The Holocaust

by HaRav Avigdor Miller ztvk”l:

Remember, however, that European Jewry contained some of the choicest elements of our people and even the worst European Jews were not only immeasurably superior to the best Germans, but they were far superior to any nation or people of the world.

But because so many European Jews fell into the error of admiring and emulating the Germans, G-D allowed the Germans to do their utmost to show whom who they really are. Those Jews who had begun to ignore the Soul and in imitation of the gentiles devoted their efforts solely to the needs of the body were made to see how their efforts ended in the worst ruination of Jewish bodies in history; whereas their fathers who had given their best efforts for the benefit of the Soul, had their bodies preserved in relative peace and well being.

It is as clear as day that because Jews had forsaken their Jewish identity it was therefore being imposed upon them by force.

From Berlin came the flood of assimilation. Reform and other forms of disloyalty to the Torah corrupted most of European Jewry in a manner never before seen in history, and from Berlin came a flood of hatred which perpetrated upon Jews a destruction never before seen in history.

Because the German Jews spiritually destroyed their own synagogues by Reform and by imitation of the churches, the Germans wracked and burned the synagogues on the crystal night.

Because so many imitated the gentiles and refused to rest on the seventh day, they were forced to work seven days a week at killing labor.

Because they sent their children to non- Jewish or secular schools and no longer gave their children to Torah study, the Nazis were allowed to destroy the Jewish children entirely.

Because for the first time in Jewish history woman had ceased to cover their hair, the Germans shaved them bald in the death camp.

Because the virtues of chaste dress and behavior were diminished in imitation of the gentiles, they were marched naked to the gas chambers and the Jewish woman were subjected to every barbarous indecency before they were killed.

Because they had attempted to mingle with the gentiles and be lost among them, they were forced to wear a star of David and were shut up in ghettos before being killed.

Because they had so revered the Physicians, especially the German specialists, they were subjected to malicious experiments and the torments German Physicians imposed upon them.

Because they forsook the laws of the Torah, they were subjected to the Nuremburg Laws which deprived them of all rights which other men enjoyed.

In an era which such discriminatory laws and ghettos have long been unknown, this sudden throwback to medieval times was truly a startling phenomenon.

It was all an open miracle: The sudden rise of a poor laborer to tremendous power over nations, his supernatural hatred for Jews, his fatal blunder of reopening a second front against Russia whereby he accomplished only the massacre of the Jewish population, and all the other details of this frightful miracle.

All this deserves careful study just as the case of Purim is studied in careful detail!