Jan 27 2005
Where Was G-d In Auschwitz?
Where was G-d in Auschwitz? These words, from “An Auschwitz Alphabet”, by Jonathan Wallace, no doubt haunt (and haunted) every inmate of Auschwitz, living or deceased, who ever maintained, lost, or lost and re-found faith in G-d after enduring the horrors of the camp that was liberated by the Red Army sixty years ago today. Greater minds than mine pondered this question, and, to this day, I don’t believe anyone has found the answer.
The “Auschwitz Alphabet”, which contains everything we never wanted to see of the holocaust from “A” (Arbeit Macht Frei) to “Z” (Zyklon “B”), is, to say the least, thought-provoking. In “Epitaphs”, we find the following words by Holocaust survivor Primo Levy :
It can happen, and it can happen everywhere. I do not intend to nor can I say that it will happen…it is not very probable that all the factors that unleashed the Nazi madness will again occur simultaneously but precursory signs loom before us…It only awaits its new buffoon (there is no dearth of candidates) to organize it, legalize it, declare it necessary and mandatory, and so contaminate the world.
Levi, Drowned, pp. 199-200.Primo Levi died in 1987, age 68, in a fall down the stairs of his Turin apartment house. This is thought but not known to have been suicide.
Whether, in fact, Levi’s fall was suicide, one thing is sure: the architects of the “Final Solution”, conceived at the Wannsee Conference of 1942, continue to reap victims of the Holocaust. Even Jews who were “fortunate†to survive the horrors of the Shoa continue to perish from complications stemming from maltreatment and starvation at the hands of the SS. Worse, many of the mechanics of the Shoa, those who implemented the plans of “The Final Solution†that were drafted at Wannsee, remain at large. Some, like Hans Joachim Sewering, have gained international prominence. This fact serves to remind us that the Holocaust is still so recent an event that it has directly touched all of our lives. And it must not be forgotten.
Never again!
This post is dedicated to the memory of Tzvi Feuerstain, of blessed memory, a 13-year-old Czechoslovakian Jew and inmate of Auschwitz, who was not fortunate enough to see the light of day on January 27, 1945.
This post is one of many posts that are participating in the
January 2005 Blogburst: Memory of the Wannsee Conference and Liberation of Auschwitz.
All other participants are listed in the extended entry.
I want to post, but I don’t know what to say. This is such a profound thing you are doing. It leaves me silent and mournful.
Swt GA HunnyB- Say whatever you want. The Holocaust is a legacy of bigotry in its most extreme form, and that legacy belongs to us all. It doesn’t matter what you say, as long as it comes from your heart and soul.
I am glad that you all are doing this. That post was wonderful Mark. This is a part of history that just amazes me in the sense that I can’t get over it actually happened. The more I learn the more I’m amazed. I visited the Holocost museum once and it was a very hard thing for me for reasons I won’t go into here. I would like to go back someday but I’m not sure I am able.