“When the few survivors were liberated, one from a city and two from a family…without the breath of life or any desire to live, there was no natural means visible on their horizon by which these people could recover,” Rav Yehoshua Moshe Aronson, one of the few Polish rabbonim to survive the Holocaust, wrote in his sefer “Alei Merorot. Haunted by their memories, sick and prematurely aged, trapped in the camps even after liberation, many survivors hovered on the edge of an emotional and spiritual abyss, questioning whether there was anything worth living for. Nazi brutality and dehumanization had wiped away many facets of their identity. They seemed to belong nowhere, perhaps not even fully to themselves. But Jewish survivors did not belong to that world. Footage taken in many camps at the hour of liberation captures the joyful sobbing of ravaged inmates, as the yearned for moment of freedom finally arrived.īut for many survivors, the initial burst of jubilation fizzled out as the magnitude of the devastation sank in, and traumatized victims realized they had no homes or community to return to, no family to embrace them.Īcross the world, wild celebrations filled the streets. “ –Rav Yehoshua Moshe Aronson, Alei Merorotįor most Holocaust survivors, liberation and the opening of the camps triggered an outpouring of exultation. “From Heaven came the answer: These bones shall live! We saw with certainty Hashem’s kindness dripping the dew of techiyas hameisim upon us. Can these dry bones come back to life?” we wondered.
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