"All the Prisoners Stood Still. Mom Realized She Would Be Shot Dead Soon"

Rabbi Meir Ungerais, the son of Holocaust survivors and a supervisor at the 'Or L'Yesharim' Yeshiva in Beit Shemesh, was asked how he and his family grew up to be observant of Torah and Commandments in an environment that encouraged otherwise. How did all the children and great-grandchildren of his parents, Rabbi Moshe Aharon Ungerais and Miriam Chaya, grow to be exemplary Torah Jews, despite a society that seemed different? Rabbi Ungerais responds, "By fulfilling the commandments joyfully, wholeheartedly, as my parents did. When my father lit the Chanukah candles, both he and my mother would wipe tears of excitement during the 'Shehecheyanu' blessing. They wept from excitement. When they entered the Sukkah, there was such joy! When we ate matzah, my father would remember how in the Buchenwald camp he ate a piece of matzah they baked with utmost devotion."

"My mother would always tell us her personal Chanukah miracle story. She was in a camp and was sent to work in a bomb-making factory, forced labor of course. Next to her sat a non-Jewish woman for whom this was her livelihood, while my mother worked without receiving anything in return."

"Thus, they made an agreement. My mother would place a few components she made daily in the Gentile's box, who then handed them over and got paid, while my mother didn't lose anything because she wasn't being paid anyway. In return, the Gentile would give my mother a little beer, margarine, or a piece of bread, each time a bit of food."

"When Chanukah came around, my mother told her she didn't want food. She wanted a candle and a box of matches. The Gentile asked why she needed a box of matches and a candle, and my mother replied that she had a callus she wanted to burn..."

"On the first night of Chanukah, she gathered all the prisoners who slept in her block, recited the three blessings with trembling and excitement, and lit the first Chanukah candle."

"Suddenly, the door opened, and the Nazi SS guard stood at the entrance. All the prisoners just froze in place with fear."

"My mother told us that she understood she would soon be shot to death. There was no mercy there nor any understanding. She accepted upon herself that if she survives, she would say Psalm 120 every night before going to bed, all her life."

"Silence reigned in the block, no one opened their mouth, and my mother thought that if she didn't speak up and take responsibility, the Nazi might shoot them all or some of them."

"She stepped forward and admitted to the 'crime.' "I lit the candle," she said. "It's because there are bedbugs here, they bother us, and so we try to deal with them by lighting the candle, to drive them out..." When my mother told the story, she would laugh a bitter laugh and note that the prisoners claimed the Nazis themselves planted the bedbugs to harass them. It was clear that such an excuse shouldn't have softened the Nazi guard's heart. But her good acceptance worked, and the miracle happened. The Nazi only warned her not to dare light a fire again in the camp area and turned and left."

What is the true reason the terrible Holocaust happened? Could it have been under precise divine providence? What does the rabbi answer to those whose faith weakened following the harsh tragedy? Rabbi Yosef Ben Porat, a member of a Holocaust survivor family, researched the World War II events for decades. Now he reveals in a fascinating and comprehensive lecture what they never dared to tell us in history lessons. Watch:

"How Is It Possible to Recite 'Shehecheyanu' During the Holocaust?!"

"Interestingly, a very similar case was also with my father," Rabbi Ungerais shares. My father found paper and a pencil in the Buchenwald camp. He remembered the entire Book of Esther by heart; he had an extraordinary memory. For a period before Purim, he wrote the entire scroll on the paper, and on Purim night, he gathered dozens of prisoners around him and quietly and secretly read the scroll from the paper. Recognition of the Purim miracle, publicizing the miracle in the place where the greatest concealment of God's face in history occurred..."

"Years later, I asked him, 'Father, where did you get the strength from? How can you cling to Hashem when you see this hell before your eyes? They oppress you, annihilate you, whip you with lashes, force labor on you, your entire family was exterminated, and you give thanks and praise; you even recite 'Shehecheyanu?' How is it possible?"

But my father looked at me and didn't understand the question. "What do you mean, how is it possible? That is why we were created. We are merely fulfilling a role. Hashem tests us, and our role is to stand the test and continue to perform the commandments and study Torah joyfully." This line, of performing commandments joyfully in any situation and at any time, was the central characteristic of their personality, and it is the secret of educating children, in their generation and ours," concludes Rabbi Meir Ungerais.

Courtesy of the 'Dirshu' website

Could the Holocaust have been prevented? Where was God during the Holocaust? Rabbi Yosef Ben Poratreveals in a fascinating lecture how all the harrowing events were written in the Torah in black and white and were executed with precise timing as predicted by the great sages of Israel: