Holocaust Devotion

I was asked to write this piece for the annual remembrance of the Holocaust, where more than six million people of the Jewish faith were murdered during World War Two by the Nazi Germany leadership and its military.

This presents a challenge for this chaplain for a couple of reasons. First, I am a Christian, and although I am quite fond of the Jewish roots of Christianity, I am not Jewish. I have friends and family that are Jewish, I have been to synagogue services a few times, and I have been acquainted with a few Rabbi’s over the years; but again, I am not Jewish. This means that the best I can do is to be academically honest and spiritually sound to the best of my abilities in this endeavor.

Second, prior to becoming a chaplain, I spent the majority of my adult life as a member of the military and law enforcement communities; having retired from each of those vocations. My traditional “baby boomer” upbringing, compounded by my career choices, mean that I have the strong belief in equal protection and equal responsibilities under the law.

The atrocities committed during the Holocaust are almost unfathomable to me. Almost, because I have seen what human beings are capable of doing to each other up close and personal; and I have studied my history, and I know these events happened as I have talked to survivors of that time. This is why it is so important that we remember such things. So they never happen again.

Having said all that, let me share some of the history of the remembrance’s origins.

“Establishment of the Holiday (1) – The full name of the day commemorating the victims of the Holocaust is “Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagevurah”— in Hebrew literally translated as the “Day of (remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism.”

It is marked on the 27th day in the month of Nisan — a week after the end of the Passover holiday and a week before Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen soldiers). It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

The date was selected in a resolution passed by Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, on April 12, 1951. Although the date was established by the Israeli government, it has become a day commemorated by Jewish communities and individuals worldwide.

The day’s official name – Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day – was made formal in a law enacted by the Knesset on August 19, 1953; on March 4, 1959, the Knesset passed another law which determined that tribute to victims of the Holocaust and ghetto uprisings be paid in public observances.” – courtesy of the Jewish Virtual Library.

The encyclopedias Brittanica and Wikipedia also go into some depth about the related observances (one is called Purim – which remembers a similar situation of the Jewish people from the 5th Century B.C.).

What observances should we be doing on this day?

According to the Jewish Virtual Library article cited above, each congregation essentially creates their own remembrance service. Some gather and sing music, others light candles, some read the names of family or congregation members lost; and in years past, some services have read through the entire list of six million plus names.

For 2020, and with a worldwide health challenge at hand, remembrance services in Israel have become creative. According to the English speaking news outlets HAARETZ (4) and the Jerusalem Post (5), public gatherings are still not allowed in Israel because of the COVID-19 situation; so, the people of Israel have created a movement to go out on their porches one evening and light a candle and sing all at the same time, as well as joining together for a virtual “March of the Living”.

So, what does this mean going forward twenty years into the 21st century, and more than seventy-five years since the end of the second world war?

With some insight from another person of faith, this caused me to re-examine Isaiah chapters 55 and 60; which in short state that God’s got this, get back up and to quit feeling sorry for ourselves.

It means that we should not forget our history, less we repeat it; and no, I am not the first person to have said something to that effect. As best as I can research, that citation can best be attributed to one of two people. Either back to Sir Edmund Burke (8), an Irish statesmen and philosopher, who is also credited with the phrase “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”; or to Spanish philosopher George Santayana.

However, from a faith perspective, it means we should not lose hope. Even when it appears that the ghosts of the past are lurking in the shadows of the present. In the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible (what Christians refer to as the Old Testament), there is peace to be found in Psalm 23, and there are blessings in both Psalm 91, and in Numbers 6:22-27.

Please do not fret too much. Should we as a society pay attention to current events?

Absolutely. Should we panic? No! Remember that in the Tanakh alone, the phrase “fear not” appears at least forty times. If God put something in there that many times, maybe we should pay attention to it.

Remember, there is also the promise of hope and the promise God’s love in the following of His plan for our lives found in Ecclesiastes 4, Isaiah 40, and Jeremiah 29. Never forget that.

In closing, this is my prayer for each of you reading:

Almighty God, may You bring healing, peace and comfort to all of those reading this and to their loved ones as well, and all those affected by this worldwide health crisis. May
You watch out over those that are deemed essential and placing themselves in harms way to facilitate our response and recovery. Bring them safely back to their families. Please
watch out over our public officials, both elected and appointed. Give them the courage, wisdom, patience and love to complete their assignments both honorably and according
to Your will. We thank You for our blessings, and we ask that You forgive all of our mistakes; in Your precious name we pray. Amen.

Remember, God loves you. All you have to do, is love Him back.

© All rights reserved.

---