Standing Together

Remember!

 As Jewish people, we too often think about our heritage, who we are, what we do in our modern American existence, what our beliefs “really” are, about the life of our ancestors, and much more. Those of us who lived at the time of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany are much more concerned with the past and what we experienced, escaped, and more.  We know how much we were hated, treated as scapegoats, ridiculed, and more.  We cannot forget our experiences, the anger, venom and pain that we felt, ran from, the death of our innocent loved ones, the guiltless Jewish human beings who never hurt another human being and the undeserved venom that was experienced by our brethren who had no way or means to run before they were killed by the murderers, the Germans.  They took the earthly goods of our families, our loved ones, our Jewish people, and sadistically annihilated six million of the people of our faith.  We had done nothing but worked, been outstanding citizens, helped our neighbors, and more.  The folks who had gained so much from us turned with Hitler and his henchmen and enjoyed the sadism, the theft, the pain, and the atrocities that they could now do with praises from the government of Germany and Poland for their carrying out unthinkable pain to their helpless Jewish neighbors.  They made the Jewish people the objects of their unthinkable sadism and hatred.

So called German physicians cut Jewish children and adults apart, and placed innocent children in cages before and after delivering unbearable pain to these helpless little ones.  They bored out eyes of folk of all ages and ultimately burned, lit, and choked the majority of the Jewish people of Germany.  It is impossible to describe every evil that occurred to the faithful Jews who loved G’d and made every effort to follow the ten commandments and much more. 

When all this occurred in the late 1930s through close to the mid 1940s, next to nothing was done to help the Jewish people to get out of the hands of the sadists.  Since we were so few in comparison to the rest of humanity, the Jewish people were easily targeted to be the victims of the hideous criminals of the Germans and environs.

One of the great Jewish people, Heinrich Heine, who lived from 1764 to 1828, was born into a Jewish family but was not strict in his religious beliefs.  He wrote some very beautiful poetry.  When he was no longer young, he had some serious regrets about his existence, his Jewish beliefs and the religion into which he was born.  He wrote a famous poem in which he expressed his regrets and sadness that he would have to face in his “afterlife.”  He was very sad that no one would say “kadish” when he died, nor would he be valued as a religious Jewish man.  The times were always very questionable for the Jewish people, even during the so called more peaceful time periods.

Let us remember that we must think very seriously that we are a very small minority in the people of this world.  We must stand together; refrain from becoming against ourselves; must look who we vote for, not antagonists of our people; we must hold hands with our fellow Jews and stand up for one another.  Never must we agree with what our enemies utter or spread into the world because of unspeakable hatred.  Unlike Heinrich Heine, we must be alert and recognize who we are and not accept the hatred of those who would destroy us.

Lehitraot.

 Dr. Ursula A. Falk is a psychotherapist in private practice and the author of several books and articles.

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