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The War Against G-d and His People
A Guide to the Holocaust for Young PeopleRabbi Shmuel Burstein
The War Against G-d and His People
This sensitive work gives the reader a Torah perspective on Jewish suffering, anti-Semitism, and heroism. It gives a meticulously accurate history of the Holocaust - from the life that was before, through the shattering years of the Nazi era, to the rebirth of Judaism from the ashes of destruction.
Book Excerpt from The War Against G-d and His People
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The War Against G-d and His People:
This guide to the Jewish Holocaust sensitively & accurately teaches the Jewish Holocaust to Jewish children: the glorious world that was -- its devastation & its rebirth.
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Escape
On September 1, 1939, World War Two began with the German attack on Poland.
In the same year, Britain, the world power which occupied the Land of Israel, or Palestine as it was called then, issued a “White Paper” which effectively became the death knell of hundreds of thousands of Jews.
The “White Paper” (a statement of official government foreign policy, printed on white paper) stated that only 75,000 Jews were to be allowed into Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) between 1939–1945. Although Britain of course didn’t know it yet, these were to be the exact years of the war when the Jewish people needed access to the Land of Israel more than at any time in history. Britain actually issued this paper to appease the Arabs, because Britain needed Arab oil. They also wanted to spread their own political influence and control in the Arab world.
Any boats caught trying to enter the harbors of Palestine with illegal immigrants were turned away and forced to return to Europe. Many Jews in Eretz Yisrael did everything they could to help smuggle in Jews who swam to shore under the cover of night from boats docked far enough off shore to escape detection by the British. Unfortunately, most boats were discovered, intercepted, and returned.
After 1939, every country in the world closed its doors to the large numbers of Jews desperately trying to escape. Only the city of Shanghai, in China, remained open for those Jews who could afford to get there. Twenty-five thousand Jews did.
Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe were forbidden any pleasures of life. No cars or bicycles; no riding on trams (buses); no telephones; no going to movies. The “Jewish star” or badge was introduced and all Jews, including children, were required to wear it at all times.
The Ghettos
By late 1940, most of the Jews in Eastern Europe were concentrated in specific sections of each city, called “ghettos.” The ghettos were situated in the poorest section of each city, a slum, near the railway station. The Jews were so severely overcrowded that several families lived together in one small room! The sanitary conditions were horrible, no one was able to have any real privacy, and food distribution was cut down to starvation rations. In Warsaw the Germans allowed the Jews only 220 calories a day, about 10–15 percent of the normal daily requirement.
All Jewish religious life was either strictly curtailed or completely forbidden. Nevertheless, all forms of Jewish life continued secretly and with great sacrifice. This included Torah learning; daily davening; schools, libraries, and choirs for children; wedding ceremonies; and counseling in Jewish law. The Warsaw Ghetto alone had over six hundred minyanim!
Great rabbanim in Lithuania and Poland were consulted for answers to agonizing halachic questions. These questions spoke of the great suffering and also of the great faith of the Eastern European Jews, even in the moments of their greatest despair.
Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, in his responsa from the Holocaust, left us a collection of very difficult shailos (halachic questions) he was asked in the ghetto of Kovno, Lithuania. Some examples are: Is a Jew allowed to endanger his own life by going to the non-Jewish authorities in order to beg for the release of other Jews? What is the appropriate act of teshuvah for Jews who were forced to publicly tear apart a Torah scroll for the burial of dogs and cats? Is there a way to fulfill the mitzvah of drinking the four cups at the seder when there is no wine? For example, can sweetened tea be used? May a parent give his child to non-Jews in the hope of saving the child’s life?
For Polish Jewry, the period of ghettoization lasted for two years, and for some Jews even longer. From 1940–1942 the Jews of Poland were locked up in these virtual prisons. Leaving the ghetto for any reason was absolutely forbidden, upon penalty of death.