As a Father Has Mercy on His Sons (Psalms 103:13)

Parents and Children during the Holocaust

By: Yaakov Rosenfeld

“Many books have been compiled, and many works have been written about what happened here, and despite this, the writer or poet who can express the depth of the abyss, the horror of that world has not yet arisen…

It may not be possible to describe and express what happened in human language, in the language of words…

Is it possible to describe the feelings of a mother or a father or a small child on the umschlagplatz (the gathering point from which Jews were deported)? Or the moment when Dr. Mengele ordered the mother to go to the right and her son to the left?…”

(Tzvi Eichenwald, Bnei Brak, in a speech for youth in Poland. Tzvi Eichenwald, Avraham Tzvi ben Chaim, passed away a year ago on the eve of Rosh Hashana 5783)

Only fathers and mothers can understand the sorrow of tearing children from their parents’ arms.

Even when we were children, we were shocked by the stories of tearing families apart but, as parents of children, we are not even able to think about it.

To read such stories at night and then look at the angelic faces of the little children, and think: “How could I be angry with them today, and any time?”…

Then, when the thoughts wander to the camps and ghettos, and before one’s eyes appear the parents whose children were torn from them, small children who also once knew how to cry and get angry and demand, and then suddenly an old woman jumped on them and they realized that from today they have no right to be angry or happy, to demand or accept, what they do have – the instinct of wanting to live, survive, get food, and hide from evil eyes.

The screams of the children from the shut gas chambers, like – “Mama, but I was a good child…” or “Tateh (father) I cannot do it any more” – will never leave the heads of the survivors. They torture them endlessly until the survivors pass away.

Children from the Lodz Ghetto beign deported in trucks to their destruction

It is hard for us to even imagine the sight of a child whose eyes were full of fear of death, and this, for five years, they encountered every day.

“If as sons, have mercy on us as a father has mercy on his sons…” We are say these words on Rosh Hashana, and also on the days of Selichot and the Ten Days of Atonement (between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur). Every early morning, when the air is still clear and pure, Jews gather in the synagogue and say “As a father has mercy on his sons, so may God have mercy on us”…

We will remember, now on the eve of the High Holidays, other horrible days, not so far away, when Jews faced the sorrow of being torn apart, parents from children, and children from parents. Parents watched with tearful eyes out of helpless wonder and grief at the murder of their little children, and children watched, in disbelief, as beasts of prey in human form furiously devoured the beloved bodies of their strong, stable, supportive, and loving fathers and mothers.

As a father has mercy on his sons…

Eighty years ago. Bendin, a fading Jewish city, under the German occupation.

Tzvi Rosenwein, who escaped at the beginning of the year 1945/5703 from the dying Czenstochowa to Bendin (Zachor, 12):

“We were in a difficult and gloomy mood then, we were in extremely difficult conditions, we did not see any glimmer of hope.”

“And here on one of the sleepless nights, I suddenly heard the voice of a woman singing a lullaby in a crying voice. A voice full of sorrow and sadness. At first I thought I was imagining, maybe a horrible dream was deceiving me, a common phenomenon in our miserable lives in the dark ghetto, but my natural curiosity did not let me rest and I went out of my room, into the street.”

“It’s early morning, it’s still dark outside, and here I see the ‘singer’.”

“She was a very young woman. She held two dolls in her arms.”

“The woman rocked the dolls with rhythmic movements, like a mother rocking her baby, and she sang to the dolls in a crying voice, a lullaby, a song full of longing and full of sadness.”

“Later I became interested in the fate of this woman, who rocked dolls and sang sad songs to them for entire nights. I learned that during one of the aktions (roundups) in the ghetto, the Germans stole her two toddler girls from her, and since then her mind was destroyed and she walked around at night with her childhood dolls and sings them lullabies.”

“This image, of the bereaved mother from the Bendin Ghetto, has accompanied me since; wherever I go, it has been engraved in my heart forever.”

Respecting one’s father and mother

From the testimony of Penina Berkowitz (Weinstock) (Zachor 2, 137)

“We hid in a bunker at 12 Starawarszawska Street in Piotrkow, where the shitebel (small synagogue) of Alexander, in which my father prayed, was located.”

“We experienced 21 days of horror in the crowded bunker together with 93 other people. The decision to leave the bunker was also influenced by the fact that at one time of distress people tried to suffocate their baby who was crying and could have endangered everyone’s lives. That’s why we left.”

“Unfortunately for us, when we left the bunker – we were immediately caught, my sister Shifra and I, and were taken to the synagogue which became a gathering place for the Jews who were sentenced to deportation (i.e. death).”

