Shofar at the Children's Death Camp

One of the highlights during the New Year service is the sounding of the ram's horn, called a shofar. As recorded in the Bible, it is one of the oldest wind instruments used by man. The flute is the only instrument that matches it in age and is hardly ever used in a religious ceremony. The shofar's message:  remember the almighty Father, the King who created heaven and earth. The shofar's blast is part of the King's coronation.

According to some Bible scholars the following incident took place on the Jewish New Year 4,000 years ago. Abraham, the first Jew, was asked to offer his son Isaac as a human sacrifice. This commandment was to test Abraham's loyalty to God. At the very last moment there was a rescinding of the bewildering command and Isaac was saved. Instead of human sacrifice, a ram was offered.  Since then, the ram's horn, the shofar, is blown to remember the sacrifice. However, for some, the call of the Shofar has become the call of transcendence, marking man's departure from a bad world.

When the week of the Jewish New Year came around our Rebbe told our class the following story that happened in Auschwitz in the death camp in 1944.

It had been decided that there were too many Jewish children between the ages of 12 and 15 still alive in the death camp. A massacre of children was planned for Rosh Hashanah. "It's time to thin out the brood," the commander of the murderers  decreed. The sadistic guards who executed the indescribable cruelties - the Demjanjuks breed - thought it a jolly idea. So, on a hot, sunny afternoon the army of timid, trembling, starving children, barefoot and clad in rough striped prison uniforms, were ordered to march.  They would walk past two stakes stuck into the ground. One was shorter, the other taller. The child whose head reached the top of the taller stake was safe. The smaller children were doomed for the gas chamber.

When Rosh Hashanah arrived the spirit of defeat and death was felt by all. Early in the morning, the rabbi kept walking from one group to another giving hope. Somehow he had been able to smuggle into the camp a small shofar. Quietly he recited prayers and blew the shofar.

The children isolated in the special barrack, the death house, also heard the sound of the shofar. They sent word that they, too, wanted to hear the shofar. Let the rabbi come to them with the shofar, they pleaded.

The adults were divided in their opinions. Entering the death-house involved terrible danger. The execution to the crematorium was planned for the evening hours. The bell would ring when the barrack doors closed for the last time. It was growing late. To go in there was entering the devils pit.  But the rabbi who blew the shofar did not hesitate.  He stole into the death-house.

One thousand two hundred children sat on the floor of the barracks. Their faces burned with the fire of self-sacrifice; they were prepared to hand themselves to their executioners. But not before they would hear the shofar. "Rabbi, speak to us before blowing the  shofar," the children begged. The rabbi spoke words that he never would be able to repeat. He recalled the greatness of martyrs, the sacrifices of the millions of Jews who had perished under these terrible and tragic times. "The cruel Nazis were the worst of all nightmares," he said.

Yet, strangely, the children did not feel that their death was as tragic as the rabbi had said. They knew that they were going to die but their death was at a pure and innocent age. They had done nothing wrong. Yet they accepted G‑d's will. This is something that would never, ever be explained.

The oldest of the children said "We children are going to our death on our New Year. We are returning our lives to our Creator. Our belief is stronger then ever. Our New Year's gift to G-D  is accepting his will. We have been chosen for this task because of our purity-this in spite of our lack of understanding. We thank the rabbi for risking his life to come here and give us a last chance to hear the shofar. We pray that you survive this horror. Tell children all over the world to be strong and to love G-D so our death won't be in vain.

As the rabbi blew the shofar the alarm began ringing and wailing, joining the shofar. An eerie sound was heard in heaven that day. The cry of the rams horn the, symbol of ultimate purity, was disturbed by the bells of hell. The rabbi ran for his life as the doomed children's barracks were sealed.