Purim

Illustrated Megillat Esther

A noisemaker made in a detention camp in Cyprus, with the image of Hitler hanging on it

Reading the Megilla in the Krakow Ghetto, Poland 5703 (1943)

"We found you," a roar of victory was heard from the mouth of the evil one, Simcha Spiro, the commander of the O.D. (Jewish police in the ghetto) upon arriving at the bunker this morning, where we were hiding. A strong beam of light from a flashlight suddenly illuminated the frightened Jews sitting in the bunker. At that moment, when we saw the fiery eyes of the policemen, and each one of us saw death before his eyes, a tremendous cry erupted from the mouths of all those present in the bunker: "Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is One!"

My father immediately contacted Eliezer Landau to intercede for us. Eliezer neither rested nor remained quiet. He used the best of his connections and made great efforts, and indeed he was promised that all the foreign citizens who came would be released, and we were among them. Thanks to his efforts, we were allowed to receive food parcels from time to time. Indeed, in preparation for Purim, which was 5 days after our arrest - we received the first package from my father. We don't know who brought the package, but one morning mother was called to the O.D. office, and to her great surprise they gave her a package. My father sent us a mishloach manot (Purim food basket) that included bread, raisin jam, and other "delicacies" that he could find. My mother immediately distributed the food to our cousins who were still imprisoned in other cells.

On Purim, Tuesday the 16th of Adar 5703 (March 23rd, 1943), all the people of our bunker and those who came after us were still detained by the O.D. Of all the mitzvahs of the day, only the mitzvah of reading the megilla could be performed there. All men and women were allowed to hear the reading of the scroll that took place in one of the men's cells. Most of them heard it there for the last time in their lives.

(The Word of Salvation)

A wooden noisemaker from Alsace

Mishloach Manot of the Piaczesna Rebbe in the Warsaw Ghetto

Avraham Hendel, one of the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto told:

Even then, the Warsaw ghetto was not the same ghetto as before. Of the half a million Jews who lived and passed through the gates of this great and terrible ghetto, only a small remnant of survivors remained, remnants of families, fragments of people.

And now Purim was arriving in the ghetto. And Purim like Purim! In the shops of Fritz Schultz, the German industrialist from Danzig, where I surved as the chief foreman, the disasters and calamities were forgotten all at once.

Purim is Purim! This I understood very well. My holy friend Rabbi Alexander Zusha Friedman, to whom my soul was attached too during the years of terror, already knew how to organize the mitzvah of "gifts to the poor" according to Jewish law that Purim. He arranged that every one of the workers working in the shops, including the remains of the great Torah scholars and rebbes who remained with us until then, knew and felt what Purim was, all of this was perfectly fine.

Only the Rebbe of Piaszesna greatly surprised me! In the early morning right after we finished reading the megilla, which was arranged in several sections and places in the shops in order to hide our Purim joy from the eyes of the German overseers, the Rebbe hurried to greet me. What's going on? He himself hastened to fulfill the mitzvah of mishloach manot (giving food baskets for Purim) and "a mitzvah itself is greater than in its delivery". With shaking hands, the Rebbe took out a whole and fresh golden apple from a double package and presented it to me as a mishloach manot, and it pained me greatly. Everyone knew what the golden apple meant, shining in the darkness of the ghetto filled with starvation. And could anyone imagine how far the Rebbe from Piascesna had to go in order to be able to "organize" the smuggling of a golden apple from beyond the ghetto walls? It soon became clear to me that the Nazi driver of the "judges" was also involved and participated in this business , and how many dangers were risked because of this. I burst into tears, because I could not control myself due to the excitement that the righteous man was so concerned about honoring me. "The highest level of the mitzvah" was right in front of me, and I never found something as high and importance as the giving of this golden apple as a mishloach manot in the ghetto.

(Moshe Prager, Bais Yaakov, Adar 26)

The participants of the “Yosef Shpiel” skit in Munkasz in honour of Purim

The Story of a Megillat Esther Written with great Self-Sacrifice in a Nazi Slave Labour Camp

Yaakov Schwartz held a beautiful custom on the night of Purim, in one of the homes of a Gerrer chassid in Tel Aviv. After the blessing "Asher Heniya," all the worshipers gathered around him. Yankel (Yaakov) quickly opened his Megilla.

