הסטרי 3'

גזירות ת''ח ות''ט (1648- 1649)-

The Cossacks lived in Ukraine, which was southwest of Russia and southeast of Poland. The Poles took them over and made them into serfs. The Cossacks were very mad that they couldn’t make money, had to pay many taxes, and follow the Pole’s religion. They got themselves a leader for their group, Chmielnitzky. He organized a mob because the king wouldn’t listen to his complaints. The mob was similar to the Crusades. Although they were mad at the Poles, they took it out on the Jews. They robbed, murdered, tortured, and took ס''ת…

In נמירוב, the Jews were hiding in a fortress that was impenetrable. The Cossacks tricked them by waving Polish flags. The Jews thought that they were Poles, so they opened up the doors for them. 6,000 people were killed that day. In order to remember what happened on that day, the Jews of Poland fast on כ' סיון.

In טוצ'לין, a similar incident transpired. The Jews were in a fortress and Cossacks told Polish- if you give up Jews to us, we’ll spare you. So the Polish gave them over and 1,500 Jews were killed and then they killed the Poles.

This lasted for two summers, but it caused tremendous unrest for twelve years.

In 1657, Chmielnitzky died.

Things didn’t settle down though until 1660, right after the two years of גזירות ת''ח ות''ט. The ועד הארצות realized that there was a problem because people were hiding. So wives were אגנות, children were found and no one knew who or where their parents were. Additionally, these children couldn’t get married because maybe it’s their sibling. So they figured out everyone’s יחוס and wrote it down on an amulet.

During these years, 500,000 people were killed and 300 קהילות were destroyed. Yiddishkeit never returned to its previous level.

People left to four places:
1. Hungary
2. Germany
3. Holland
4. Italy- was already a haven for גולי ספרד.
They spread the דרך הלמוד of Poland to these countries.

אחרוני פולין בזמן גזירות ת"ח ות"ט-

1. ר' יהושע העשיל מקראקא- די רבי ר' העשלע- He lived in Brisk where his father was the ראש ישיבה and then לובלין and his father was the ראש ישיבה there too. When his father was נפטר, he moved to Krakow and became ראש ישיבה. He was after the תוספות יו"ט, the מהר"ל’s תלמיד. He was known for his outstanding צדקות, חסד, חכמה, and ענוה.
He traveled to Vienna to wealthy Jews and collected money to help his brethren monetarily and in different ways too. And he reestablished תורה after גזירות again- by building a ישיבה.
2. ט"ז- טורי זהב- ר' דוד הלוי- The טורי זהב was פרוש על שלחן ערוך- הלכה. He was called for his פרוש- ט"ז. He was the son-in-law of the ב"ח. After the גזירות, active in ועד ארבע הארצות. During pogroms, he lost 2 of his sons but he couldn’t be depressed because בנ"י needed him. This was like a Rebbe by WWII, ר"ל. He understood he was the leader and בנ"י needed him. His קבר was opened 200 years after he was נפטר and his body was complete- sign of a צדיק מושלם. Story- the ב"ח said he would support him, and he did this through providing him with a meal of meat every day. This gave him strength to learn. Then the ב"ח couldn’t afford it so he bought a piece of lung for him and he wasn’t as strong and his learning suffered a little. He took his father-in-law, the ב"ח, to a דין תורה. The דין תורה said lung is meat. People wanted to know- how could he do this? It teaches דן לכף זכות- the ט"ז said- there was a קטרוג against my father-in-law that I wasn’t learning as well so the ט"ז understood if he makes a real דין תורה in this world and they decide it’s fine, it’s fine in שמים too.
3. שך- ר' שבתי כהן- שפתי כהן- He was one of the greatest פוסקים after the גזרות. He started writing his פרוש then. His wife was נפטר and his daughter was missing- the adopted princess. He was part of the ועד and one of the people to establish כ' סיון as a יום צום for the קדושים killed in נמירוב- קדושי נמירוב, and he wrote קינות וסליחות for it.
4. מגן אברהם- ר' אברהם גמבינר- he asked the שאך what the answer to a hard question he asked was. They appointed him a מורה צדק in בית דין.
5. של"ה הקדוש- ר' ישעי' הורוביץ- he wrote the שני לוחות הברית. He was buried near the רמב"ן in טברי'.

