history of those years.
Initially, my search was to find out how millions of my race and religion had gone to the gas chambers, virtually without resistance. It took me a long time to understand the situation of the victims and the environment in whichthey were living at the time. I began to understand how the cold, starving Jews were overwhelmed by the meetings with the apparently invincible members of the German master race.
I was shattered by the evidence of the cold, inhuman machinery of death, which was tacitly accepted in Europe, even by those who resisted the German armed forces. I will never understand how the rest of the world stood by and did virtually nothing to stop the mass murder of our people. It is common knowledge that this huge operation was known to the intelligence forces of the Allies early in the war. When I learned that the Allies bombed a synthetic rubber plant five kilometers from the ovens of Auschwitz, I became convinced that there could be no justification for the Allies not having at least bombed the gas chambers and ovens. The casualties that might have been caused to the inmates who were in any case destined to be gassed would have been a fraction of the total numbers of deaths. Even bombing the railway lines leading to the death camps might have saved many innocent people, and the announcement of these raids and their purpose might have stopped the seeming indifference by the Allies to what was happening.
I have no doubt that we Jewish pilots would have succeeded for we had sufficient fuel to reach Poland, and our bombing was accurate enough. Had the intelligence services of the Allies told us about the monstrous death factories, we could have substantially reduced the scale of the tragedy.
Having been brought up in a civilized society without once having encountered organized cruelty or even overt anti-Semitism, I was traumatized by what I saw and heard.My naive trust in the innate goodness of humanity evaporated, and the world changed for me. Even more alarming, my belief in God was deeply shaken. If God is all-powerful, how could he have allowed the slaughter of more than a million and a half Jewish children?
The horrors of the Holocaust were a turning point for me. From that time on, the course of my life changed completely and the Holocaust became the leitmotif of my life. Instead of being a run-of the-mill student who would have completed his studies and returned to his hometown and to the business and the protection of his family, I chose a completely different course. I had known in a general way that the Nazis were persecuting my people, and I had believed that there was some maltreatment. I never imagined the scope of the horror, however, that went on night and day for four years in an attempt to rid the world of anyone with Jewish blood. I was driven by an intense desire to exact revenge. It did not take me long to realize that there was no way for me to do so, years after the abominations, and that I must instead find some means for positive action on behalf of the Jews.
My studies in the second year at university became trivial, irrelevant. I contacted the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Association (UNRRA) and applied to go to the Continent to assist the so ineptly labeled âDisplaced Persons,â who were the pitifully few survivors of the death camps. Despite my efforts, I couldnât find any meaningful way in which to participate in their work.
In a state of utmost desperation, I sought a way to react to the terrible happenings. It quickly became clear that theonly course left was Zionism, to establish an independent state, a haven and homeland for the survivors of the camps and the last refuge in this world from animosity for Jews anywhere. The realization of the 2,000-year-old dream of the return to our own country could be the only fitting epitaph for our slaughtered people. I prepared myself for the struggle to create an independent Jewish homeland
Initially, my search was to find out how millions of my race and religion had gone to the gas chambers, virtually without resistance. It took me a long time to understand the situation of the victims and the environment in whichthey were living at the time. I began to understand how the cold, starving Jews were overwhelmed by the meetings with the apparently invincible members of the German master race.
I was shattered by the evidence of the cold, inhuman machinery of death, which was tacitly accepted in Europe, even by those who resisted the German armed forces. I will never understand how the rest of the world stood by and did virtually nothing to stop the mass murder of our people. It is common knowledge that this huge operation was known to the intelligence forces of the Allies early in the war. When I learned that the Allies bombed a synthetic rubber plant five kilometers from the ovens of Auschwitz, I became convinced that there could be no justification for the Allies not having at least bombed the gas chambers and ovens. The casualties that might have been caused to the inmates who were in any case destined to be gassed would have been a fraction of the total numbers of deaths. Even bombing the railway lines leading to the death camps might have saved many innocent people, and the announcement of these raids and their purpose might have stopped the seeming indifference by the Allies to what was happening.
I have no doubt that we Jewish pilots would have succeeded for we had sufficient fuel to reach Poland, and our bombing was accurate enough. Had the intelligence services of the Allies told us about the monstrous death factories, we could have substantially reduced the scale of the tragedy.
Having been brought up in a civilized society without once having encountered organized cruelty or even overt anti-Semitism, I was traumatized by what I saw and heard.My naive trust in the innate goodness of humanity evaporated, and the world changed for me. Even more alarming, my belief in God was deeply shaken. If God is all-powerful, how could he have allowed the slaughter of more than a million and a half Jewish children?
The horrors of the Holocaust were a turning point for me. From that time on, the course of my life changed completely and the Holocaust became the leitmotif of my life. Instead of being a run-of the-mill student who would have completed his studies and returned to his hometown and to the business and the protection of his family, I chose a completely different course. I had known in a general way that the Nazis were persecuting my people, and I had believed that there was some maltreatment. I never imagined the scope of the horror, however, that went on night and day for four years in an attempt to rid the world of anyone with Jewish blood. I was driven by an intense desire to exact revenge. It did not take me long to realize that there was no way for me to do so, years after the abominations, and that I must instead find some means for positive action on behalf of the Jews.
My studies in the second year at university became trivial, irrelevant. I contacted the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Association (UNRRA) and applied to go to the Continent to assist the so ineptly labeled âDisplaced Persons,â who were the pitifully few survivors of the death camps. Despite my efforts, I couldnât find any meaningful way in which to participate in their work.
In a state of utmost desperation, I sought a way to react to the terrible happenings. It quickly became clear that theonly course left was Zionism, to establish an independent state, a haven and homeland for the survivors of the camps and the last refuge in this world from animosity for Jews anywhere. The realization of the 2,000-year-old dream of the return to our own country could be the only fitting epitaph for our slaughtered people. I prepared myself for the struggle to create an independent Jewish homeland
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