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The Ghosts of Auschwitz

By Daniel Lancaster | Comments (6) | Posted on April 30, 2008

Holocaust Remembrance Day begins tonight (Wednesday, April 30) at sunset. In 1985 I visited the Jerusalem Holocaust museum, Yad V'Shem. It was my first indication that God had not disposed of his people. I had grown up with that closed box worldview where only people who believed like me were actually God's people. What I saw at Yad V'Shem forced me to revisit my theology. It forced me to challenge the assumptions.

Many of us in the Messianic Jewish movement are not Jewish. I myself have been a Gentile my entire life, so the Holocaust is something that did not happen to me or my family, but nevertheless it has dramatically affected me and all of us. Were it not for the events of the Holocaust, I know I would not be working for First Fruits of Zion, keeping the Sabbath or teaching Torah. The Torah observant Messianic Movement is rooted in that experience, though it is not necessarily my experience, it has forced us all to see the world through other eyes. Whether you realize it or not, it is the Holocaust that is responsible for the birth of the modern state of Israel and the reassessment of Christian tradition and theology. Those things do not justify the Holocaust or make sense of it. There is no explanation for the Holocaust. If you think you have one, I will not accept it.

I once sat in a Talmud class, when the very sober issue of the Holocaust was raised. Another Christian sitting with me offered his interpretation of those events, that Judaism had become assimilated and that the Holocaust came as a result of the enlightenment and reform movement in European Jewry. God's cure for assimilation, persecution. It seemed plausible ...

The Rabbi turned red in the face, and shook as he said, "That's very interesting. That's a very interesting theory. Does that also explain why thousands and thousands of Orthodox Chassidim were marched into the ovens? Was it because they were too assimilated?"

If you can offer me an explanation of why something like this happens, if you can turn to Deuteronomy and show me in the list of covenant curses how the Jewish people brought this suffering upon themselves, then you do not understand the significance of what has happened.

I think that sometimes the events of the Holocaust become matter of fact for us, and we forget the gravity of the tragedy. We fail to grasp the significance of the Holocaust. No other event in Bible history, in the history of the Jewish people, is as big and dark as what happened in our own lives, just a generation ago. This is the blackest mark in the Jewish story. Six million. That was one third of the total Jewish world population. The world's population of Jews still has not recovered to the level it was at prior to that event. One third of a population was systematically eliminated.

Four hundred years in Egypt is small compared with the Holocaust.

The Assyrian exile pales compared to this.

Less Jews died in the Babylonian conquest.

So too with the Roman wars in the days of the Apostles.

There is no other event in Jewish history, inside or outside the Bible, that is darker, deeper and heavier than those seven years of WWII and the trains to the death camps.

Without having experienced it first hand, it is impossible to grasp how huge this is, how heavy it is. For something like that to happen on earth, in the physical, what kind of spiritual forces were stirring? What was happening in spiritual realms? Think about it.

Corrie Tenboom said that when she turned to face the direction of Germany, she could feel the presence of evil radiating out from that land. For one third of God's chosen people to be slaughtered only on the basis that they are called Jewish, that they bear God's name upon them, what was going on in spiritual realms?

"Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short." (Revelation 12:12)

The Holocaust has huge spiritual ramifications. It has huge theological ramifications. It is a cornerstone of my whole world view. No other historical event has so impacted me and shaped me.

The Holocaust has forced us to rethink our theology and return to the text. The ministry of First Fruits of Zion is here as a direct result of the Holocaust. It forced us to ask, "If we have been wrong about something so fundamental as Israel and Judaism, how many other things have we been wrong about?" I cannot tell you how many scholars I have read who have said the turning point in their theology and scholarship was Auschwitz, that was the thing it took to shake them out of the theology of smug anti-Semitism.

Now we are on the other side of the event and we must ask ourselves how to rebuild out of the ashes. Here's what I learn. The Holocaust shows me that we are off track. The Messianic Movement, the Torah Movement is about getting back on track. It can be compared to a man who was on a journey when he realized he was lost. He said, "I could either continue to wander, or I could go back to where I was when I lost my way and take the correct route from there." That's what we are doing at First Fruits of Zion. We are saying the Protestant Reformation did not go far enough, we want to go back to the very apostolic Judaism practiced by Yeshua and the apostles and the first believers so that we can start over.

What went wrong the first time? Here's what went wrong the first time round. The first time around we in Gentile Christianity jettisoned the Torah and became arrogant over the natural branches of the Family Tree of Israel.