During the late 1800s, Poland got carved between Germany, Russia and Austria, so it was no longer independent. Poland didn’t become independent again until after WWII. From 1918 to 1937, Poland was split between Germany and Russia. At that point, people went to the German side because Russia was a mean country, so they figured Germany would be better. After WWII, Poland became a satellite of Russia. And in 1989, Poland finally regained its independence.

שבתי צבי¬-

In 1626, שבתי צבי was born in Turkey in Smyrna. He started the beginning of a different תקופה.

He was a משיח שקר. ר' חיים וואלזין said that שבתי צבי started out as a קדוש וטהור, but once he started getting כבוד, it caused him to go astray.

His town put him in חרים right away because they realized that he was doing something wrong. He went to the next town. There he drew a huge crowd and they followed him. Eventually, נתן of Aza joined him as his "נביא" and promoted him.

The גדולים weren’t really clear about what was going on. The ט''ז sent his grandchildren to go check it out and they came back with glowing reports.

שבתי צבי said the שם המפורש out loud, he ate חלב- said the ברכה of מתיר אסורים when he did this… He invited everyone to his wedding, where his כלה was a ס''ת.

Glickel of Hameln lived at this time. She wrote that people really thought משיח was coming. They sold their houses, prepared their luggage, and some did תשובה- this was something good that came out of it.

ר' יעקב סספרטס was one of the only גדולים who clearly took a stand against שבתי צבי.

שבתי צבי went to the Sultan. He was given a choice- או מוסלמות או ימות, and he converted. This caused a tremendous amount of disappointment. This caused trouble in כ''י- people were suspicious of anyone who supported שבתי צבי.

A little while later there was another משיח שקר- Yaakov Frank. The גדולים were suspicious of anyone involved. Some good people were under suspicion:
1. רמח''ל- he learnt קבלה, and this aroused suspicion.
2. ר' יונתן אייבשיץ- ר' יעקב עמדין was against him because he suspected that he had dealings with שבתי צבי but in the end, he didn’t.

A historian says that שבתי צבי suffered from mental illness- he had his high points and his low points.

1700s- 1900s

The Industrial Revolution brought about new inventions and now they had mass production, which is cheaper and easier. Factories were built and the feudal system ended. Much of the change happened in the west, in Germany, France, Hungary… People would go from small town in the east to the west in order to work. Now, they started with last names and addresses because children were no longer under their parent’s jurisdiction. Poland and Russia resisted the change until the 1900s, so Poland was the תורה center. There were many נסיונות in the west.

In eastern Poland and Russia, the Jews were no longer protected by kings and the ועד הארצות wasn’t so strong. They had to pay very taxes so people were busy making a living and didn’t have time to learn תורה. There were ישיבות and גדולים but for the המון עם, they were trying to making a living and didn’t have time to learn. There was a רפיון. רפואה לפני המכה was the בעל שם טוב- he came and made חידות. It was considered a דבר בעתו. The בעל שם טוב said- תורה is the ultimate but you can come close to ה' through davening/singing and שמחה and he built them up and encouraged בנ"י. He preserved Yiddishkeit in the Poland-Russia area. It was special for the simple Yid, for the המון עם, and gave them חזוק.

Western Europe- Germany France...- modernizing and then the world changed and בנ"י too.

The Revolutionary War in America brought about a new change- for the first time, there was no monarch. The French then overthrew their monarch too, in the French Revolution.

Napoleon took over France after the revolution. He conquered a big part of the world. He was in א"י on תשעה באב and בנ"י were crying and they said- a nation who cries for something that happened 2,000 years ago will stay a nation. Napoleon made them a big סנהדרין and gave them rights and said they could be part of the country, but that they had to first be Frenchman and then they could be Jews.

We’re a ‘religion nation’. We’re a strange nation. Because we don’t assimilate. But this started off a Reform Movement- they become friendly with them and assimilated.

“The Open Door”- they opened the ghetto, and the Yidden “lost their balance” (assimilated.)

People said- maybe there are things in Yiddishkeit that we don’t need, and they made changes. Making even one change is a מומר לכל התורה and you’re an אפיקורס to כל התורה כולה. It started like this. In 1808 they built the first temple and the rabbi dressed like a גלאך. They started by taking out things from the סדור- they took out קרבנות- it’s “cruel”, and "ולירושלים עירך"- we’re happy here, who wants משיח. Moses Mendelson- said be a Frenchman outside and a Jew at home.

They all converted ר"ל.

ר' שמשון רפא-ל הירש fought against it in Germany.

The חתם סופר in Hungary- it was called Neologism.

In the east there was the Yeshiva Movement- ישיבת ואלאז'ין- ר' חיים ואלאז'ין. It was the first yeshiva like what we have today. That kept the reform out. Some made problems, though. Eventually, what came was השכלה- learning the חכמה of the גויים- learning outside subjects.

They pressured the government into pressuring ר' חיים to have secular studies in the yeshiva. ר' חיים said I would rather close down my yeshiva than water down my yeshiva with secular studies. He made a statement for the generations to know- this is not לכתחילה. The secular studies רדיפות eventually died down, and other ישיבות opened up.

In 1840 the זוהר said that there will be a מבול of חכמות then. There were unbelievable technologies- steamboats, locomotives, trains… Now it took much less time to travel.

So now they had factories and many “ism”s came:
1. Socialism- workers were afraid of their bosses, but they understood the power of the masses so they formed unions.
2. Communism- Karl Marx wrote Das Capital, his social bible. His philosophy was that all צרות are caused by money, so everyone should share the wealth.
3. Atheism- don’t believe in any god so that you don’t feel guilty if you do something wrong.
4. Zionism- in the late 1800s, many frum Yidden made עלי' to א''י and built up cities like ראשון לציון, זכרון לציון and פתח תקוה.

At the end of the 1800s, there was a new kind of anti- Semitism. They hated us not because of our religion, but because of our nation. By the Dreyfus affair, they accused a not frum general. Emyl Zolar wrote J’accuse- he accused that the Dreyfus affair was wrong. But still, people thought badly about this.

Theodore Herzl- he was a reporter and he went to France, and he was called a Dirty Jew, but he was an assimilated Jew and you couldn’t tell he was a Jew and he was shocked why they called him a Jew. But בנ"י aren’t the usual- we’re strange- we’re a religion nation. He felt that if we have a homeland and army, we won’t be called a Dirty Jew and there won’t be anti-Semitism. He didn’t know the idea that "הלכה היא בידוע שעשו שונא ליעקב" and at first he wanted to make his homeland in Uganda.

As soon as set up א"י without תורה, the frum Jews realized the Zionists are shterring תורה. The גדולים realized they had to unite because Zionism was a world organization, and they formed Agudas Yisroel in 1909 in order to fight Zionism.

They set the year 1914 as a date for a כנסי'ה גדולה to make different strategies to fight the Zionists. But it didn’t happen because WWI was then. It was a terrible war, which ended in1918.

2 things came out that affected the Jews:
1. The Balfour Declaration- the British government recognized the total rights of the Jewish nation and promised to establish their own homeland.
2. Bolshevik Revolution- 5 million Yidden were oppressed under communist rule for 70 years and they weren’t able to keep מצוות.

There was a song to Nikolai- “Dear Nikolai”, written in the form of a boy going to yeshiva in N.Y. what life was like as a frum Yid- Yiddishkeit practiced openly.

In Poland, the Yidden controlled the חנוך and their own newspapers and so they started establishing ישיבות and בית יעקבs now.

In 1923, the Agudah had its first כנסי'ה גדולה.

חרבן אירפה-

It was called the Holocaust. From the time ב''י got the תורה, this was the worst in:
1. Scope- affected so many people.
2. Viciousness
3. Thoroughness
4. They stated their objective to make the world Judenrein.