The signal was given, the crowd sang "Shoshanat Yaakov", and Yankel showed them how to fight with the evil Haman of the Holocaust generation. "They could break our bodies, but not our spirits," said Yankel, and the words of the prayer "Shoshanat Yaakov" took on a deeper meaning.

This is the story of a Megillat Esther that was written with great self-sacrifice in the fatal days in the Nazi slave labour camp

Yaakov Schwartz was born to a wealthy family. His father, Avraham Yehuda, was a succesful textile merchant. Before the fall of Polish Jewry, his father took him on every trip of his to visit the Imrei Emet, the Gerrer Rebbe.

Yankel was very talented, especially in handicrafts. He was excellent in every craft and had beautiful penmanship, but he stopped engaging in these hobbies when he entered the world of Torah in one of the Hasidic houses of Ger in the city of Lodz. He drowned in the sea of the Talmud, the Torah, and the work - and did not imagine that the talent he had would save him when the time came and serve as a source of strength for many Jews.

In the Lodz Ghetto

"Already at the outbreak of World War II and the Nazi invasion of Poland, I felt their arms' gratification," said Yankel.

"Seven days after the attack on Poland began, Lodz was occupied. The Jews became a target for beatings, robbery, and lootings."

"In the months after this, they took the Jews to work as slave labourers, and we also received occasional beatings from the gentiles of the city."

"In the next stage, they imprisoned us in the Lodz Ghetto. 230,000 Jews were crammed into a very small area, and food was the most highly sought after product."

Yaakov was crowded into a small room with his parents, grandparents, and his younger brother and five sisters. Young Yankel saw with great pain the cruel death of his mother, his grandparents and some of his sisters, who returned their souls to their Creator due to starvation. His mother and grandmother were buried in the ghetto.

To illustrate the terrible hunger from which they suffered, Yankel recounts that on his way home after working in a factory in the ghetto, he would collect the leaves from the road and boil them in water, to give the family some water that tasted like soup. Although most of the ghetto's Jews were murdered or deported during the Holocaust, Yankel survived, with the help fo G-d, in the ghetto until its final liquidation by the Nazis.

In 5704 (1944) Yankel was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp. He took his tefillin with the hope of keeping them for as long as he could.

When he was taken into the change room where prisoners changed out of their normal clothing into the camp prisoners' uniforms, he witnessed the sadistic treatment that the Nazis gave to a Jew who was caught with tefillin. Yankel did not despair and decided to put his trust in God and shoved the tefillin deep into his pocket. When his turn came, the Nazi told him that the prisoners' uniforms had run out and he would have to wait for a new supply, and that in the meantime he would remain dressed in his clothes.

And thus Yankel was able to keep his tefillin until the end of the war, and he was able to put on his tefillin almost every day.

In the Sonnenberg Slave Labour camp

After four months in Buchenwald, Yankel was taken with 250 other young men to forced labor in the Sonnenberg camp, near Buchenwald. Yankel was among a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews and stayed there together with the well-known chassid Leibel Kutner z"l. In the camp, which was established in September 1944, gears were made for the German tanks. Although the factory was in the Sonnenberg camp, the barracks were several kilometers away in the forest, and the prisoners had to walk two hours in the snow to the factory. The snow was knee-deep, and the tortured Jews had to sing the whole way.

Writing the Megilla

"What's your view on writing a Megilla?" Rabbi Leibel Kutner asked Yankel, as Purim was approaching.

Yankel thought that the man he spoke to meant this jokingly, because none of the group members dreamed that they would live to see Purim, since every day Jews died or were murdered on their way to the factories. But Rabbi Leibel Kutner wasn't kidding, and while most people were in favor of canceling the idea of writing the Megilla, Yankel took the task seriously.

Yankel knew that writing the Megilla in the camp conditions was not simple. He had not really learned how to write the letters like a sofer stam (religious scribe), but he remembered them from his childhood.

Now the question arose as to how he would obtain ink. Yankel recalled that ink was hidden where the details of the prisoners were written on the wooden boards on which they slept.

Now I understand why the ink was hidden, said Rabbi Yankel. Now there was ink, and he knew how to write the letters. The next step was finding a pen. Rabbi Yankel took a piece of straw from an old mattress, and it was used as a writing instrument. As a kosher parchment was not available, he decided to write a Megilla on a roll of paper. But how do you get such a valuable commodity in a Nazi camp?