At First Fruits of Zion, we have made a conscious rejection of Replacement Theology, the theology that says, "The Church Replaces Israel." So now here we are, we have gone back, we have set the clock back 2000 years, and we have returned to the Torah mode of life and the synagogue mode of worship. Personally, I feel that I have been driven here by the ghosts of Auschwitz.

In honor of the Remembrance Day, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem has opened a new online video channel where you can view survivor's testimonies. You can see the channel here: Yad V'Shem

D. Thomas Lancaster
25 Nissan, Sefirah 10, 5768

About the Author: Daniel Lancaster is FFOZ’s Director of Education and regular contributor to messiah magazine. He is the author of Torah Club Volumes Two, Four and Five, and the FFOZ books Mystery of the Gospel, Restoration and King of the Jews.

Visitor Comments

Thank you for sharing brother Lancaster.

This article was very moving, very convicting. It has reaffirmed alot of thoughts that I have had recently of a growing respect and love for the people of Israel in the land and around the world.

In my short time in the faith I have been exposed to what I now believe to be very distorted, and racists views against the Jewish people of the world today.

And that is changing as my eyes are being opened, and Im am grateful for the change of heart, and clearer understanding.

I even have met a brother in the faith who is Jewish who I am honored to call friend.

I pray I continue to see clearly and be blessed to meet our brothers and sisters of faith from all walks of life. Thank you again for sharing. I plan on spending time today researching the event of the Holocaust, and remembering, and acknowledging.

Shalom Brother.

Continue to carry our Abba and Yeshua's vessel well and be strong in their spirit.

~Danny

Posted by: D.A.Fluker II | May 1, 2008 10:00 AM

I've heard teachings done about Hitler and Darwin. I find it interesting that if Darwin wouldn't have written his book the Holocaust may not have taken place. It seems as though evolution does nothing except lessen the value of human life and give others (like Hitler) the idea that they can play God and in doing so pray on those they believe are inferior. He chose Gods children as the weaker.....how wrong he was.

Thanks Daniel for bringing this to our attention. I'm still watching the videos. My heart broke with the gentleman speaking about eating the whole cake for fear of endangering his brother but feeling SO bad that his brother couldn't have any.

Posted by: jay | May 1, 2008 11:46 AM

The Holocaust is the travesty of the Twentieth Century, not because wars do not take place or that minorities are oppressed to the brink of extinction--but because a Western, technologically and socially advanced society in Germany planned the genocide of the Jewish people. We have the responsibility to never allow such things to ever happen again!

There is also a need for us in the Messianic community, at this time of rightly confronting anti-Semitism, to also remember those in Germany and in the war who opposed Hitler and the Nazis, and to not allow victimization to get the better of us. The Barmen Declaration of 1934 was a pledge by the churches of Germany against Hitler's plans of a national church. Winston Churchill saw the threat of Hitler long before anyone else did, and he was very hospitable to Jews and supported a Jewish homeland. And, the Federal Republic of Germany today is probably Israel's closest friend after the U.S., having amended itself of past wrongs.

Posted by: J.K. McKee | May 1, 2008 5:08 PM

Daniel,

I think that the Jewish view of the Holocaust and the reasons behind why it may have happened have entirely to do with 'hashkafah' ("Philosophy"/"Paradigm"/"Outlook"). The majority of Orthodox Jewish groups other than the Hasidim have always explained it through similar events of the past and I have listened to several talks by well-known and respected rabbis on the subject of the "why" of the Holocaust. Hasidic outlook on life and G-d is unique and the tendency to leave the reasons for the Holocaust a mystery are a part of that uniqueness.

However, I do feel that it is a question left to rabbis and tzaddikim to answer; certainly NOT us. Therefore I, too, take the stance of leaving it be what it is and not explaining it. Too often have I heard it "explained" by non-Jews only to quickly lead to disgusting and classic anti-Semitism.

Thank you for your sobering reminder of this most tragic event.

Shalom.

Posted by: Brian | May 5, 2008 7:32 AM

I listened to Elie Wiesel speak while I was in college. He stated unequivically that the question of 'Why' the Shoah happened? is not a question for Jews, not even for God, but rather it is a question which Christianity must answer...

Posted by: Crispin | May 5, 2008 3:51 PM

Here is why Wiesel said what he did:

http://www.bethimmanuel.org/articles/litany.pdf

Posted by: Steve Petersen | May 5, 2008 4:48 PM

The new Mezuzah booklet helps you discover the history of this tradition from the time of Moses to today.

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