Do Holocaust survivors believe in God?

Question

If I had witnessed and suffered the Holocaust, the systematic and emotionless killing of millions of people, I would wonder if God really existed and why he/she would allow such suffering and cruelty. Someone said that God will never give you anything you can't handle. If one was in the Auschwitz concentration camp, would one feel the same way and still believe that God existed?

Answer 1

I have two sets of grandparents. My maternal grandparents who survived Babi Yar and latter Soviet Gulags never stopped believing in G-d up until their deaths. My second set of grandparents survived Ribnitza ghettos and Romanian death train rides and they still do not believe in G-d, but they do believe in Judaism.

Answer 2

I honestly have met some and the outcomes have been blended. numerous those I met have been believers in enthusiast orthodox Judaism (study Zionist) with particularly racist and intensely-nationalist overtones. They have been raised via their parents (the survivors of the camps) to develop into the comparable as a results of fact the Nazi's who their parents had feared. i'm sorry if that upsets the persons who worship Israelites besides the shown fact that this is been my journey. this is authentic too that there are different survivors and their infants who're in contrast to that. i've got not got plenty know-how approximately them as a results of fact the certainty that they are survivors is seldom pronounced via them. additionally it ought to basically be that those I met have been the extremists.

Answer 3

Put it this way: people didn't sing and dance to the gas chambers for nothing. They, of all people, you would think loose their faith.
They had the most.
Even Jews who were not 'religious' before said 'shema' gladly before dying.

Can there be a bigger Kiddush Hashem?


And the holocaust only comes to emphasize and show us how the world operates based on morals that are not divine - how could so many intellectuals come to the stage of cold-blood murder?

I think this calls for a period of introspection....

Answer 4

My grandmother survived the Holocaust. She died 2 years ago. She BELIEVED in God, but she lost faith. Anytime someone would mention the goodness of God, she'd turn bitter and ask why God would let such a thing happen to her if he was so good. Fortunately, she reconciled with God through Christ before she died.

Answer 5

Elie Wiesel actually wrote a book about this subject after his experience in the camps, and he had a tough time believing in God again.

Answer 6

rebbetzin esther jungreis, who survived the holocaust, answer this question nicely in a speech:

"If not G-d, what could I have believed in? Humanity? I may have been young, but I understood only too well that what the Nazis did to us had the tacit approval of the civilized world.

I come from Hungary. Hungary was one of the last countries to be occupied. Toward the end of the war, the Nazis realized that they were losing, so Adolf Eichmann, who was in charge of the deportation and extermination of Jews, called in Dr. Kastner, the president of the Hungarian Jewish community, and tried to make a deal with him. 'Goods for blood, blood for goods,' Eichmann offered him. 'You can take them from any country you like, wherever you can find them. Whom do you want to save?'

Joel Brandt was commissioned to go to Turkey and contact the Allies on behalf of the Hungarian Jewish community. For the first time, the deportations slowed down and we saw a glimmer of hope, but both London and Washington categorically refused the offer to redeem us. The news quickly filtered back to Budapest, and once again the trains rolled full speed ahead to Auschwitz.

In 1941, the Sturma sailed fromRomania with 769 people crammed on board, in a desperate attempt to reach Palestine. The conditions aboard were abominable, but miraculously the ship reached Turkey. Turkish policemen forced their way on board, tied it by a cable to a tug, and towed it into the Black Sea where it was sunk.

And then there was the St. Louis, a ship that left Hamburg, at the very beginning of the war with 930 passengers on board. They were among the priveleged few who had Cuban visas along with American immigration quota numbers. Despite this, Cuba and the United States refused them sanctuary. They were forced to return to Germany, and Hitler got the message loud and clear - no one would resist the extermination of the Jews.

In view of all this, how could I possibly have placed my faith in humanity? In what and in whom could I believe, if not in G-d? And for those of you who are under the impression that education can civilize a man and render him a compassionate being, allow me to remind you that it was scientists, engineers, and chemists who built the gas chambers and devised ways to convert our skin into lampshades, our fat into soap, and our bones into fertilizer. Highly educated and cultured people, with impeccable manners, sensitive to music and art, inflicted a thousand and one deaths upon us. So what could I believe in, if not G-d?

Truth be told, with all the progress of civilization, nothing much has altered since the day when Cain, the first murderer, slaughtered his brother. When G-d challenged him with 'Where is your brother?', he responded audaciously, 'Am I my brother's keeper?', insinuating that he was not responsible for his actions and that G-d should have prevented him from killing.

Like Cain, modern man plunders, murders, and rapes, but instead of accepting responsibility for his heinous deeds, he shifts the blame to G-d. 'Where was G-d?' is the post-Holocaust cry. In response, I, who was there, ask, 'Where was man?'

You ask me how could I have faith? How could I not? It is only faith in G-d that kept us sane in those days of darkness. It is only because of G-d that we, the Jewish people, have survived - because had man had his way, the Jews would all have perished."

Answer 7

Read Night by Elie Wiesel.

Answer 8

Many Holocaust survivors lost their faith in G-d, but many remained devoutly religious.

Answer 9

Don't blame God for the sins of man. He gave us free will. Unfortunately that allows us to disobey Him.

Answer 10

yes, ive known of tons of holocaust survivors who had more faith in God AFTER the holocaust because they believed He was the one who helped them through it^^