Yankel worked near the ovens, where there was a device that measured the height of the heat and printed the results on paper, like an X-ray. Yankel, in the second during the changing of the workers' shifts where the guarding was loosened somewhat, and quickly pulled out the coil.

The writing of the Megilla was done on nine centimetre tall paper, in very tiny letters. The next step in the fascinating story was finding a siddur (prayerbook) that was smuggled into the camp.

The siddur was the prized posession of a young chassid, and he did not allow anyone to touch it. However, when he heard that Yankel was planning to write a Megilla, he gave him the siddur; At the end of the siddur, a there was a printed version of the Megillat Esther with indications of the sections. Now, after everything was ready, the most difficult part of writing the scroll began.

In the camp, the Jews were divided into two groups, each labourer worked a 12-hour shift. Those who worked during the day slept at night, and those who worked at night slept during the day. Every week they changed shifts.

It was impossible for Yankel to write the Megilla while he was working during the day, for then there would be no light in the barrack.

Although the Nazis did not guard inside the barrack, so he could write on the days when he worked at night and arrived at the barrack during the day, the reason the Nazis did not guard inside the barrack was that they knew that the Jews were exhausted from work and torture and were sure that they would fall asleep immediately. In his only free time he had to do some of the hard work. Moreover: Yankel knew that he could not make a single mistake when writing the Megilla, since when a scribe writes a Megilla he can correct his mistakes by scratching the mistake with a knife and then writing it correctly, but Yankel was deprived of this right, since he wrote on thin paper. Despite the difficulties, Yankel decided to take a board from his "bed" and wrote on it near the window. Rabbi Yankel calls it a "window", but actually it was nothing more than a hole in the wall, because no light came through it, only wind and snow.

For two hours every day, when his friends slept, Yankel sat and wrote his Megilla. Rabbi Leibel Kutner sat by his side and woke him up whenever he was overwhelmed by fatigue. Rabbi Leibel dried the ceiling from the accumulated snow, lest drops fall on the Megilla.

The Megilla was ready about two weeks before Purim. When the prisoners in the camp heard about the Megilla, their spirits rose with great excitement. "It is impossible to describe the enormous excitement that was among the prisoners," said Yankel. When Purim came, those who worked that day heard the reading of the Megilla at night, and those who worked during the night heard the reading of the Megilla during Purim day.

"We Knew Exactly Who Haman Was"

We could not bang when reading out the name Haman, but we knew exactly who Haman was in our generation," said Yankel. Hearing the Megilla in the Valley of the Shadow of Death saved the Jews from spiritual destruction, and many of them were greatly strengthened and encouraged after they were saved, with the help of G-d, from the Nazi inferno on the cursed soil of Poland.

Children in the kindergarten in Rozwadow, Galicia, at a Purim celebration with their teacher, Bina Weinstock-Halperin

Purim 5703 (1943) with the Slonimer Rebbe

On Tevet 9, 5703 (December 17th, 1942), the Baranovichi Ghetto was liquidated. At dawn, a legion of bloodthirsty Ukrainian police burst into the ghetto, pouncing on their prey with fury. The one hundred and forty remaining survivors of Baranovichi Jewry and the surrounding area, including the Rebbe, Shlomo David Yehoshua Weinberg, were transferred to the Kadlichova labor camp, which is located about forty kilometers outside the city, near Horodyszcze and was under the supervision of the SS - where they were sentenced to spend the last months of their lives in hard labour, in hunger, and in indescribably horrible conditions.

This camp was not intended for execution by shooting or killing with poisonous gases, but rather - for a slow and cruel death, sucking out the lives of the Jews by starvation and sadistic enslavement in arduous labour until the last drop of the life.

About the life and ways of the Slonimer Rebbe, Rabbi Shlomo David Yehoshua Weinberg, in this Valley of Doom until his last day, one of the followers of Salonimer chassidism in Baranovichi, Yaakov Lekovitzky, who was saved from the fire, and who was also imprisoned in the same concentration camp, but miraculously survived from the Jaws of Death (later living in in Bnei Brak), testified:

I was with the Rebbe in Kadlichova for about ten months, and woe to the eyes that saw our Rebbe in this experience. The Rebbe was left to the hands of the vile tyrants, to nonstop abuses by the commandant of Russian origin, Stepaniuk, who never stopped harassing him. When I saw the Rebbe's face for the first time, I was completely amazed and shocked. All the fears of the terrible destruction and the threat were reflected from them. His face was unrecognizable. Bent and crushed, oppressed, dressed in the uniform of the 'kazetnikim' (concentration camp inmates) and crying out for the mercy of Heaven. Every day he was taken to forced labour in the forest, chopping trees. Once the Rebbe was ordered to whip another Jew on his back, and when he pretended to do as they commanded and waved the whip in the air to land it on the unfortunate man's back, but did not touch him - the tormentors pounced on him and doubled his blows, until his whole body was full of wounds and bruises...

