Putting the Holocaust Into Its Proper Context - OLIVIER MELNICK CHARISMA NEWS

The Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. (Wikimedia Commons )

Putting the Holocaust Into Its Proper Context

12/5/2016 OLIVIER MELNICK  CHARISMA NEWS

We live at a time when Jewish people are being accused of dwelling unnecessarily on the memory of the Holocaust. But at the same time, we are seeing swastikas being painted on doors, walls and even tombstones across the globe.

Mahmoud Abbas was unanimously reelected as leader of Fatah, and the West is supposed to get excited about the man they believe could make peace with Israel. Let us not forget he is a Holocaust denier who wrote his thesis in 1982 on that very topic under the title "The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement."

Populist parties are gaining tremendous ground in Europe as the desire to stop and control the migrant crisis becomes a priority. With them, they bring the deep rooted European racial antisemitism we thought was defunct.

Only a couple of years ago on the streets of Paris, I heard people marching and chanting, "Jews to the ovens." It seems a lot of people are either denying the Holocaust, wanting another one or worse, are clueless about the first one.

I don't think we speak too much of the Holocaust, but we don't think about it in its proper context.

Scholars, philosophers, theologians and historians have all grappled with the Holocaust, trying to come to terms with the immensity of its evil in strength and scope. Some within classical Jewish religious thought believe the Holocaust was God's retribution or payback for Israel's sins. In other words, it was God's desire to discipline Israel for her sins and, as such, was part of God's plan all along.

The common name for it is Mi-penei hata ' einu (Hebrew for "because of our sins we were punished.") It refers to divine punishment for the sins of Israel. It is true that the Tenach is replete with stories about the sins of Israel and their consequential discipline from God.

Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize laureate, Elie Wiesel, wrote in 1962 of the religious Jewish reaction to the Holocaust in Commentary Magazine: "The feeling of guilt was, to begin with, essentially a religious feeling. If I am here, it is because God is punishing me; I have sinned, and I am expiating my sins. I have deserved this punishment that I am suffering."

Wiesel, along with many others, feel that while the punishment inflicted by the Holocaust might not be proportionate to the sins committed by Israel, the two are related. Incidentally, if one believes that—as the Bible teaches—the price for our sins is death (Ezek. 18:4), then the Holocaust could be justified. But why would God wait almost 2,000 years to punish Israel, and why inflict pain and suffering on generations that are so far removed from the previous ones?

Others see Israel as the Suffering Servant of Is. 52:13-53:12. They will assign the suffering of the Holocaust to all Israel (all Jewish people.) Although it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the meaning of Isaiah 53, let's state that this controversial passage definitely speaks of suffering, humiliation and death in no uncertain terms. But it can also refer to a person and not Israel as a whole. If indeed it refers to a person in particular, Yeshua of Nazareth is the only one who would fit that description, especially since toward the end of the passage, after humiliation, suffering and death comes resurrection.

Some speak of Hester Panim ("hiding of the face,") also known as "the eclipse of God." Ps. 44:23-24 speaks of God hiding His face: "Awake; why do You sleep, O Lord? Arise; do not reject us forever. Why do You hide Your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?"

Was God absent during the Holocaust? From the standpoint of protecting the victims from suffering and death, it would certainly appear to be true. Each and every one of the six million innocent victims—if they could speak—would most likely testify of God's absence or lack of involvement.

Yet, when we speak of the eclipse of God, we must recall what an eclipse is all about: a visual disappearance while the physical presence remains. In other words, God might have been eclipsed or might have been hiding His face during the Holocaust, but He was always there and always within reach. Not only was He there, but He felt the pain of the victims as Isaiah 63:9a tells us: "In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them."

Many religious people, Jewish and Gentile, wound up in the camps. If God was silent, some of His people weren't. The eclipse of God was not because He didn't care, but possibly because for a time, He removed Himself from the affairs of men, leaving the fate of many in the hands of a few. At the very least, He allowed for the Jewish people not to be under His protection, as He had done repeatedly in the long history of the children of Israel.

Isaiah tells us God cared as He suffered affliction for His people. Additionally, God took no pleasure in the death of the many. Even assuming Israel was being punished by the Holocaust for being wicked—a case that cannot be made with absolute certainty—the prophet Ezekiel speaks of God when he writes, "Say to them: As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Ezek. 33:11a).

