I came across a moving account of a holocaust survivor's experience in a Jewish Press article entitled On Account Of An Apple: Chanukah in Buchenwald by Judy Tydor Baumel-Schwartz.
Decades later he explained how he remained a believer. To do so, he said, one has to learn the true meaning of Psalm 73, which he recited in camp at moments of despair. Verse 22 states: "Then foolish I am and ignorant, I am as a beast before thee."
"We often could not understand the evil surrounding us," my father said. "We almost lost our minds, like animals, looking for self-preservation at any price. And yet, only when we reached such despair could we truly understand the simple belief of the next verses - 'But I shall be continually with thee, Thou hast held me by my right hand.'
"So it was with me. I hoped and prayed we would survive, but only when I reached the depths of despair after hearing my family had been killed did I stop thinking, knowing I could only continue from day to day if I believed I felt God's hand holding mine. No intellectual explanations of faith could comfort me. Only a simple belief that if God intends for me to live, I shall live, and so I must continue helping and making sure that I would never lose my humanity."
Read full moving article:
http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/41755/
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