On Purim of that year, 5703 (1943), I heard the reading of the Megilla from the mouth of the Rebbe, who brought a kosher scroll from somewhere, a secret. At night, I danced with him secretly. I was all excited. All around us, everything was falling apart, and the Rebbe danced and sang!: "And he said on that day, behold, this is our God: we hoped for Him that He would save us; this is the Lord for Whom we hoped; let us rejoice and be happy with His salvation."

The next day, the Rebbe wanted to dance in public, a dance in honor of Purim! However, how do you accomplish such a thing in the Valley of Tears, when there are antisemitic gentiles in full view - prisoners and our superiors? So Rabbi Weinberg came up with a brilliant idea. He turned to the Christian prisoners, his neighbors in the barracks, and said to them: "Let us compete among ourselves, which of us is the best at dancing..." This sentence was enough to create the necessary cooperation, and in the blink of an eye they accepted his invitation and started a stormy dance. When they got tired and stopped dancing, they turned to the Rebbe and said to him: "Well, now you, the Jews, have demonstrated your strength..."

And then the Rebbe came out dancing, shaking his head and towering onwards, and on and on. It was a dance in honor of the Shechina (the G-dly presence), a dance that expressed the essence of Purim more than anything else: "To make known that all who place hope in You shall not be put to shame or destroyed forever..."

(Suraski, Aharon, Characters of Glory From the Heads of the Last Generation, Second Edition, Jerusalem 5738/1978)

Bais Yaakov girls in Kolbusowa, Galicia, Poland, dressed up for Purim

A goblet for Purim from Vienna

Jews dressed up for Purim in the Landsberg DP camp, Germany

Children dressed up for Purim in the Landsberg DP camp in Germany

Students of the “Keter Torah” Yeshiva in Czestochowa, Poland, at a Purim Party

"The Rose of Jacob was Thrilled with Joy and Exalted..."

Vienna, Austria - Purim 5705 (1945)

In the dark cellar where the Jewish forced laborers lived, there was great joy on the day of Purim. The Megilla, which came from one of the abandoned synagogues in the city, on Meltzgasse, was read to the audience on the night of the holiday and the next day. Nachman Rubenstein, who was ready and willing to engage in any mitzvah, acquired the Megilla for the public.

In the evening, jubilant voices echoed in the basement: "Cursed be Haman" and "Blessed be Mordechai" - the hope of all generations despite all the destruction, the hope that will not expire at any time…

One of the righteous women baked something in secret, although there was a real danger of raising any smoke, even light cigarette smoke.

It is difficult to describe the feelings of exaltation that enveloped everyone in the cellar. Indeed, we felt a strange joy on this Purim. Despite the situation, we felt this feeling of hope beating in us, that we will merit joyous occasions throughout the year.

The morning Megilla reading was held early in the morning, before going to work. We also observed the mitzvah of "mishloach manot" (gifts of food) by exchanging "meals" between each other…

(Rabbi Moshe Natan Lemberger, "Vessels of the Exile," Kountrass "Zikaron BeSefer")

A wooden noisemaker

Children dressed up at a Purim party in an orphanage for Holocaust survivors in Brussels, Belgium

A Purim noisemaker made of wood

Illustration of a noisemaker, Germany

"Purim Shpiel" 5705 (1945)

