https://etzion.org.il/en/philosophy/issues-jewish-thought/issues-mussar-and-faith/holocaust
C. Did the Jewish Spiritual Leadership Anticipate the Holocaust and Prepare for It?
This controversial question is surrounded by differing opinions as well as by some misconceptions. It is an important question and one worthy of the effort to arrive at an orderly response.
Could the Holocaust have been foreseen? Seemingly, the answer should be 'yes.' Anyone who paid attention to what Hitler yimach shemo was saying, in his speeches and in his writings, would have had ample evidence of his explicit intentions. Even if some of his demagoguery preceded his election and could have been interpreted as nothing more than populist rabble-rousing, it was clear from the moment that he took the reins of government in Germany and began to promote his campaign of antisemitic legislation and action that he was carrying out his previously declared intentions. Indeed, with his rise to power there began a massive emigration of Jews from Germany to the US and to Eretz Yisrael. This movement slowed around the years 1935-6, but picked up again in 1937-8, with the intensification of antisemitic attacks. Does the fact that so many German Jews left the country prove that anyone could have known? In this regard, many people point to Ze'ev Jabotinsky and his speeches throughout Europe, warning again and again of the imminent catastrophe facing the Jews of that continent.
Despite all this, I am inclined to accept the argument of Prof. Yaakov Katz that this clarity comes with hindsight, and that an authentic re-creation of the processes and events in their historical context leads us to the conclusion that it would have been difficult to imagine the Holocaust as a serious possibility. We know that the weight given to declarations by leaders, and their proper interpretation, is largely context-dependent. Who could honestly have imagined that Hitler's venomous statements, delivered to gatherings of various associations and groups, were any more than expressions of hatred and belligerence, that there was the remotest chance that anyone in the enlightened world would allow them to be fulfilled, that there would be an operative plan for their realization, and that he would attain power? All of these barriers, along with many others, prevented an accurate reading of the early signs.
The scale of the Holocaust could not have been known.
ReplyDeleteI like what the chofetz Chaim ztl says about asking the Throne of Glory
But it can also be an answer in nevuah.
However, each person seemed to have a different answer.
Rav Kook said that one should trust one's own intuition.
Some people thought it's better off to be killed than to leave Europe.
So ironically it shows that what the CC said is actually...
Not applicable even to his greatest followers.
On the one hand, one could note various religious authorities saying stuff like "There's a churban coming" from the middle of the 1800's.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, even while it was happening it was not believable. That the Nazis would round up and shoot people? Sure, a huge progrom. Large measures for persecution and humiliation? Sure, nothing new in Europe. But the industrial nature of the killing? Entire factories dedicated to slaughtering as many human beings in a day as possible? Diverting important resources to mobile killing squads that should've gone to soldiers on the front? Who would do that?
People could've forseen another Chielnicki style pogrom or Crusades-style massacre but the Holocaust? It was beyond conceivable, until it wasn't.