At Ganzach Kiddush Hashem we commemorate...

The Giving of the Torah in the Desert

A letter from somewhere in the African desert, in the midst of the war, written by a Jewish soldier who excitedly tells about the Torah scroll his unit received from the community in Alexandria, and about the precious parochet (Torah ark curtain), dedicated in memory of the 93 Bais Yaakov girls.

Compiled by: Yaakov Rosenfeld

The giving of the Torah in the desert…

The Royal Air Force

I am writing this letter to you from somewhere in the African desert. We are a Jewish unit of soldiers in the Air Force.

Some time ago we celebrated the anniversary of our founding. The commander of the unit is an energetic British officer of goodwill, a man who understands our spirit.

He demands discipline and full responsibility from us, but he also tries, with all his might, to fulfill what he promises us.

It is difficult today to describe all the difficulties we have gone through, and to tell about all the obstacles we had to overcome during the year. There is a real ingathering of the exiles in our unit.

Jews from Germany, Russia, Poland, England, Turkey, Yemen, Kurdistan, Sefardim and natives of Israel. Of course, all this makes the internal life of the unit difficult. Nevertheless, we overcame the difficulties and our unit is an exemplary unit in the entire Mediterranean region.

(…)

And so we gathered – the few religious soldiers in the unit – and together with the cultural committee we decided that we should build a beautiful synagogue here and even put a Torah scroll inside it.

Although the religious soldiers had gathered before to pray on holidays and festivals, we did not have a Torah scroll or a special synagogue.

We approached the Chief Military Rabbi of the Air Force, Rabbi Brodie (Rabbi Sir Israel Brodie, later Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, founder of the Conference of European Rabbis, a revered leader and active rabbi. -Y.R.), about this matter, and asked him to obtain a Torah scroll for us.

Indeed, we established a beautiful and magnificent synagogue, and although it was built of straw according to the conditions of the desert, it is not to be ashamed of.

(…)

For the anniversary celebration, Rabbi Brodie arrived on a special plane carrying a Torah scroll – a gift from the Alexandria community to our unit. In addition, the wife of one of the soldiers from our company sent a gift: a very beautiful parochet in memory of ninety-three Bais Yaakov girls of Krakow who died in sanctification of G-d’s Name.

The celebration opened with a ceremonial parade in which all the soldiers lined up in their polished holiday clothes. The commanding officer, accompanied by the military rabbi, received the parade.

(…)

Hearts were still beating with the excitement of the flag raising, and then the rabbi raised the Torah scroll. Dozens of hands pointed to the square letters that contained the secret of our people’s existence, and lips murmured, “This is the Torah”…

The rabbi read the Ten Commandments. We all stood on our feet and listened to his voice, which stirred our souls.

We felt as if we were standing in the desert and receiving the Torah and saying, “We will do and we will hear.”

The rabbi spoke about current matters: about the value of the Torah we received in the desert, what it is for us, and what it is for all of humanity. If we know how to keep it, it will keep us.

After him, one of the soldiers spoke. He pointed to the Torah as the book of social laws that preceded all the new ideas in the world, and even today it must serve as a guide for us from which we draw the spirit needed to re-establish our people in our land.

Afterwards, with great excitement, we carried the Torah to the new synagogue. The rabbi sang “Open for me the gates of righteousness,” and the commander was honoured to open the synagogue for the first time. A short prayer was held inside the synagogue. The names of the fallen in the war and the fallen of our people who fall every day in the occupied lands were mentioned, and after that they sang “He Who Gives Salvation to Kings.”

It is impossible to describe the strong impression that this ceremony left on all those gathered, and I think that it will not be forgotten for a long time.

(…)

Since the Torah has been in the unit’s possession, a different spirit has been blowing among the soldiers. Many soldiers, whom we have never seen at prayer, are now coming.

We, the religious soldiers, have great spiritual satisfaction that our holy Torah resides in our unit. We live with the hope that G-d will grant that we will all return to the land safe and sound, each to our family, and that this Torah scroll that traveled with us in the desert and protected us will be placed in a place of honour worthy of it, in one of the settlements.

(Published in “Igeret La’Meguyas HaDati,” booklet 13)

Shavuot after Liberation

On the eve of Shavuot 5705 (May 1945), “Sha’arit HaPleita (survivors) Switzerland” printed a special Shavuot booklet for Holocaust survivors.

These were the first days of liberation, and Holocaust survivors began to adapt to the new situation. Free indeed, but lonely, sad, weak, and doubt about the future pierced their hearts.

Shavuot 5705 was the first holiday after liberation, and this is reflected in the words of the festive booklet, which was printed in in Versoix in German, French, and Hebrew.

Most of the articles deal with the giving of the Torah and the holiday of Shavuot in the Land of Israel.

The page photographed here from the original located Ghetto Fighters’ House reads in as follows (translated from Hebrew):

To all members wherever they are

On this holiday of bikurim (first fruits), we send you a festive greeting of peace

We have been waiting for this day for many years

And now peace has arrived

We cannot feel pleasure

We have lost too much

We are too few

But the war is over

The killing has stopped

The right to speak for life

If we do not forget the dead

(…)

Let us celebrate this Shavuot

As a holiday that has benefited us and the whole world

Torah

“For from Zion Torah will go out and the Word of G-d from Jerusalem…” (Isaiah 2:3)

Shavuot 5705 Prayers in Buchenwald

While still in Buchenwald, I received my first dose of spiritual sustenance when, a few days before our return to Czechoslovakia, word spread through the camp that an American Jew would be celebrating Shavuot with us tonight, the day of the giving of our Torah.

I had lost my calendar on the death march between Niederorschel and Buchenwald, so this rumour came as a surprise to me, causing me excitement but also heartbreak.

Even as a little boy, I eagerly awaited and rejoiced at Shavuot, especially during the war. Now I was worried and troubled about how all the sick and weak would manage to come to the holiday prayers? How could they now, after such tragic events, gather their physical and spiritual strength and rejoice in the holiday of the giving of our Torah, for which blood was shed like water?

But now I have come to realize that just as we cannot estimate physical forces and material means, it is even more impossible to estimate how many forces lie within the pure souls of tortured and broken Jews.

That evening, there was a tremendous demonstration of faith and trust in G-d in Buchenwald. Thousands of Jews crowded into the hall where the holiday prayer was held, the first Jewish prayer on the cursed soil of Germany after the war. All of them, weak and exhausted, old and elderly, came with the last of their strength, with the essence of their blood, to prove to themselves and to the whole world that their lives were dedicated to the One Who spoke and created the world, to His Torah and faith. And when Rabbi Schacter approached the prayer stand as a prayer leader, all the Jews, inside and outside, took upon themselves the Torah anew, the same Torah that Hitler and his followers wanted to destroy and erase from the world.

The unbroken chain has not been broken, the Jewish tradition continues and is being woven anew, and just as our ancestors who came out of Egypt received the Ten Commandments in the Sinai Desert, so we, Jews liberated in Buchenwald, received the Holy Torah on the soil of Germany.

(S. B. Unsdorfer, Tlai HaTzahov, Jerusalem 5755, pg. 111)