The Zionists decided to use the term שואה. They felt that this had nothing to do with the rest of history, so they made יום השואה. But we know that this is really just an extension of the חרבן, it happened because we are in גלות. So this is a part of the other חרבנות, which we commemorate on תשעה באב.

משך חכמה sheet- this was written by ר' מאיר שמחה הכהן מדוינסק. He lived from 1845- 1926. He also wrote the אור שמח. The משך חכמה is a ספר on the תורה.

If you learn about חרבן אירופה, you should learn the תוכחה because you’ll see it straight out that ה' warned us. These consequences keep us as a nation.

ה' promises that we will be persecuted, but will never be completely destroyed. Let’s understand a little bit how ה' watches over everything. Just like ה' decreed that כ''י should wander for a specific amount of time, He also didn’t reveal when משיח will come. ה' thought up strategies and ways that כ''י should survive as a nation and not assimilate. Our חכמים recognized this so they gave us גדרים so that we shouldn’t assimilate, that we should survive the upheaval of the waves of the sea and not get destroyed in the depths of the ים. How can כ''י survive?

We learn this from יעקב - ה' showed him all of the צרות and even showed him when משיח was going to come. יעקב thought that since כ''י was only seventy people in a strong nation like מצרים, they were bound to assimilate. So he came up with עצות that they should stand out- they didn’t change their names, language or clothing. יעקב thought that if he was buried in מצרים, כ''י would despair that there’s no hope of ארץ כנען. Then they would sink and consider מצרים "ארץ מולדת". So he understood that he can’t be buried in מצרים because that will cause כ''י to think of themselves as מצרים and they won’t get the special attention ה' gives them. So יעקב made יוסף swear to bury him in א''י so all of כ''י should know that their יחוס is in ארץ כנען. Through this, it was set in the נפש of his sons to yearn for א''י and feel like strangers everywhere else. It says in the פסוק, "ויגר שם"- they went to live there temporarily. This teaches us that anywhere you go is only temporary until משיח and while you are there you shouldn’t consider yourself a citizen. Also יוסף made כ''י promise to take out his bones, as did all of the other שבטים. This set up a tremendous root in כ''י.

It says, "ויקצו מפני ב''י"- they viewed them as קוצים. Just like thorns can’t be grafted, so too כ''י didn’t assimilate. They didn’t consider themselves מצרים. They were different in their qualities and characteristics therefore they were in the eyes of the מצרים like a thorn. From this, עזרא and the אכה''ג learned out that we must remain separate and make גדרים to keep us separate. We must remember that we are strangers in an ארץ נכרי. We are also like שתילי זתים because they don’t mix with any other seeds.

It’s a wonder that כ''י are still in existence. A person who knows הסטרי' and knows of all the terrible צרות that כ''י endured, a nation weak and with no strength- ככבשה בין שבעים זאבים, people who see this say it’s a נס.

We see a cycle of how we go from place to place. ב''י come into a land downtrodden. When they come, they unite and the תורה flourishes. Then they begin to forget that they are גרים and they begin to think that this is their place of origin. They think "יחשוב כי ברלין היא ירושלים" and they stop waiting for the ישועה. Then another stronger wind comes and shakes him up to remind him that he is a Jew and he has to leave because it’s not his place. This is the pattern that happens throughout the years. So this is the cycle: we come into a land downtrodden. Then we build up תורה and get close to ה'. But then we go looking for excitement, and we look to the גויים. We begin to forget that we are not permanent citizens here. Then a storm comes and uproots us.

How did it come about that Hitler was able to rise to power so much so that he was able to take over much of the world and attempt his plan of Judenreit?

In 1542, Martin Luther created a reformation and started the Protestants. He thought the Jews would join him, so he was nice to them. When he saw that they weren’t going to join, he created a religious hatred toward the Jews in Germany. He openly wrote that Jews are the enemy and we are better off without them.

