by Rabbi Yair Hoffman

The correlation of Haman’s sons to the Nuremberg Nazis, y’s, is eerie. It is also what can be called an “emunah builder.” One could perhaps suggest that it is coincidence, but the combination of all of these coincidences in one area, particularly when they are otherwise unexplained, is perhaps too much of a coincidence.

Why The Extra Words?

Let’s look at the listing of the ten sons of Haman as they are being hanged at the end of the Megillah. There are two columns—the names are to the right side. On the left side is a series of ten of the same words—“v’es.”

Why not just have the connecting vav appear before each of the ten names? Why the ten extra words?

To answer this question, we go to one of the Tannaim, either Shimon HaAmasuni or Nechemiah HaAmasuni (a debate in the Talmud). He was a second-generation Tanna and perhaps even the person known as Nachum Ish Gamzu according to some sources. The Gemara in Pesachim (22b) and in Kiddushin (57a) discuss him and his method of exegesis. He looked at every “es” in the Torah and stated that it comes to include something else. But what? Or who?

The Four Strangely-Sized Letters

Now let’s take a deeper look at the letters of the hand-written Megillah itself. There are four unexplained irregularities in the orthography of the letters. Three letters are written in a significantly smaller size. One letter is written in a much larger size.

The Smaller Letters. In the listing of the ten sons of Haman (Megillah 9:7–9), there are three letters that are written smaller: the taf of Parshandasa, the shin of Parmashta, and the zayin of Vayzasa. The gematria value of these smaller letters is 707.

The Larger Letter. In that last son of Haman, Vayzasa, the vav is written much larger. Rav Michel Dov Ber Weissmandel, zt’l, a tzaddik who saved thousands of people during the Holocaust and who tried to save hundreds of thousands of others, made the following discovery:

If this vav represents the sixth millennium of creation, and the other three smaller letters represent the years, the total is 5707; 5707 corresponds to the year 1946—the year that ten Nazis were hanged at the Nuremberg trials.

The Hanging Date

Although the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg delivered its verdicts sentencing the leaders of the Nazi party to death by hanging on October 1, 1946, they were hanged on October 16, the 21st of Tishrei. That date corresponds to the final judgement day of the Hebrew year—the point of no return, Hoshana Rabbah.

The Bizarre Declaration

Kingsbury Smith of the International News Service, who was chosen by random lot [“pur” in Hebrew] to represent the American press at the execution of the ten Nazis wrote as follows:

“…Julius Streicher made his melodramatic appearance at 2:12 a.m. While his manacles were being removed and his bare hands bound, this ugly, dwarfish little man, wearing a threadbare suit and a well-worn bluish shirt buttoned to the neck but without a tie (he was notorious during his days of power for his flashy dress), glanced at the three wooden scaffolds rising menacingly in front of him. Then he glanced around the room, his eyes resting momentarily upon the small group of witnesses. By this time, his hands were tied securely behind his back. Two guards, one on each arm, directed him to Number One gallows on the left of the entrance. He walked steadily the six feet to the first wooden step but his face was twitching … He was pushed the last two steps to the mortal spot beneath the hangman’s rope. The rope was being held back against a wooden rail by the hangman.

Streicher was swung suddenly to face the witnesses and glared at them. Suddenly he screamed, ‘Purim Feast 1946.’”

This is very strange. Why would he scream that?

The Request

“And the king said to Esther the queen, ‘The Jews have slain and destroyed 500 men in Shushan the capital, and the ten sons of Haman … Now whatever your petition, it shall be granted; whatever your request further, it shall be done.’

Esther responded, ‘If it is pleasing to the King, let it be granted to the Jews that are in Shushan to do tomorrow also as this day, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged upon the gallows’” (Megillas Esther 9:12–14).

Our sages tell us that every place in the Megillah that it mentions the king, it also refers to Hashem, the King. Esther’s request, or prayer, was also directed to Hashem Himself, the Ultimate King.

A Correlation Between The Nazis And The Ten Sons of Haman?