The Holocaust prompted many Jews who survived the Holocaust to come to the conclusion that God is dead. Again Elie Wiesel, this time in his seminal work Night,depicts the agonizing hanging of a young boy:

"Where is God? Where is He?" someone behind me asked ... For more than half an hour [the child in the noose] stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed. Behind me, I heard the same man asking: "Where is God now?" And I heard a voice within me answer him: "Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows."

But if God died during the Holocaust, why did it come to a halt in 1945? The Nazi war machine was well-oiled and extremely efficient. The liberation of the camps and the capitulation of Germany would militate towards God not being dead and, on the contrary, being instrumental in the end of World War II. This is also in line with His promise never to completely destroy Israel as found in Jeremiah (Jer. 31:35-37.)

I could continue to look at the Holocaust and wrestle further with causes for it. Regardless of how many approaches with come up with, we will most certainly come back to evil being at the core of the catastrophe.

This leads us to the problem of evil. The existence of evil in the world is a topic that is highly debated. Very few believe evil doesn't exist. The Holocaust and how low humanity could bring itself proved evil exists.

Hitler wasn't insane. Insanity would exonerate him of all responsibility for the so-called "Final Solution to the Jewish problem." But Hitler was pure evil. But even when we recognize that, the source of all evil must still be identified.

I don't believe we can properly do such a thing without building our case on a biblical foundation. Morality is based on the balance between good and evil, which is best brought forward by looking at what the Tenach says.

Good and evil cannot exist independently of one another, since one defines the other. Going back to the first book of the Tenach, Genesis, we find out that one of God's most special angels, Satan, rebelled against God and fell from grace. From that point on, he has been working very hard at hating what God loves and loving what God hates. That puts the Jewish people and Israel directly in his crosshairs.

Satan knows that through the Jewish people, more specifically through the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10), will come the Redeemer of mankind, the Messiah of Israel. His goal is to stop that from happening, because at some point in the future, Messiah will put an end to Satan's career, and he doesn't care for his retirement plan.

I am often asked if the birth of the modern state of Israel is a direct result of World War II and the Holocaust. I believe the answer is a resounding no. Rather, the Holocaust was an attempt by Satan to destroy the Jews right before they would start fulfilling one of God's most amazing prophecy about their return to their biblical land (Ezek. 36-38.)

There is no doubt in my mind that Satan was aware of the return of the Jews to Israel in the end times. He had to stop it, or at least try, thus the Holocaust. He used Pharaoh to try to stop Moses from being born, he used Herod to try to stop Yeshua from being born and he used Nazi Germany and Hitler to try to stop the Jews from moving back to Israel and fulfilling God's covenantal promises. Satan exploited the fact that the Jewish people weren't under God's protection and were more at the mercy of the nation to attempt their total eradication. He almost succeeded, but God is greater. Not only God is greater, but He is interested in every single soul that exists. God wants to draw them to Him, one soul at a time. 

So again, it is not that we speak too much of the Holocaust, but maybe that we speak of it in the wrong context. 

Olivier Melnick is the author of They Have Conspired Against You, a book on the rebirth of worldwide anti-Semitism and how to fight it, as well as the novel The Rabbi's Triad, an evangelistic thriller. He is also a guest commentator on WorldNetDaily, Times of Israel and other websites such as his blog site at newantisemitism.com. Olivier serves as a Regional Director in Washington state. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Chosen People France.

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Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog: Elie Wiesel understood the terrible power of silence, the danger of not speaking out against evil

Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog

Elie Wiesel understood the terrible power of silence, the danger of not speaking out against evil, notes Natan Sharansky. by joelcrosenberg We continue to mourn the recent death of Elie Wiesel, the courageous survivor of Auschwitz, author of tremendous books about the Holocaust, and the long-time advocate of human rights around the globe. Along these lines, let me commend to your attention an excellent column by Natan Sharansky, the former political prisoner in the Soviet Union, current chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and friend of Wiesel. Elie Wiesel’s great mission on behalf of Soviet Jews By Natan Sharansky, op-ed in the Washington Post on July 4 Perhaps better than anyone else of our age, Elie Wiesel grasped the terrible power of silence. He understood that the failure to speak out, about both the horrors of the past and the evils of the present, is one of the most effective ways there is to perpetuate suffering and empower those who inflict it. Wiesel therefore made it his life’s mission to ensure that silence would not prevail. First, he took the courageous and painful step of recounting the Holocaust, bringing it to public attention in a way that no one else before him had done. His harrowing chronicle “Night,” originally titled “And the World Remained Silent,” forced readers to confront that most awful of human events — to remember it, to talk about it, to make it part of their daily lives. Then, as if that weren’t enough, he turned his attention to the present, giving voice to the millions of Jews living behind the Iron Curtain. Although he is rightly hailed for the first of these two achievements, it was the second, he told me on several occasions, for which he most hoped to be remembered. Wiesel first traveled to the Soviet Union in 1965 as a journalist from Haaretz, on a mission to meet with Jews there, and was shocked by what he saw. Those with whom he spoke were too afraid to recount Soviet persecution, terrified of reprisals from the regime, but their eyes implored him to tell the world about their plight. The book that resulted, “The Jews of Silence,” was an impassioned plea to Jews around the world to shed their indifference and speak out for those who could not. “For the second time in a single generation, we are committing the error of silence,” Wiesel warned — a phenomenon even more troubling to him than the voiceless suffering of Soviet Jews themselves. This was a watershed moment in Soviet Jewry’s struggle. While the major American Jewish organizations felt a responsibility to stick to quiet diplomacy, wary of ruffling Soviet feathers and alienating non-Jews in the United States, Wiesel’s book became the banner of activists, students and others who would not stay quiet. He had realized that the Soviet regime wanted above all for its subjects to feel cut off from one another and abandoned by the world. Indeed, I can attest that even 15 years later, Soviet authorities were still doing their utmost to convince us — both those of us in prison and those outside — that we were alone, that no one would save us and that the only way to survive was to accept their dictates.... [To read the rest of this column, please click here] —————————– Order The First Hostage today — the new political thriller about ISIS plotting a terrorist attacks against Israel, Jordan and the United States — available in hardcover, e-book and audio formats. ———————-—- Subscribe (free) to the RSS feed (click here) and receive every new posting on this blog directly via email. Order THE THIRD TARGET today , the first in this new series — now out in paperback — the New York Times best-selling novel about ISIS capturing chemical weapons in Syria and plotting genocidal attacks on the U.S. and our Mideast allies. Make an investment in The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.net), our non-profit organization to help Christians care for Syrian refugees, educate and mobilize Christians to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, care for the poor and needy in Israel (both Jews and Arabs) with food and other humanitarian relief, care for Holocaust survivors, and strengthen the Church in the epicenter. Read our latest Donor Report, and prayerfully consider making a tax deductible, secure, on-line contribution. Thanks so much! Follow on Twitter — @joelcrosenberg joelcrosenberg | July 13, 2016 at 10:02 am | Categories: Epicenter | URL: http://wp.me/piWZ7-5ez

Holocaust Survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Elie Wiesel, Has Died - David Lazarus ISRAEL TODAY

Holocaust Survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Elie Wiesel, Has Died

Sunday, July 03, 2016 |  David Lazarus  ISRAEL TODAY

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Nobel Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor whose sad eyed face became a piercing, reminder of humanity’s ongoing agony, has died at age 87.

For more than a half-century, Wiesel gave voice to the pain of our people to influential leaders, celebrities and audiences around the world. He wrote more than 40 books, and was best known for "Night," a retelling of his experiences as a 15-year-old boy in Auschwitz.

The best way we can all remember Mr. Wiesel is to listen closely to a man who lost his mother, father and sister in a Nazi death camp, tattooed with the number A-7713 on his arm, as he stands before the world, telling his story upon receiving the Noble Peace Prize.

"I remember: it happened yesterday or eternities ago. A young Jewish boy discovered the kingdom of night. I remember his bewilderment, I remember his anguish. It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed.

I remember: he asked his father: "Can this be true?" This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?

And now the boy is turning to me: "Tell me," he asks. "What have you done with my future? What have you done with your life?"

And I tell him that I have tried. That I have tried to keep memory alive, that I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.

And then I explained to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remain silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.

We must not allow our past to become our children’s future."

In 1985, when Wiesel received a Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan, he stood before the gathering, and as the president looked on, asked him to cancel a planned trip to a cemetery in Germany that contained graves of Hitler's SS guards.

"May I, Mr. President, if it's possible at all, implore you to do something else, to find a way, to find another way, another site. That place, Mr. President, is not your place. Your place is with the victims."

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