Yom Kippur : Auschwitz/Birkenau 1944

Posted By on October 5th, 2022

Here in this most wonderful corner of the Diaspora, we are free to spend Yom Kippur as we wish. For me it is a day of reflection and introspection as a new year begins. As always, I reflect on Jewish survival and the memory of those martyrs of the Holocaust for whom it was to be the last Yom Kippur.

Here are excerpts from :

Observing Yom Kippur in the Valley of Death: Auschwitz/Birkenau 1944

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/observing-yom-kippur-in-the-valley-of-death-auschwitz-birkenau-1944/

“despite the most appalling conditions in the camps, where each day brought Jewish prisoners closer to dying of starvation, and despite the exhausting back-breaking labor that the Nazi guards forced Jews to do every day and doubly hard on the High Holy Days, so many still sought to get closer to G-d by fasting on Yom Kippur. “

“The prisoners understood and knew full well the enormous consequences for observing Yom Kippur by praying and fasting. To quote one, “even if beaten, tortured, and put to death, my eternal life would be greatly strengthened for having ‘returned’ to a pure state.” Make no mistake, like us, they prayed to be put in the book of life, that “the hand of G-d would take them to the day of liberation.” Yet, they faced the probability of imminent death with courage and the strong conviction that “even if it was their last day on earth” they could not do otherwise. “

They are forever inscribed in the Book of Life…..rsk

 

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