In 1871, Otto von Bismarck made the Bismarck Republic. He unified all the loosely linked states of Germany and put them under one country which eventually became known as Germany. He was a very powerful ruler.

In 1903, the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” was published in Russia. This was a distinct change in the form of anti- Semitism. This book said that there is a group of old Jews who are in charge of running the world and in charge of all of the money in the world. This fueled the flame of anti- Semitism.

World War I was from 1914- 1918. It began on תשעה באב. This war ended in armistice- a cease fire, if Germany agrees to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles:
1. Limited the army to 100,000 troops.
2. Limited the navy to thirty-six ships.
3. Made the country smaller.
4. Must pay huge reparations.

After WWI, a new government was formed. It was called the Weimar Republic. It was more democratic and a weak government.

Hitler told the people exactly what they wanted to hear- that Germany didn’t lose the war. Additionally, he put down the government.

In 1923, Hitler made a rebellion and tried to overthrow the government. He got thrown into jail and there he wrote Mein Kampf- my struggle. Its main points:
1. Jews dominate the world.
2. We need to rid the world of Jews.
3. Superiority of the Aryan race.
4. Inferiority of the Slavs- Poles and Russians.
5. New World Order- how he envisions the world to look.
6. Rule of the third reich for 1,000 years.

Hitler realized that if he can’t overthrow the government, he must win it over. In 1930, the Nazi party became the second largest party. In 1933, Hitler was elected chancellor. But he wanted to be a dictator. The Weimar Republic building got burned down and he blamed the communists. Hitler took emergency powers and pushed his way in. When he saw that he could get away with it, he pushed further and further and became more brazen.

He put into effect the Nuremberg laws-
1. Jews lost their German citizenship.
2. Jews could no longer marry a non- Jew.
3. Jews can’t vote.
4. Jews can’t engage in certain kinds of work.
5. Jewish doctors had to become medical assistants.
6. Every Jew had to have an ID card and everyone got a Jewish name. If someone didn’t have one, a boy was named Israel and a girl was named Sara.
7. Jews had to wear yellow stars.

Judenreit was the most important thing on Hitler’s agenda. At the end of the war, he focused on killing Jews instead of using his means to win the war.

In 1933, Hitler began breaking the rules of the Treaty of Versailles:
1. Stopped paying the Allies.
2. Started rebuilding his army, navy and air force.
3. In 1934, he started taking back land.

In 1934, Hitler occupied the Rhineland. He brought soldiers in and no one did anything.

In 1938, he went into Austria. People were happy to see him there. Anschluss was the annexation of Austria to Germany.

In 1938, Hitler took control of the Sudetenland. He also told the world that his people were being tortured by the Czechs and he had to go save them. This allowed him to go right into Czechoslovakia.

The Americans weren’t worried about what was going on because they were across the ocean. England had a non-aggression and appeasement attitude because they were tired of war. But non-aggression and appeasement don’t work with dictators- the more you give them, the more they want. Historians believe that at this point, Hitler was still stoppable. But by the time everyone realized how evil he was, he couldn’t be stopped.

November 9 and 10, 1938 was Kristallnacht. What led up to this? Hershel Greenspan, a student in the University of Paris, was upset because his parents were thrown out of Germany. He went to the German embassy and shot Earnest Von Wrath. This became known as the shot heard around the world. It was used as an excuse; really the Germans were just waiting for something to blame it on. This was the first violent act that was sanctioned by the government. This meant that the Jews had no one to turn to for help. Kristallnacht was a type of pogroms- they looted and ransacked Jewish buildings, killed people and mocked them. 191 shuls were burnt, seventy- six of them completely. There was blood and glass all over. The message that people got was that they don’t belong there.

After Kristallnacht, things were difficult. But the war didn’t start until September 1, 1939. So people had a year to leave.

On August 25, 1939- the Molotov- Ribbentrop agreement was made between Russia and Germany that Russia won’t attack Germany. First, Germany will attack Poland and if Russia doesn’t fight back, they will split Poland. Poland had mountains and seas around it, but it also had plains on either side, so Germany and Russia always took land.

