Essays on the Holocaust

Between the years 1938 and 1945 the German Nazis and their willing collaborators murdered 6 million Jews and millions of others.

Is the goal of such an enormous effort simply to prevent bullying and discrimination against those who one may consider different?

There were lots of things I knew about Mr. Friedman, and many I didn’t. One fact I thought I understood was that he’s always been a man of ordinary means. So when I first heard about the Holocaust Torah, I thought I’d misunderstood.

When the world made no sense, these Jews still cared to know what they should do or not do. When the world ignored G-d and His commandments, they determined that they would not...

Is G-d responsible? How can His actions (or inaction) be defended? Should they be defended?

The Germans often remarked to the Jews, “Why don't you commit suicide . . . ?”

Can the world survive on ethics devised by human reason? Well, we tried. It’s called the 20th century.

Why can we say that biblical tragedies were punishments, yet contemporary ones are “the mysterious way of G-d”? Have today’s rabbis changed their perception of G-d to fit what’s politically correct?

G-d created the rules of nature and logic. Could He not have created a world in which peace, harmony and light can be fully appreciated even when not preceded by pain and suffering?

Over this one thing
I implore You:
That my cup of gratitude
With a tear is laced

Crystallizing slowly over time in the old man’s soul was the singular obligation of telling the story of that child’s last moments.

Auschwitz showed us that just as man can sink as low as the basest animal, so can he rise to the level of angels

When one enters this place, through the still intact train tracks under that tower-like structure, one can simply not see how long and far it goes, for it is so incredibly massive. And all this for what?

I understand that in the seven weeks between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavuot we observe a period of mourning for the death of over 20,000 sages who died during this period. But for the 6 million Jews brutally murdered in the Holocaust we have only one day dedicated to mourning.

My teenage daughter would like to honor my mother by getting a tattoo of her Auschwitz number. We are quite divided on this issue. Can you please help?