They came from Auschwitz in several groups. Each group had about twenty people. They didn't look like humans of course, but more like walking skeletons. They had triangular faces with pointed chins and sunken cheeks. Even the lips shrunk into thin blue lines. The only feature that stood out in their faces were the eyes: they were large and had a strange glow, almost bright. They were called, in the slang of the concentration camp, "Muselmen;" for most of them, this was the last stage before death. They spoke Yiddish with an accent that sounded strange to us Lithuanian Jews. We were told that they came from the Lodz Ghetto and were in Auschwitz before being sent to our camp. Our camp is called "Dachau's Outer Camp No. 10" and is located near the picturesque town of Otzing, near Lake Ammersee. It was located in the centre of a small forest, surrounded by green meadows and a beautiful landscape. I remember that the day we were brought there I thought: "How could something bad happen to us amidst all this beauty?" I quickly discovered that the beauty was only in the landscape. The Germans who were in charge of us were sadistic killers. The people of Lodz fell into the same trap. After Auschwitz, our camp seemed like heaven to them. Most of them perished not long after they arrived due to the hard work, beatings, and starvation. But they preferred to die here than in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. They told us unbelievable things about the gas chambers and the crematoriums of Auschwitz, where thousands of people were killed every day. Some of them told us that they stood naked before the gas chambers, when they were suddenly ordered to dress and sent to our camp. The Germans must have been in desperate need of workers, if they sent these walking skeletons here, to southern Germany, all the way from faraway Poland.

Only a few of them remained alive around May 1945. One of them was known as "Reb Chaim". We never found out if he was really a rabbi, but he always washed his hands and said a blessing before eating. He knew the dates of the Hebrew calendar and knew all the prayers by heart. From time to time, when the Germans were not watching, he would invite us to evening prayer. The Jewish kapo, Burgin, heard about him and tried to arrange light jobs for him. Most of the people died because they were made to carry 50 kilogram sacks of cement or to work in other hard labour. He would not survive a day in such a job. He told me one day that if he survived, he would get married and have at least a dozen children.

In about the middle of March, we got a day off, it was Sunday. The camp was covered in snow, but here and there, signs of spring were already visible. We heard vague rumors of an American invasion of Germany, and a glimmer of hope reached our hearts. After breakfast, which consisted of one moldy slice of bread, a tiny piece of margarine, and brown water that was called "ersatz coffee", we went back to the barracks to sleep a little longer. Suddenly we noticed Reb Chaim standing in the snow and shouting: "Haman to the gallows! Haman to the gallows!" On his head was a crown of brown paper made from a cement bag and on his body was a blanket on which he glued star clippings from the same bag. We froze at the sight of the strange situation and could not believe our eyes. He danced a strange dance in the snow and sang: "I am Achashveros, Achashveros, king of the Persians." Then he stood up, straightened himself, raised his chin to the sky and raised his hand: "Haman to the gallows! Haman to the gallows! And when I say 'Haman to the gallows' we all know what Haman to the gallows we are talking about!" We were sure that he was out of his mind, as happened to many of the camp residents. About fifty of us stood speechless in front of the Rebbe, when he said: "Yiddin, vasez mit eich?" (Jews, what's going on with you?) Today is Purim, let's put on a 'Purim Shpiel' (a skit for Purim)!" Then I remembered that once, at home, about "a million years ago", during this very period, the children would dress up in honour of Purim, play, and eat hamentashen. The "rabbi" remembered the exact date according to the Hebrew calendar. We hardly knew what day it was. That's when Reb Chaim divided the roles among the viewers: Queen Esther, Mordechai, Vashti, and Haman. I had the honor of accepting the role of Mordechai in the end , and we all danced in the snow. That's how we staged a "Purim Shpiel" in Dachau!

But the story did not end here. Reb Chaim promised us that we would also receive a shipment of parcels today, which seemed utterly improbable to us, but the unbelievable happened and that afternoon, a delegation from the International Red Cross arrived at the camp. This was the first time they bothered to do something about us. Still, we welcomed them with open arms, because they brought us the "mishloach manot" (Purim food basket) that Reb Chaim had promised. Each of us received a package, which included: a can of sweetened condensed milk, a small chocolate bar, a box of sugar cubes, and a pack of cigarettes. It was impossible to describe our joy! Here we are, starving, and suddenly on Purim we receive gifts from heaven! Since then, we never doubted Reb Chaim again.

His first prediction was also fully fulfilled! Two months later,Haman of the year 5705 (1945), Hitler, was led to the gallows, and shot himself in Berlin, while we, who remained alive, were saved by the American Army on May 2nd, 1945. I lost all contact with Reb Chaim on our death march from Dachau to Tyrol , but I hope that he was saved and that he indeed had many children, as he wanted.

