JFQC lecture SOR Shoah Rescuers in Poland.

I attended a lecture at St. Ambrose sponsored by the JFQC by Stanless Stahl, EXEVP of the
Jewish Federation for the Righteous. The Federation for the Righteous provides holocaust
education and specifically focuses on 'rescuers'.

The lecture mentioned some torah regarding Moshe at Sodom and Gomorrah and the Talmudic quote "to save one life is to save a whole world."

I looked up the citation (which I had known of but think it is important to note:)

Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a states:

"FOR THIS REASON WAS MAN CREATED ALONE, TO TEACH THEE THAT WHOSOEVER DESTROYS A SINGLE SOUL... SCRIPTURE IMPUTES [GUILT] TO HIM AS THOUGH HE HAD DESTROYED A COMPLETE WORLD; AND WHOSOEVER PRESERVES A SINGLE SOUL..., SCRIPTURE ASCRIBES [MERIT] TO HIM AS THOUGH HE HAD PRESERVED A COMPLETE WORLD." (Says B1:24-26 but it must be PARDES).

The lecture was extremely moving and thought provoking. It started with the questions of how many of us knew about Schindler before Steven Spielberg’s movie or how many of could name the people who kept the Franks alive. It ended with the question of how many of us would risk death to save the life of people who in all probability didn't speak like us, look like us, dress like us, live or worship like us.

The stories of those who did so and the horror they faced made me cry. I hope it also can change
me. I though even about my negative attitude towards immigration. They aren't analogous situations but the 'hardening of heart' is something all of us know. I also couldn't help thinking of how unthinkable it seems; of how it was only 60 years ago that this kind of thing could happen. It could happen again.

I was touched by the reunion video story and how vivid it was for the two who were reunited. It made me cry. I was horrified by the discussion of ways Jews tried to escape annihilation. How some could pass, how they would be demanded to recite catholic prayers (a defamation of G*d that chilled me). I was aghast at the stories. The work of organizations like the society of the righteous is important because how easy it is to become desensitized to horror.

I could not help but feel the irony of the sure hand of G*d in these cases and not the majority. These people were doing the 'utmost' good in the worst possible situation.

The also cited how 2 famous rescuers a Japanese man and a Spaniard defied their own governments and were disgraced and destroyed but saved 10,000 people.

The idea that rescuers didn't know what they were up against when they made the choice. For example we were told a terrible stories of having dismembering corpses of those that died in hiding. Trying to get more food in hard times was a nightmare. Fear was overwhelming. There were substantial rewards for informants.

The lecture focused on the Warsaw ghetto. Some facts I wrote down were at one point 425,000 people were held there they were almost all killed by the end of the war.

G*d spare us and all peoples another Shoah. G*d give us justice. G*d have mercy. Amen.