The great Kabbalist Sason ben Mordechai Shanduch (1747–1830), who lived in Iraq, in his sefer Davar B’Ito, provides a Hebrew root that indicates the specific evil quality inherent in each of the original ten sons of Haman. Based on Rabbi Shanduch’s writings, we can perhaps conjecture which each of the sons of Haman comes to include:

1. Parshandasa is one who is mafrish a person from the religion (dasa). This possibly refers to Alfred Rosenberg, y’s, chief Nazi theoretician and ideologist. In his 1920 book, Immorality in the Talmud, Rosenberg identified Jews and Judaism as evil incarnate. Publicly, Rosenberg attributed what was wrong with Christianity to the influence of Judaism. He initiated many of the anti-Jewish laws. He was also the head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, where he oversaw the establishment and administration of the extermination camps.

2. Dalphon is a person who is a deles, a door to pnios ra’os, bad directions or steps. Possibly this refers to Alfred Jodl, y’s, chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command, who signed the Commissar Order of 6 June 1941 (in which Soviet political commissars were to be shot) and the Commando Order of 28 October 1942 (in which Allied commandos, including properly uniformed soldiers as well as combatants wearing civilian clothes were to be executed immediately without trial if captured behind German lines). He also signed the surrender documents of Nazi Germany.

3. Asafta is a gatherer. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, y’s, obergruppenführer (general) in the SS was the chief of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office). According to former SS-Sturmbannführer Hans Georg Mayer, Kaltenbrunner was present at a December 1940 meeting among Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, and Heydrich where it was decided to gas all Jews incapable of heavy physical work. Under Kaltenbrunner’s command, the genocide of Jews picked up pace as “the process of extermination was to be expedited and the concentration of the Jews in the Reich itself and the occupied countries were to be liquidated as soon as possible.” He oversaw the rapid gathering of Jews in order to exterminate them.

4. Porasa alludes to untoward and unchaste behavior. While overseeing the Dutch, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, y’s, an Austrian Nazi politician, worked with Hitler to create the Anschluss. After Germany invaded Poland, he served in the General Government of Poland. He was also reichskommissar in Holland. He behaved in a manner that compromised many Dutch women.

5. Adalia refers to one who lifts himself up with arrogance and haughtiness—likely Joachim Von Ribbentrop, y’s, Nazi Germany’s foreign minister. In his arrogance, he added the fake title “Von” to his name. When he was an ambassador to England, virtually everyone commented about his complete arrogance.

6. Aridasa is one who scares others like a lion. Possibly this refers to Wilhelm Frick, y’s, Reich minister of the Interior of Nazi Germany and then the last governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. He used ruthless methods to counter any dissent.

7. Parmashta is one who rips apart (porem) the inner fabric, the shasi (the crisscross of the garment), of the Jewish nation. This could possibly reference Wilhelm Keitel, y’s, field marshal and chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. He issued a series of criminal orders from April 1941. The orders went beyond established codes of conduct for the military and broadly allowed the execution of Jews, civilians, and non-combatants, for any reason. Those carrying out the murders were exempted from court-martial or later being tried for war crimes. The orders were signed by Keitel.

8. Arisai is one who possesses the venom (aras) of a snake. Perhaps this refers to the venomous nature of Julius Streicher, y’s, early member of the Nazi Party and founder and publisher of Der Stürmer, which encouraged the hate toward Jews.

9. Aridai is one who subjugates people (rodeh). This best references Fritz Sauckel, y’s, Gauleiter of Thuringia and the General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment from 1942 until the end of the war. He worked directly under Göring through the Four Year Plan Office, directing and controlling labor. In response to increased demands, he met the requirement for manpower with people from the occupied territories. Voluntary numbers were insufficient, and forced recruitment was introduced within a few months. Of the five million foreign workers brought to Germany, around 200,000 came voluntarily, according to Sauckel’s own testimony at Nuremberg.

10. Vayzasa is one who symbolizes the bitter and warped judgment of an olive (zayis). It is likely that this references Hans Frank, y’s, Hitler’s personal lawyer and Nazi Germany’s chief jurist in German-occupied Poland. He served as the warped judge that allowed many Nazi goals to become law.

Perhaps the correlation of the original ten sons of Haman to the modern sons of Haman—the Nazis—could be tweaked  bit better, but the ten prominent “V’es” additions in the left column do indicate that it comes to include specific people.

The author can be reached at [email protected].