September 1, 1989- WWII began. WWII was blitzkrieg- lightening war. The Germans fought with tanks and their air force. Poland only had soldiers and horses. Along the border, there were Polish soldiers. The Germans flew over the soldiers and bombed the area behind them so that they wouldn’t be able to replenish their supplies. Then they invaded Poland from the top and the bottom. Within three weeks, the Nazis took over the whole Poland. On יו''כ, the Nazis bombed Poland extra hard.

At this point, the Nazis started arresting Jews because they wanted to get rid of them. Germany divided Poland with Russia. The Jews of Poland didn’t know which side to go to, so some stayed with the Germans.

It was למעלה מן הטבע to kill six million Jews. It says in פרשת כי תבוא, "והי' כאשר שש ה' עליכם להיטיב אתכם ולהרבות אתכם, כן ישיש ה' עליכם להאביד אתכם ולהשמיד אתכם ונסחתם מעל האדמה אשר אתה בא שמה לרשתה"- it’ll be just like ה' is happy to do good for you and make you many, so too ה' will make the enemy happy to destroy you and you will be torn from this land that you came to inherit. ר' משה שפירה says that כ''י run on השגחה פרטית. There will come a point in time when ה' will use השגחה פרטית to destroy them. This was a safety feature to stop כ''י from totally assimilating. Who makes a war against civilians?

In 1929, the ח''ח was bentching and R’ Schwab heard him crying by רחם. The ח''ח told R’ Schwab that he foresees that there is going to be another world war which will make WWI look like child’s play.

People had to decide what they should do- they didn’t have anywhere to go. 1/3 of German Jews did leave. Where did they go?
1. Palestine- was made into a Jewish state by the British in the Balfour Declaration. People were able to come until 1939 when the White Paper was issued- didn’t let people come anymore.
2. England- they had a quota.
3. America- they had a quota and anyone who came needed a sponsor.
4. South America

People didn’t believe that such terrible things would happen. In America they didn’t know anything until much later on and even then they didn’t believe it.

Kindertransport- R’ Schoenfeld got permission to take a group of children from the age of 0-16 out. They went to England. Some children were put into goyish homes. Eventually, they had to leave their homes and go to the countryside. Here, they opened the Shefford school.

With the beginning of the blitzkrieg, terrible decrees and activities began to happen.

A lot of the dirty work was not done in Germany itself. The Nazi leaders got together and made a plan:
1. Many Yidden lived in small shtetluch. If you want to gather the Jews, you must concentrate them in the cities. They made these cities into ghettos.
2. Establishment of Judenreit- council of Jewish elders who bore the responsibility of carrying out German orders. By making the Jews do the dirty work, they were placing Jews against Jews.
a. The Nazis asked a certain רב to give them a list with a certain number of people. If he didn’t do it, they would kill him and his whole family. This is exactly what happened. He didn’t comply, so he and his family were tortured.
b. One day two people escaped. The Nazis were upset about this, so they picked twenty-five people and told them to each choose another person. This is so horrible!
The Nazis also felt that if they had Jews working for them, they could know more about the Jews. Some did take this job in order to help others.

Part of Hitler’s plan was propaganda. He had a ministry for propaganda. He started this brainwashing years before. In the theater, in the middle of the film, they would flash pictures of German soldiers breaking down the Eiffel tower. He did this in order to build up the peoples' moral.

They also used films to promote anti- Jewish propaganda. They would flash pictures of rats in middle of films depicting Jews.

Fritz Hippler was in charge of propaganda films and Joseph Goebbels was in charge of all propaganda. Hippler was obsessed with the idea of films. He had pro- Nazi films played in theaters. If someone seemed indifferent to these films, they were arrested on the spot because they were either a Jew, Jew lover or Nazi hater.

Hippler used two different methods:
1. Simplifications- gave over in a simple way so that people would understand.
2. Repetition- repeat in order to brainwash people until the idea was accepted.
Hippler was in charge of “Eternal Jew”. This film displayed Jews as rats which must be exterminated. He made hundreds of films, in addition to books and other things which would alter German education.