(Yosef Bruk, editor, A Time to Think: Journal of Jewish Thought, Volume 85 (5767/2007), pages 8-9)

A family from Yemen reading the Megilla

Reading Megillat Esther in a DP camp in Italy

The Reading of the Megilla in the Lodz Ghetto

Yehoshua Eibeshitz told:

On the day of The Fast of Esther in 5703 (1943), a group of 34 Jews were selected for an "empty transport", which in the language of the camp people meant to extermination. This was in the terror camp Schwaningen near Posen. The timing was no accident. The old, antisemitic deputy commander of the camp did not forget to remind us of this. He even asked us to say hello to Mordechai and Esther in heaven.

Much to our astonishment and surprise, we arrived not to the gas chambers we had dreamt of, but to the Lodz Ghetto. The Gestapo man greeted us with "A guten Purim" (happy Purim - he was probably a German from Lodz who knew Yiddish). We were transferred to the prison in the Lodz ghetto, Czernyczskiego.

We were all in poor health, like "Muselmans." Two of us were dying and they were: Anshel Rosenbaum from Kozminka and Yitzchak Goldstein from Stavyszyn. The doctor ordered on the spot that they be taken immediately to the Jewish hospital in the ghetto. However, Anshel insisted - he would not go to the hospital before hearing the reading of the Megilla. We also created a big commotion and demanded that they bring us a Megilla. One of the prison guards took pity on us and started looking among the prisoners, maybe someone had a Megilla. Finally, he found Shmuel Frankel, a young man from the followers of Ger chassidism, the "burnt ones" in Lodz, who ended up in prison, and agreed to lend us the Megilla. And so we were privileged to hear the reading of the Megilla from the mouth of Reuven Yisrael Kot, may G-d avenge his blood, of Kozminka, late at night in the prison of the Lodz ghetto on Purim in the year 5703 (1943). We were more amazed and happy to read the Megilla than to stay alive…. With our failing legs we danced in the prison.

Jews in the Landsberg DP camp next to the symbolic grave they made for Hitler

A Purim party for the Tehran Children after they arrived in Israel

A glazed porcelain plate for mishloach manot

A Purim party in the Talmud Torah school in Lodz, 5718 (1958)

A wooden noisemaker, Italy

Purim party in the kindergarten of the Foerenwald DP camp

The Hope for "the Miracle of Purim"

A few weeks before Purim 5703 (1943), rumors spread that the Jews of all the surrounding towns were being rounded up to be deported to the Vilna ghetto. From whom the rumour came, no one knew. The "official circles" of the ghetto did not confirm it, but a terrible panic arose among the ghetto public. Everyone knew that the concentration of Jews from the surrounding towns of Warsaw and the big cities was used everywhere as an opening for large mass murders.

On Purim eve, the community already knew with certainty that the concentration of the Jews in the Vilna Ghetto was a fact, and in the coming days it would be implemented.

In the evening, crowds of Jews flocked to read the Megilla. The synagogue on Atelizim Street was filled to the brim. It waas very dark. Only on the bima (small prayer stage) was a small candle lit. The people stood crowdedly and as if from far away the voice of the reader reached their ears:

"Who performed miracles for our forefathers in those days and now..."

And the old verses, which for many years learned people would repeat as a mitzvah, suddenly took on a living meaning in the room. It was as if some mysterious voice emanated and rose from the underground:

"To gather themselves together, and to stand for their lives, to destroy, and to slay, and to cause to perish, all the forces of the people and the province that would assault them, their little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey."

"Who (G-d) pleads our cause, judges our claim, avenges our wrong, brings retribution to our enemies, and punishes our foes."

The teacher Goldberg gave a speech: "Please don't give up. Try to hold on. The moons are numbered, the weeks until the fall of 'Haman.' He sings with the whole crowd 'Shoshanat Yaakov (the Rose of Jacob)...Your salvation was forever, and your hope in every generation."

