In my last post I shared a bit about the resistance of the Jews during the holocaust.  That’s because I wanted to highlight the Jews determination to live life to the fullest, even in the darkest circumstances.  Now, I want to share just a bit more of the sinister aspect of the holocaust.

Ephraim Kaye, a holocaust historian (who also guided our tour through the Holocaust Museum), talked to us today about “The Decision to Kill the Jews – The Final Solution and its Implementation.”  He rattled off extensive dates and details in answering these three questions:

1. Who gave the order to kill the Jews?
2. When was this order given?
3. Who participated in the mass murders?

To fill in the details would take volumes beyond what this blog is intended.  Thus, I will do my best to give you the very short version of those answers.  Let me say first of all, though, that there are references on top of references substantiating these details.  The documentation contained at Yad Vashem is incredibly thorough, and the process by which they accept data as factual is beyond impressive.

First, who gave the order to kill the Jews?  The fact is that no written order exists.  However, without a doubt, Hitler was the motivating force.  His obsession with the Jews was insatiable.  In fact, Hitler committed suicide once the Russians had him surrounded, but not without leaving a last will (written only hours before his death), stating emphatically his desire to exterminate the Jews.  No doubt he had a circle of evil men leading, guiding, and directing the action, but Hitler himself was the driving force.

Secondly, when was the order given?  The ideology might be traced back to the 1920’s when the Nazi party was established in Germany.  Darwinian theory regarding human evolution fit hand-in-glove with Hitler’s desire for supremacy, and the idea of exterminating inferior people logically followed.  Discussion in 1939 between Hitler and his cronies yielded an idea called “The Final Solution.”  By the fall of 1940, ideology and implementation began to merge, and in 1941, Germany began training specialized  units (such as the SS) for the purpose of killing the Jews.

Finally, who was involved?  Initially, the SS developed tasks forces called Einsatzgruppen.  Their task: kill Jews.  Four forces of less than 1000 men each went into action in June 1941.  By December 600,000 to 700,000 Jews had been killed.  How in the world did only 3000 Einsatzgruppen kill that many Jews in so little time?  They had help!

Einsatzgruppen couldn’t logistically carry out the plan, so the German police got involved.  These were regular police forces who patrolled the streets, wrote citations, and directed traffic…only now 60,000 of them were asked to track down and murder Jews.  Thus, providing additional manpower to the SS and Einsatzgruppen.

One very difficult pill to swallow is the fact that none of these troops were forced to kill.  Based on “perpetrator testimony” (including handwritten letters and other documents from the killers themselves), they were given the option (without punishment) to opt out of the assignment to kill Jews.  In one unit of 500, only about 10-15 said no.  As we zoomed in on this unit (Unit 101 from Hamburg) in our studies, we learned that that single unit of less than 500 men killed 38,000 Jews in one year.  There were 60,000 Einsatzgruppen…all of whom had the opportunity to opt out of the assignment without punishment.  Yet they chose to brutally kill over 6 million Jews.

We also heard from an expert on Auschwitz-Birkenau who showed us graphically what the death camps looked like, how Jews were brought in, the process of gassing 3500 Jews at a time, and how Jewish slaves were made to transfer dead bodies from the gas chambers to the crematories.  I will spare you the detail here, but suffice it to say it is worse than any picture you can conjure up in your mind.

Yet, I take you back to my last post.  Even then, Jews always looked for life.  They constantly focused on things that would give them one more day or one more hour to live, and they made the most of it.  Interestingly, each memorial at Yad Vashem intentionally forces every visitor to exit in a direction which leaves you looking at the vibrant life of Israel.

I’m deeply struck by this: Jews know how to live life to the fullest, and they serve as a testimony to us all that what the enemy intends for evil, God intends for good (Genesis 50:20).  There is a lesson there for all of us!

Shalom, my friends!