The Verse That Carried Him Through the Holocaust

A moving story once shared by Rabbi Gershon Liebman offers a powerful reminder of the strength that comes from a deep connection to Hashem.

An elderly Jewish man who had spent most of his life in Communist Russia came up to Rabbi Liebman and told him, “I’m Jewish.” Rabbi Liebman gently asked him, “What do you know about Judaism?” To his great sadness, the man replied, “Nothing.” He didn’t know the Shema. He had never learned the daily prayers, didn’t observe Shabbat, and didn’t even know about Yom Kippur.

He paused and added, “But I do remember one verse from the Torah.”

Curious, Rabbi Liebman asked him what it was. The man recited, “‘Because you did not serve Hashem your God with joy and gladness of heart, when you had abundance of everything.’”

Rabbi Liebman was surprised. This man didn’t remember the Shema, the most central verse in Jewish life, yet he remembered a pasuk from the section of the Torah known as the “rebuke”?

So he asked him, “Where did you learn that verse?”

The man began to tell his story.

During World War II, he had been imprisoned in Birkenau, one of the most horrific Nazi death camps. There, he endured unspeakable suffering and witnessed the cruelty of those who took pleasure in tormenting Jews.

“One of their so-called ‘games’,” the man recalled, “was forcing us to carry heavy loads up a hill. We were starving. Skin and bones. Every step was agony. The Nazis stood at the side of the hill, watching and laughing as we collapsed. Many died from this alone.”

“I was one of the stronger ones and somehow managed to survive. But there was another Jew there, frail and thin. I couldn’t understand how he was managing to stay alive.”

“One day, while we were climbing that hill, I got close to him and noticed his lips moving. I leaned in and heard him whispering that same verse over and over again: ‘Because you did not serve Hashem your God with joy and gladness of heart, when you had abundance of everything.’”

“That verse gave him strength. It gave him life. And it stayed with me. All those years in Russia, under Communism, when every trace of Judaism was wiped away from my life, I forgot everything. But not that pasuk. That one verse held on to me.”

Rabbi Liebman was deeply moved and asked the man, “Who was this Jew?”

The man replied, “Everyone called him the Klausenburg Rebbe.”

The Klausenburg Rebbe, Rabbi Yekutiel Yehuda Halberstam, lost his wife, eleven children, and most of his community during the Holocaust. Yet even in the death camps and on the death marches, he continued to strengthen others, lifting their spirits with words of Torah, prayer, and faith.

After the war, the Rebbe didn’t retreat into grief. Instead, he immediately began rebuilding. In the displaced persons camp, he started Torah classes and charitable programs for survivors. He later opened yeshivas and Torah schools in both Israel and the United States. He remarried and raised a new family, building a future rooted in hope and emunah.

This story reminds us that even in the darkest of times, one verse of Torah can hold a soul upright. And one person’s faith can inspire another to survive.

May the memory of all who suffered be a blessing, and may we continue to serve Hashem with joy and gladness of heart.