(M. Dworezcki, Jerusalem of Lithuania: In Revolt and in the Holocaust, 5711/1951)

A cover for a Megillat Esther, given as a birthday gift to Chaim Rumkowski, Lodz 1941

A Purim procession of young people in a DP camp

Purim party in a Vilna kindergarden during the interwar period

Jews in Dunaszerdahely dressed up for Purim

A decorated Megillat Esther

An illustrated Megillat Esther from the 18th century

Reading the Megilla in the Buchenwald Camp

When I was in Buchenwald, I belonged to the group of "Katzetniks" (prisoners) of the "Fourth Floor". This fourth floor is nothing but the "top floor" of those wooden beds in the camp barracks, which we call by their true name: "planks of purity", arranged in tiers, one on top of the other. The prisoners have a whole set of understanding around the floors, each level having its own advantages and disadvantages, the most prominent of which are: the lower the level - the easier it is to climb, but the higher it is - the more comfortable it is to isolate yourself inside it and escape the atmosphere of bereavement and terror of the camp, which is dying right before our eyes. It is clear that we, the people of the chassidic community, which have long since passed through all seven sections of hell and had the opportunity to share a common "inn" in Buchenwald - we deliberately chose to lodge together precisely on the "fourth floor", we sought to concentrate together during the night, in order to try and create a different spiritual "level" for ourselves.

On one of the nights, when we remembered that ancient saying that "When the month of Adar enters, joy grows", we longed to prepare a secret Purim celebration, rightly so.

With the remainder of my strength, I actually spent a few days collecting all kinds of waste paper, which were rolled up in the camp yard - a torn note from the Nazi office staff, a piece of rough and thick paper from a bag of cement, or a page from a cartoon Nazi newspaper whose margins were left blank for utilization; I collected all of this out of extreme caution, because I ended up writing down the "Megillat Esther" on these scraps of paper, from memory… We divided the bundle of papers among several members of our group, when in total we had one pencil, or more accurately: not a pencil but a black filling of some brittle pencil, which craftsmen and carpenters use. This pencil was passed from hand to hand, and from memory, everyone wrote down a few verses from the Megilla.

In honor of Purim, I suggested to my friends to also start the lesson studying Mishna from Tractate Megilla. This is how a whisper was heard in the evening in the stifled air of the camp barrack: "Tractate Megilla will be read at chapter 11, 12, 12, 14, 15..."

All this was, of course, only in the form of preparations, even before we were blessed with the evening of the 14th of Adar. At the end of the "Fast of Esther" we all gathered at the designated time on the "top floor" of the barrack, and out of the joyous excitement that was evident in us, we also got some hurt prisoners of the camp, who lived on the lower floors, excited. "We also want to take revenge on the evil Haman!" - extinguished eyes sparkled with the last glimmer of faith and hope.

We began to read our Megilla late at night out of fear that the large and suspicious situation would be revealed to the eyes of the murderous guards.

According to the law, it was clear to us that we would not be able to properly say the blessing "for the reading of the Megilla", as the "Megilla" was copied by us with trembling fingers on a bundle of different papers. However, the reading itself passed over us with supreme elation and great enthusiasm. And the most important thing: when we finished reading the Megilla with the words "The rose of Jacob, was thrilled with joy and exhaulted", the song burst out of our mouths with enthusiasm, until it seemed to us that the entire Buchenwald camp was holding its breath and listening to us with a shudder: "Cursed is Haman who wished to destroy me, blessed is Mordechai the Jew!"

The next day we got up again like the day before yesterday, yet we felt as if something had changed in the atmosphere of the camp. Since we dared to call out: "Cursed be Haman", and the intention was completely clear who it and what this evil "Haman" was, the terrible anguish was somewhat relieved from us.

On that day we had an even more tangible Purim joy, when Avraham Eliyahu, the most energetic young man in our group, came and placed a sweet, big secret in our ears, that the Ukrainian Kapo whispered to one of us that day: "Hitler Kaput!" (Hitler is eliminated).

(Frankel Yaakov, oral testimony from: Prager, M., Those Who Never Yielded, Part 2, Bnei Brak 5723/1963)

Children at a Purim party in Wieliczka, Poland

A Purim skit in the Wielopole Ghetto, Poland 1942

Purim 5702 (1942) in "Kolonia"

