A Jew’s Response to a Nazi

A Jew’s Response to a Nazi

“…Before Pesach in the Starchowitz labor camp, Reb Yossel [Friedenson] and his friends negotiated some extra flour and found a way to bake matzos in a 2,000-degree oven. While the Jews were eating the cherished few crumbs, a German officer strode into the barracks and saw their meager rations of bread had been left untouched.

“‘Friedenson, eat bread!’ he roared. ‘Do you really believe your G-d is there for you? Why don’t you look around and see how He has forsaken you, forgotten you, and abandoned you?’…

“[And then came] the timeless reply of a Jew named Akiva Goldshtoff: ‘Nisht totallah, uhn nisht oif eibek—it may appear that we are forgotten, but it’s not totally and not forever.’”

from the article “No Apologies of Faith,” Mishpacha Magazine, Yisroel Besser, 3/17/13

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