During breaks, over hot cups of tea, he told me various stories about his life. He enrolled in the army under a false name to disguise his Jewish roots, as he felt he'd have a better chance of killing Nazis this way. Being a bright man, he'd ended up as an officer. One of the incidents he described has always haunted me and inspired me in equal measure. He told me of an incident that happened a couple of weeks after Belsen had been liberated. Even though the Allies were doing everything they could, people were still dying in droves. One evening he was getting drunk with a Rabbi who'd been brought in to help. The Rabbi, overwhelmed by the desperation of the situation, confessed that he was losing his faith. Presiding over a never ending stream of funerals in mass graves, hearing harrowing stories of loss, had proven too much. He announced "I'm reconsidering my faith, God doesn't like Jews, if he did, this wouldn't have happened". My friend was angered and shaken by this (he was also quite drunk). He replied "These people are looking to you for some hope, if you can't give them any, who can". He added "It doesn't matter what you think, you are here to help them, not yourself. They are the ones who have suffered" (or words to that effect). The wise words helped the young Rabbi get himself together.
The reason my friend brought this up was because the previous night (some time in the mid '70's) he'd been attending an award for the Rabbi, who had recovered his faith and become a highly respected elder Rabbi. Being a youngster at the time, I couldn't really understand his point.
We talked about it and he said "You can't really know whether you have faith until it is pushed to the brink". Sometimes you have to look over the edge of the cliff. He said there's nothing wrong with doubts, but your faith should be your compass to see you through the dark times. It should be the reference to do the right thing. His view was that all the stories of hardship in the bible were written to remind us that people have had trials and tribulations and come through. He said that this was the point that the Rabbi made as he received his award all those years ago. He'd come through his dark time and realised that people needed him. He was strengthened by the experience, even though it had nearly broken him.
So why may you ask am I writing a blog about this subject today? Well yesterday I did a brief piece on the unseemly row about the seating arrangements for a Holocaust Memorial Ceremony organised by the GLA. This is reported in this Totally Jewish article. Now I'm going to refrain from making any personal comments about the people responsible for the problems, I'll let you all draw your own conclusions. I couldn't really put into words what I wanted to say yesterday, and I still can't. What I can do is remind those who were responsible for the spat of the words of a sadly long deceased very wise Captain in the British Army and Stone Mason.
"It doesn't matter what you think, you are here to help them, not yourself. They are the ones who have suffered"