The holiday of Purim arrived. The Jews woke up again and tried to be happy. First of all, they rejoiced at the disasters that the Germans suffered in Russia, when their soldiers sank in the mud and snow and were killed en masse, in battles… The Jews of "Kolonia" rejoiced at the ancient miracle that happened to the people of Israel in the days of Mordecai and Esther and about the downfall of the evil Haman, and they hoped that such a miracle would be performed for them too with the "evil Haman" (Hitler, may his name be blotted out) of the day. The poor Jews did not know how close his end was. In the drawers of the German rulers, death sentences were already prepared and a date for the Jews to be sent to their death in Chelmno. But the Jews did not yet know about their sentence. They tried to rejoice and be happy. They tried hard and made an effort to be happy. Bunches of "masqueraders" ran through the wretched villages, on the muddy and dirty roads, singing loudly "Shoshanat Yaakov tzahala v'samecha" (The rose of Jacob was thrilled with joy and exhalted). A minyan (prayer quorum) was held at the house of Elyakim Rosenzweig, a member of the Judenrat. On Purim, a group of young people staged a "Purim Shpiel," (skit) which had topical significance, but was very dangerous: they put Hitler on a "public trial!" I was amazed at the courage the organizers of the show. To this day, I think about and am full of appreciation for the wonderful phenomenon of their courage and truth in the show. Hitler's name was not mentioned, but everyone knew who he was. These young men needed much courage to do this.

In general, the holiday was felt greatly in the dirty alleyways of the villages on Purim. Jews "mobilized" all their mental powers to be happy. With all their strength they tried to detach themselves from the oppressive day-to-day reality… perhaps, because it was the Purim holiday that symbolizes the historical "upheaval" for the Jews of all generations. When the Jews of Shushan were persecuted and condemned to death: "To destroy, kill, and to wipe out, from youth to old man, children and women, in one day" - they switched positions to be the more powerful ones: "May they rule over their enemies". Perhaps such a miracle will happen to them too. Maybe they also have a contemporary "Esther" and salvation could near? Maybe they too "will rule over their haters?" In those days I thought: how great is the power of a Jewish holiday, it penetrates the depths of the soul of the Jew. Hope and security are found in the holiday, even in the most difficult ones, in the lives of the general population and in individuals. A fact: even staunch pessimists were carried away and held on to hope, if only for a short hour they lived in the sweet illusion of the intoxicating "Purim atmosphere".

The reading of the Megilla and giving mishloach manot (gifts of food for Purim)

On Purim, the Jews faithfully and with great enthusiasm observed the mitzvahs of reading the Megilla, of sending mishloach manot to one another, and giving charity to the poor, each according to his ability. In order to fulfill the mitzvahs on mishloach manot and charity in one shot, they sent food packages to prisoners in the camps in Poznan, for you don't have a poorer person than the prisoners of the camps. I heard the reading of Megillat Esther in a minyan at Eliyakim Rosenzweig's home. During the reading of the Megilla, each time the name of evil Haman was mentioned, the Jews stamped their feet with great vigor. There were people who, on their own initiative, added their own "addition", which is not written in the scroll: "Cursed be Hitler, may his name and memory be blotted out, speedily in our days."

(Like a Juniper in the Prairie - Yehoshua Eibeshitz)

Members of the Matanot Le’Evyonim (Gifts for the Poor) charity organization in Salonika

Yosef Guzik, Poland, Purim 5703 (1943)

I will not refrain from writing a few words about the matters of the day. According to my calculation, we have the Purim holiday today. There is no need to mention that we have not had Purim like this for many years, I would not be exaggerating if I say that the Jews have never had such a terrible Purim. We celebrate this holiday in memory of the fall of Haman the Aggagite who wanted to destroy and kill the Jews in the provinces of Persia, everyone from young boy to old men and women in one day, and take their spoil, but the matter did not come to fruition. He failed in his plot and he and his sons were hung. To our great sorrow and calamity, a greater Haman has risen against us now even worse than before, and he also "fell for the fate of being overwhelmed and lost"cast a lot" for our fate of destruction. And woe to us that no miracle occured for us, no Mordecai and Esther rose up against him. And this evil man is an enemy to us, and his hatred for the people of Israel surpasses the hatred of Haman the Aggagite, and his government is also stronger, and he has the power and courage to carry out all his evil plans and thoughts. He also issued a decree against us, the young and old, women and children. And it has been several years since he began to attack us with his corrupt collaborators. And there is no day without victims, and the number of dead rises to hundreds of thousands. And hundreds of holy communities have already been destroyed and been wiped out, and there is hardly one of us left in the city or two in one family. And the voice of the blood of our brothers in every city and country shouts out from the ground, and foreigners plunder our wealth. Oy! What will be with us?

(Yosef Guzik, Indeed, A Spiritual Candle Burns within Me, Jerusalem 5779/2019, pages 167-168)

A Purim skit in the Bais Yaakov school of Shanghai, Yaffa Eisenberg is on the far left