Many people ask why did the Holocaust occur and what was the fate of those who were murdered? Both questions will be answered in the framework of G-d’s Word.

“But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the L-rd your G-d, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you…Then the L-rd will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other…. And among those nations you shall find no rest… but there the L-rd will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul…you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life.” (Deuteronomy 28: 15, 64)

Rabbinic authorities agree that the Jews were expelled from the Land of Israel due to their idolatry and rebellion against G-d and that living away from Israel is living in exile, tantamount to a curse from G-d. Yet the L-rd preserved His chosen people even while in exile. While Satan intended to destroy the Jewish people through the Holocaust, G-d used the event for great good, to re-establish the Nation of Israel although only a remnant returned.

[1] “A total of approximately nine million Jews lived in the twenty-one countries that were later occupied by Germany during World War II of which six million were murdered in Hitler’s death camps. The largest Jewish populations were in Eastern Europe, including Poland, the Soviet Union, Hungary, and Romania. They spoke their own language, Yiddish, which is a combination of German and Hebrew. They read Yiddish books, and frequented Yiddish theater and films. Many Jews in these countries lived in small villages and towns  called shtetls where the population was predominantly Jewish. These communities were largely traditional, in terms of dress for both men and women.

“Jews in Eastern Europe differed greatly from Jews in western European countries such as Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium. These Jews were far more assimilated into western culture. They dressed and spoke the same language as their non-Jewish neighbors, and traditional religious practices and Yiddish culture generally played a less important role in their lives.”

Large portions of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust were from Eastern Europe, since that is where most lived. But, Western European Jewry were also targeted for destruction by the Nazis although many were [2]secular Zionists, some of whom, through their misplaced ideology, furthered Hitler’s goal to exterminate the Jews.

Zionism was/is a secular movement for the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under the secular Jew, Theodor Herzl. It is said that secular Zionists of the WWII era, contributed to the deaths of Jews because they sought to prevent the rescue of European Jews to any other nation than the land known as Palestine, i.e. former Israel, resulting in the extermination of millions of Jews, many of whom could have been rescued for ransom and sent to other nations.[3]

Acknowledging that most of the deaths of Jews in the Holocaust were from among the religious Jews of Eastern Europe, it is important to look at their beliefs and way of life in order to see how G-d may have viewed them. Salo Wittmayer Baron, described as "the greatest Jewish historian of the 20th century", credits Jewish survival to 8 factors.[4]

• Messianic faith: Belief in an ultimately positive outcome and restoration to them of the Land of Israel.

• The doctrine of the World-to-Come increasingly elaborated: Jews were reconciled to suffering in this world, which helped them resist outside temptations to convert.

• Suffering was given meaning through hope-inducing interpretation of their history and their destiny.

• The doctrine of martyrdom and inescapability of persecution transformed it into a source of communal solidarity.

• Jewish daily life was very satisfying. Jews lived among Jews…Jews mostly lived under discrimination that affected everyone, and to which they were habituated. Daily life was governed by a multiplicity of ritual requirements, so that each Jew was constantly aware of G-d throughout the day…

• The corporate development and segregationist policies of the late Roman Empire and Persian Empire, helped keep Jewish community organization strong.

• The Talmud[5] provided an extremely effective force to sustain Jewish ethics, law and culture, judicial and social welfare system, universal education, regulation of strong family life and religious life from birth to death.

• The concentration of Jewish masses within ‘the lower middle class’, with the middle class virtues of sexual self-control…. Marriage was considered to be the foundation of ethnic, and ethical, life.

Outside hostility helped cement Jewish unity and internal strength and commitment to the Word of G-d and to each other. The Eastern European Jews, were able to maintain their integrity toward G-d through rabbinic leadership in their segregated communities. 

The online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, describes the profound impact that the cultural and intellectual Jewish community in Poland, for instance, had on Judaism. "According to some sources, about ¾ of all Jews in Europe lived in Poland by the middle of the 16th century. This period led to the creation of a proverb about Poland being a “heaven for the Jews”. During the time from the rule of Sigismund I the Old until the Nazi Holocaust, Poland would be at the center of Jewish religious life."

The deep divide between many secular Jews of Western Europe and the profoundly religious Jews of Eastern Europe helps to explain the great difference in the post-Holocaust outlook of each group. On the one hand, the secularists became more irreligious and the religious became more committed to the Word of G-d in spite of their sorrow and suffering. This powerful, mysterious phenomenon can only be explained through the New Testament. 

“For the word of G-d is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

In the Old Testament, many scriptures state, “The Word of the L-rd came to...” Abraham, Samuel, Nathan, Isaiah, Jeremiah or others. It is interpreted as meaning that the Word, the Mimra,  physically appeared to these Old Testament Prophets. They believed that the Mimra was a physical manifestation of the Messiah who was to come. The apostle John describes the Mimra as the Word.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with G-d, and the Word was G-d. He was in the beginning with G-d. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (John 1:1-3)

The prophet Isaiah gives a description of the messiah who would be born of a woman…

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty G-d, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

In heeding the counsel of both the New Testament and Old Testament scriptures above stated, Yeshua was Isaiah’s prophetic pronouncement of the man born of a woman who would be fully G-d and fully man, the Messiah of Israel, the Word of G-d, Everlasting Father, Mighty G-d. 

While it may seem difficult to grasp with our finite minds, Yeshua was The Word of G-d that spoke the creation of the world into existence and also spoke the Torah into existence. Yeshua said that no man could come to the Father except thru The Word of G-d (i.e. Yeshua). It is through knowing The Word (Yeshua[6]) that we are saved. The way that one reaches the Father and salvation is through The Word of G-d, Yeshua. Yeshua said…..

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

The Eastern European Jews and some Western European Jews were schooled in The Word of G-d from an early age. They knew The Word long before the worst persecution began. While they may not have learned to honor His earthly name, Yeshua, they did honor who He was: The Mimra, The Word, The Messiah to Come. 

The answer to the first question asked at the head of this article is: The Holocaust occurred because Satan wanted to destroy G-d’s chosen people before the L-rd’s coming because he knows G-d’s Word says that Israel has been chosen to destroy all the enemies of G-d. Based upon the clear teachings of Scripture, I believe the answer to the second question is that all observant Jews who were caught up in Hitler’s Holocaust are basking in the glory of G-d in His heaven. They are in heaven with The Mimra, The Word of G-d, Yeshua their Messiah.

“L-rd, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?  He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the L-rd; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change; He who does not put out his money at usury, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.” (Psalm 15)

[1] Statistics and quote from YadVaShem.org

[2] Non-religious

[3] Zionism today includes the religious and non-religious who seek to have a protected Jewish nation in the former biblical land of Israel.

[4] "A Social and Religious History of the Jews", Volume II, Ancient Times, Part II, p215 Jewish Publication Society of America, 1952

[5] The foremost rabbinic commentary on the Torah (1st five books of the Bible)

[6] Yeshua means "salvation"