“When we came to the synagogue, a horrifying sight was revealed to us. The entire synagogue was covered in dirt and blood. Bunk beds were installed along the synagogue and on them lay the old, sick and… dead.”

“From time to time, the Ukrainians broke in and looked for money and valuables, and on their way ‘frolicked’ and shot everywhere for fun.”

“One day, after we had lost all hope, the head of the Judenrat, Shimon Warszawsky, entered the synagogue, accompanied by Gestapo officers, with a list in his hand. He announced, ‘Perel and Shifra Weinstock, out.'”

“On our way out, we were accompanied by jealous looks. Individuals tried to shout at us: ‘save us.'”

“And outside, we met our parents, and their faces beamed with happiness. ‘Pereleh, Shifraleh’… Our parents managed to convince the Judenrat that they should take them instead of us. The meaning flashed at us immediately: our parents condemned themselves to death in order to save us. We could not agree to this and we argued strongly, but our parents ordered us firmly: we must follow the decree to respect our father and run away from there immediately. They said goodbye to us with a prayer that we would survive and we left.”

“We returned to the barrack and made superhuman efforts to save them, but nothing helped. On the 12th day of Tevet 5703 (Dec. 20, 1942), my parents, Yeshayahu and Toiba Weinstock, along with 360 other Jews, were taken from the synagogue to the Rakow Forest, where they were murdered.”

“May G-d avenge their blood.”

As a father has mercy on his sons

(The Days of Mercy and Atonement, Rosh Hashana Eve 5702/1941, Bendin)

“They closed them in there and it was impossible to make any contact with them. They said the building was surrounded by police. We decided to go to the building (…) The Germans threatened us and shouted that we should move from the place, otherwise they would put us in there too…”

“No one left the building, no one left it.”

“One of the workers who brought bread to my parents gave Sarah a handwritten note.”

“Sarah sighed as she opened the note. They beg that we do everything to help them. They wrote ‘save us,’ she said, and her shoulders shook without her voice being heard.”

“Something collapsed in us. Our parents’ words hurt our hearts. It was a moment when the holy of holies of the orders of the universe was profaned.”

“The way of a world is where parents protect their children, and when the child faces difficulty or distress, his father and mother come to his aid. That’s what we also knew until that moment. Father was always a strong support for all of us, he brought security and calm to our home. Mother also, with her kindness, filled our lives with joy and blessings. In every struggle and difficulty we knew – they were always there for us, supporting, protecting. And suddenly this moment came outside the building in the city market, where the tables were turned – the parents are the ones asking for help and begging for their lives, and we, their children, stand helpless in front of them.”

“How much the pleading words written by our parents hurt us.”

“They knew we would come looking for them, they knew we would do everything to bring them home, and here we are outside the building and don’t know what we can do.”

“Our father, our mother, even now they are so close to us, only the wall of this building separates us, and the strong desire to see them and return home together with them fills our hearts with pain.”

“‘Save us’ they wrote on the note Sarah was holding in her hands, and we did not recognize ourselves from grief.”

Tzvi Eichenwald, Mimaamakim, Chapter 10, “Attempting to Save Our Parents”

“My very inards are agitated for him” (Jeremiah 31:19)

Trawnik, 1943

From the diary of Moshe Mordechai Weinstock z”l

“…On the way, the women asked the soldiers where they were taking them, and they replied that they were being taken to Trawnik, where death awaited them by SS machine guns.”

“They also demanded from the women to hand over anything of value because ‘you are going to die anyway’…”

“As they got closer to Trawnik, they felt closer and closer to death. Everyone cried to themselves, without a sound.”

“And when they entered the camp area, a horrible camp was revealed before their eyes: the entire camp area was covered with heaps and heaps of dead bodies in puddles of congealed blood… ten thousand dead!”

(The women were forcibly employed in removing the bodies and the valuables left behind by the martyrs; we will spare the readers the descriptions.)

“One day, when the women were busy packing the bedding they found in one of the barracks, they suddenly saw a small child’s hand sticking out from some hidden corner, and immediately heard a child’s whimper and fear…”

“The women were horrified. They did not understand how after two weeks of murder in which ten thousand Jews were exterminated, this child survived.”

“His little head was dry and his face was deeply wrinkled. A 5-year-old boy and his face – the face of a seventy-year-old Jew.”

“Luckily, that day, they were working under an SS man. He was an old man and not a Ukrainian murderer.”

“He looked at the child and some human emotion arose in him and he did not murder the child as was customary at the time in similar cases.”

