The Rabbi of Celle and Rabbi Moshe Prager’s Style of “Revenge”

By: Yaakov Rosenfeld

During a recent lecture I gave at the Bobov Yeshiva in Bat Yam, I spoke about the Jewish People’s trait of mercy as “merciful ones sons of merciful ones,” and the heartbroken Holocaust survivors who had not lost their humanity, and despite the command of revenge burning in their hearts, they never thought of acting as their tormentors and captors had done, even when such opportunities arose before them.

We were then in the week of the parsha (weekly Torah portion) of “Re’eh,” and I spoke about the “gift of mercy” that we received from G-d. As a reference, I cited the words of the Or HaChaim on this parsha:

And He will grant you mercy and be merciful with you. The meaning of this article here is that He commanded for the the Ir Nidachat (city where the majority of residents served idolatry) to be killed. This act will give birth to the nature of cruelty in the heart of man, as the Ishmaelites, the sect of murderers, told us in the article of the king, that they have a great desire when they kill a person, and the root of mercy was cut off from them and they became cruel, and the observation itself will be rooted in the murderers of the Ir Nidachat. To this they were promised that G-d would give them mercy. Although nature will give birth to cruelty in them, the source of mercy will influence them with the power of mercy anew to cancel the power of cruelty that was born in them by the power of the act. And they said, and your mercy, the message is that as long as a person is by nature cruel, G-d will behave in this way with him, that G-d does not have mercy except on those who are merciful. (Or HaChaim, on Parshat Re’eh)

I spoke about our heritage as “merciful ones sons of merciful ones” – a heritage of ancestors from generations to generations, a heritage that is so deeply rooted that it is part of our hereditary personality, and as it says in the Talmud (Tractate Beitza, page 32b):

Rav said, Anyone who has compassion for God’s creatures, it is known that he is of the descendants of Abraham, our father, and anyone who does not have compassion for God’s creatures, it is known that he is not of the descendants of Abraham, our father.

I spoke about the testimonies piled up in our archives about the gentleness of Holocaust survivors who, despite the burning desire for revenge within them, never dared or thought of acting as their animalistic murderers did.

That day, as I sat down to work on the materials for the DP camp commemoration project, a piece of paper appeared before my eyes that I almost skipped over, but I happened to skim through, and I was moved to read the wonderful testimony of our founder, the unforgettable writer and thinker, Rabbi Moshe Prager z”l, about his visit to Celle, two years after the war.

The genius Rabbi Yisrael Moshe Olevsky z”l

We will write more about Celle here soon, G-d willing, where the devout Rabbi Yisrael Moshe Olevsky worked among the survivors of Bergen-Belsen. Celle deserves for the younger generation to know some extent about the rivers of dedication and love of one’s fellow Jew that poured into it exactly eighty years ago. Celle was a tremendous undertaking by one man, also a Holocaust survivor, and G-d willing, we will be dealing with his amazing work in the coming days as part of the “Techiyat HaChaim” (Renewal of Life) project – eighty years since the renewal of the Holocaust survivors.

This addition will celebrate the work of the virtuous individuals who transcended their pain and ignited a fire of hope and vitality among the remnant of the Jewish People in the spirit the nation throughout generations. While collecting the documentary and written material, we were amazed by the people and their vision; we were enchanted by their dedication and faith; we were moved by their success in finding paths to the hearts of many who had lost everything, but they had not lost their spirit and soul.

Photos from Celle

Rabbi Moshe Prager

This is the passage from Rabbi Moshe Prager z”l, recording his visit to Celle in 5707 (1947):

A period of mourning for the camps of survivors in the divided and devastated Nazi Germany. The year 5707, two years after the fall of Hitler, but the Jews of the camps are still languishing in their grief. They have nowhere to turn. The Kingdom of Great Britain holds tightly onto the locked gates of the Land of Israel.

So I take up my wandering stick and tour the camps.

Celle is located not far from Hanover. It was there that the unforgettable Rabbi, Rabbi Yisrael Moshe Olevsky z”l, ignited a holy fire of awakening and renewal. And I myself, the only descendant of a large family of holy victims, may G-d avenge their blood, was also swept away by the fiery ideology: from destruction to rebirth.

“Am Yisrael Chai” – a banner in giant letters flies on Rabbi Olevsky’s automobile, which he obtained for his activities. But what does the phrase “Am Yisrael Chai” mean? Chaim (life)! It means a true Jewish life, with observance of Shabbat and kashrut. Such a miraculous rabbi he is, who, with the magnitude of his dedication, lit and ignited all the members of his community after him as kosher and faithful Jews.

The kindhearted rabbi tells me a typical episode from his first days after the liberation of the Celle camp – and I listen, my astonishment growing:

“Who is like your people Israel, one nation in the land”? Is it possible to believe such a miraculous story? But nevertheless, I was an eyewitness to it.

Celle was a forced labour camp, a hell of a place. Only Jewish men, all parts of families that had been wiped out. Each one was grieving, dying, torn from their parents, their wives, their children. Oy gevalt, the children!…

And here, into this camp of newly liberated Jews, a German boy, a blond “sheigetz” (non-Jewish boy) aged 4-5, accidentally stumbled.

One of the suffering Jews begins, crying out in a heartbreaking voice: “He will be ‘atonement’ for my seven children!”

“This ‘sheigetz’ will not leave here alive!”

Another Jew ran towards the terrified “sheigetz” crying out: “Your father, a soldier, and perhaps even an SS man, killed everyone close to my heart! All the people of my city. You will be the ‘atonement’ for everyone”…

Thus the entire camp was swept away by the fire of a thirst for revenge.

But how did this bizarre incident end?

Oy, Master of the World. Ever since the exile in Egypt, the Jews were marked as “merciful.” And Satan himself was unable to extinguish the spark of mercy from the hearts of the Jews.

Did you hear? The little “sheigetz” began crying and calling: “Mutti, Mutti” (Mommy, Mommmy). And suddenly all those vengeful Jews in the camp calmed down and unanimously decided, with me also joining their decision, to hand over the stray German child to the German police headquarters.

This was the Rabbi’s brief expression. And I, who, while wandering between camps, heard many groans and sighs of “revenge, revenge” – was truly shocked by this dramatic event, which proves that Jews have never, G-d forbid, lost for a moment the image of G-d imprinted in their blood! This message was perceived by me as revenge.