Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, is a solemn day dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews who perished during the Holocaust. It is a time to reflect not just on the atrocities committed, but also on the indifference and complicity that allowed such horrors to unfold. This post confronts the haunting question: "Where was God?" However, a more pressing question emerges: "Where were you?"
In Genesis 3:9, God calls out to Adam, asking, "Where are you?" This question resonates deeply as we remember the Holocaust. When the Nazis began their campaign of terror, there was no war. Jews were law-abiding citizens, contributing to society as neighbors, educators, and caregivers. Yet, when the persecution began, the world stood by and watched.
As Jewish men, women, and children were rounded up, their non-Jewish neighbors, colleagues, and friends—those who had benefited from their presence—became silent witnesses or active participants in their suffering. They saw the looting, heard the screams, and watched as innocent lives were torn apart simply because they were Jewish.
This blog post calls out to humanity, echoing the Biblical lament "Eicha?" (How?), drawing from the Book of Lamentations and Genesis to remind us of our moral duty. The Holocaust was a time when humanity failed, and the echoes of that failure reverberate today. We are challenged to remember, to question, and to never forget the lessons of the past.
Let us honor the memory of those who suffered and renew our commitment to ensuring such atrocities never happen again. The blood of our brothers and sisters cries out from the ground, demanding that we respond with vigilance, compassion, and action.
WHERE WAS GOD? NO, THE QUESTION IS WHERE WERE YOU??
GENESIS 3.9
And the Lord God called to man, and He said to him,
ל֖וֹ אַיֶּֽכָּה --"Where are you?"
When the Germans started rounding up Jewish men, woman and children there was no war. We didn't have guns. We weren't breaking laws or trying to overthrow the government.
When the Germans, French, Australians, Polish and Hungarians forced Jews from our homes and tore our families apart, we were their good neighbors. We supplied them produce. We were their tailors and dress makers. We taught their children to read in their schools and music in our homes. We were their doctors who cared for them!
When they beat and shot us on the public streets and forced us into ghettos to starve us and loaded us onto cattle cars to take us away and work us to death, they knew we committed no crime. The accusers were our neighbors. The prosecutor was also the judge. AND THE ONLY CHARGE WAS THAT WE HAD JEWISH BLOOD. THE SENTENCE WAS A TORTUROUS DEATH ... NO MERCY.
The Germans, French, Australians, Polish, Hungarians and other citizens watched. They went to warehouses to pick from our stolen property. They saw the propaganda posters. They heard the stories of people they knew before as upstanding citizens. They listened to our women and children scream. They heard our cries!
.... AND THEY WATCHED.
Eicha? איכה -- How can it be?
“Eicha?” cries the mourner (probably Jeremiah) in the first verse of chapters 1, 2 and 4 in Lamentations.
EICHA אֵיכָ֣ה -- HOW?
...then we hurt are fellow.
GENESIS 4.10
And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.
HISTORY IS RHYMING!
We are crying out today. Eicha?!
ROMANS 1.22
"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools"