“The camp commander agreed to register the boy as a worker and in the meantime his life was spared until they were all executed.”

“The women took the child under their protection and cared for him with devotion, and he very quickly got well and became a normal child physically and mentally. He became the favorite of the 45 women. Each of them were happy to dedicate time and devotion to him.”

“It became clear that he was not a regular child. He was a gifted child with rare talents. He spoke fluent German even though he was originally from Poland. His name was Mark Zemel. In many cases he served as an interpreter for the SS men.”

“In particular, Perelkeh Weisenfeld from Lodz took care of him like a mother. She didn’t take her eyes off him even for a moment. The boy also became very attached to her with love and solemnly promised her that when he starts learning to write at school, the first word he would write would be Perelkeh.”

Children dancing after the liberation of Auschwitz, drawing

(…)

“On the premises of Schultz’s factory, there was a German woman who came with her Jewish husband and they had a three-year-old child, and when his parents were taken to an ‘unknown destination,’ the commander Bartecki adopted the child, and when the S.S. found out that a half-Jewish child was at Bartecki’s, he made many efforts in high places in Lublin and managed to convince the right people to keep the ‘half-Jewish’ child alive and in return they would hand Mark Zemel over to Majdanek, and this is how the Jewish child came to be in the camp.”

“The order indeed came very quickly, and when it became known in the women’s camp that the pure soul of the child was destined for the crematorium in Majdanek, the women lost their minds. They tore hair from their heads and wept bitterly over the great destruction. Their cries and their screams rang out loud. All the pain, sorrow, and brokenness that had accumulated in the heart of the unfortunate Jewish women burst out of their hearts at once. They cried and howled without respite. This news stunned everyone. It was as if bombs had exploded inside the barrack. Each woman felt as if it were her personal disaster. Particularly falling apart at the great disaster was Perelkeh Wiesenfeld, who had always been so worried about Mark and devoted herself constantly for the sake of the dear boy…”

“Even in the men’s barracks, the terrible news caused grief and astonishment. They went wild with heartache (…)”

“No one could close an eye on that bitter and terrible night. All of them, the women and the men, sat all night on the floor and sighed bitterly. Every hour one of the women approached the child’s bed to see how the child was sleeping (…)”

“The crying of the women woke the boy. He jumped up and started crying too…”

“Perelkeh prepared a backpack for the boy and put food and tears in it; and here the appointed hour approached. Eight in the morning. At this time, the Ukrainians were supposed to take the little orphan, a single remnant of the ten thousand; the little boy will join them shortly.”

“Exactly at eight two Ukrainian murderers came and took the little martyr.”

“His last words were to Perelkeh, who parted with him in tears: ‘I don’t believe we’ll ever see each other again.'”

“The whole women’s hut was filled with sadness. They all mourned for the child just like a mother mourns for her only son (…) They cried more that day than they cried on the day in front of the ten thousand dead.”

A Jewish corpse fell with the murderer

From the notes of an eyewitness, Dr. Reuven Feldszuh (Ben Shem) published in the HaMashkif newspaper, December 1945, under the title “At the Ganshai Cemetery”.

“… and the lawyer Weissman, a young man with a gentle soul and an iron body, did not hold back. His mother was shot at home, lying on her bed, and the young man was connected to his mother with every fiber of his sensitive soul.”

“Now he stood in the same line with his father who blackened his hair and pinched his cheeks so that they would look red and young like all the others did in the years they stood in the ranks.”

“He straightened up, stretched with all his might and when his turn came, the SS whipped him. One whip on top and the killers carried him to the left.”

“His younger son, the lawyer, jumped up against the animals and such a wild, volcanic cry erupted from his mouth that the murderers were frightened at the first moment. The young man jumped up and wanted to get his father out of the hands of the Ukrainian beast, but then the butt of the rifle fell on his head and blood covered the devoted son’s face.”

“But then his whole personality also shone through. With his open head from the splintering of the rifle, he pushed the Ukrainian holding his father until he fell to the ground.”

“And when the Ukrainian’s friend jumped to assist him, Weissman grabbed him with his bloody hands, shook the man, and began to choke him until the rifle fell from the killer’s hand. His eyes started rolling round and round and his face turned red. An S.S. man took out his gun and shot the Jewish young man who was defending his father’s life. The bullet pierced the young man’s body, but he did not let go of his hands from the killer’s neck.”

“He held on tighter”

“And the Ukrainian killer stuck out his tongue, his hands began to flutter. The last breath came out in a snort through his nose (…)”

“The Ukrainians and SS began to shoot him non-stop. He died, and the Jewish corpse fell fell along with the murderer.”