that sets
the Holocaust apart from all the other attempted
genocides of
history. Gas was used instead of bullets because
it was cheaper; the bodies were burned instead
of buried also because it was cheaper; the ashes
of the dead were used for fertilizer to help feed
the German people, their hair was used for mattresses,
the gold fillings were removed from their teeth.”
After his presentation, Rabbi Eliach showed a film,
taken by the United States Army, of what the liberators
discovered at the Buchenwald and Dachau death camps.
The students watched the chilling images in silence.
When the film was over, they walked back
to their classes clearly moved by all they had seen
and heard.
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