Sticking it to Hitler
This is a guest post from Rafi of Life in Israel
Yesterday, I heard the story of a survivor who stuck it to Hitler, in his own way. Holocaust survivor Binyomin Wertzberger told his story on Kol B’Rama radio.
Wertzberger was a young boy, assigned to a work detail shlepping heavy rail ties with his bony hands. When it was meal-time, he joined all the other hungry boys to go get some food and satisfy some of his terrible hunger.
While lining up for his food, the Nazi officer looked at him with disgust and said, “You dream to go to your Jerusalem? Maybe your ashes will get there via the chimneys of the concentration camp!”
Eventually, Wertzberger succeeding in surviving the horrors of the Holocaust and made his way to Eretz Yisrael, where he got a job doing maintenance of the Kotel.
Wertzberger said, “I never looked at the watch. Every minute I wanted to give what I could. Every time I cleaned the stones of the Kotel, from where the Shechina never left, I felt that I was getting revenge on that Nazi officer. This is the most Jewish vengeance that there is.”
(source: Kikar HaShabbat)
I love this post. My father, a survivor of the concentration camps gave me the ultimate complement. He said, “Sometimes I think you’re the reason I survived.”
After the war, he was left alone, the only survivor of his family. He passed away this year leaving three children, 13 grandchildren and now 5 great grandchildren. (ken ayin hara)
If you ever see the documentary, “A People Apart, Chassidism in America”, look for my favorite interview. In it, a young man says, “Every Jewish child that’s born is a “shtoch” to the nazis.” (A shtoch is a pin prick, as in sticking it to them)