Heart-Wrenching: "At 16, I Entered Hell"
"Even though I am broken, they took my parents and my family, I am tormented, I am starving to death, but my feeling is that I am defeating the devil in his own home, and that brings me so much joy, so I just smile."
- נעמה גרין
- פורסם א' אלול התשפ"ד
Auschwitz (Photo: shutterstock) #VALUE!
In the wonderful book "From the Words of the Preachers," the preacher Rabbi Hezekiah Yosef Karlenstein tells the following story. You will not remain indifferent:
"At age 16, I entered hell in Auschwitz," says Rabbi Shlomo Reichenberg from Bnei Brak, the father-in-law of the Rosh Yeshiva of 'Paths of the World', Rabbi Yosef Brok. "There was a time when we were 3,000 people in a hut, 10 people slept on each bunk."
"One day, an older Jewish man approached me and started beating me mercilessly. I asked him, as Jacob our forefather said to Laban: 'What is my crime, and what is my sin, that you have pursued me? What do you want from me?' The beater replied: 'Come with me. I'll explain in Block 10.'"
"In Block 10, that Jew was in charge of the entire camp. When we arrived, I told the person in charge about the beating I had received from that man. The person in charge asked the beater: 'Why did you beat him?' 'It's very simple,' the beater answered. 'I saw Reichenberg smiling. Not once, not twice. If he smiles – it's a sign he's not hungry. That he's full. Someone who is starving to death cannot smile. And if he's full, it means he's received more food than all of us, and that's why he has the strength to smile. The Nazis do not distribute food for free, not even a gram, and from this, the conclusion is simple: Shlomo Reichenberg collaborates with the Nazis, and he is informing on us, so I beat him.'"
"The person in charge asked me: 'Shloimy, what do you have to say, what will you answer him, for he has a case?' 'I will tell the truth,' I said. 'I and a few others managed to sneak tefillin into the camp, and there's not a day that I don't put on tefillin. Putting on tefillin with such self-sacrifice brings me so much happiness. Even though I am broken, they took my parents and my family, I am tormented, I am starving to death, but my feeling is that I am defeating the devil in his own home, and that brings me so much joy, so I just smile.'"
The Mitzvah of Tefillin - What does one who puts on tefillin merit? What is the power hidden within them? What is the merit of this great mitzvah?
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