The Nazis had special training schools where they would do horrible things to animals so that they would grow accustomed to it and be able to do similar things to people.

There was a five- step process which Hitler implemented:
1. Ghettoization- Jews were squished into ghettos with horrible conditions. People died from starvation and disease. There was a big ghetto in Lodz. Hitler wanted to dehumanize the Jews. He also wanted to keep them calm up until the last moment, so he did everything in a very organized way so that they wouldn’t understand what was happening. It says in איכה, which death is better, sword or hunger? Sword. Hunger is much slower and more painful.
2. Concentration camps- the concentration camp was a Nazi creation. In slave labor camps, they didn’t treat the inmates like regular people, but they gave them food and a bed so that they could work. In the concentration camps, they really tried to dehumanize people. There were disgusting accommodations and thin clothing. The people couldn’t even relax after work because they never knew what was going to happen to them at the next moment.
3. Eizantsgruppen- their job was to kill people. They would take a group of people, make them dig a pit, undress and then shoot them into it. Then they would cover it up. This is not an easy and efficient way of killing. So at the Wansee conference in 1941, they discussed how they could do the job in a more efficient way. They came up with the solution of a gas chamber. But Hitler had to have this made for him. Different countries offered him different prices. This is so disgusting! The Nazis would take everything from people- their property, clothing etc. They made Jews go around and gather up other people’s things. After the gas chamber, the Nazis had the idea of a crematorium to get rid of the bodies. Everything was done in an organized and efficient way.
4. Deportation- people were deported from the ghettos and concentration camps to death camps or concentration camps. Often they had death camps and labor camps together, for example Auschwitz- Birkenau- Auschwitz was the death camp and Birkenau was the labor camp. Many people say that the deportation was the worst part of the whole experience. Many people were stuffed into cattle cars. Some people were in there for a few hours and some for a few days. In the winter, the people could pull off icicles through small holes and give them to their children to drink. R’ Michoel Ber Weissmandel jumped off of one of these trains.
5. Death camps and death marches- the Nazis would march people from place to place. At the end of the war, the Nazis marched people.

Death camps in Poland:
1. Auschwitz- Birkenau
2. Belzec
3. Chelmno
4. Lublin-Majdanek
5. Treblinka

Mauthausen was in Austria, Stutthof was in Prussia and Donary was in Lithuania.

Resistance:

The Jews didn’t do what the Nazis wanted them to do. They helped other people, did מצוות…

Every person had to ask themselves, “how does ה' want me to act in this situation?”

A Jew saving himself:

How do we know what to do? You must look into the תורה because "מעשה אבות סימן לבנים".

We know that when יעקב prepared for war, he did three things:
1. תפילה- said תהלים, people davened.
2. דרון- they tried their best to bribe officials. In America, they gathered money. They were even מחלל שבת for it because "פקוח נפש דוחה שבת".
3. מלחמה- it says, "הבא להרגך השכם להרגו"- if someone comes to kill you, you must save yourself. It says in the פסוק, "וירא יעקב ויצר לו"- he was prepared to kill back if he had to. By the Holocaust, they couldn’t really fight back. But it was נוגע by the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Here, in honor of Hitler’s birthday they announced that they were going to kill out everyone in the ghetto. They asked R’ Menachem Zemba what to do and he said that in honor of a קדוש ה', they should fight back. The Nazis had to bring in shock troops to fight back.

What does it mean to die with dignity? They said שמע, sang, gave over their food, and used their last bit of water to cleanse themselves… A Yid doesn’t have to fight back to die with dignity.

Hungary came into the war at the end.

Many boats of Jews were sent back to Europe.

A Nazi leader said that everyone looks at them so badly. But at least they openly showed that they didn’t care about the Jews. All the other nations who didn’t let them in are bad, too.

Theresienstadt was a model concentration camp- the Red Cross came and the Nazis tried to make it look like a good camp with children playing.

The Zionists only saved the Jews they wanted to, and not others.

Wallenberg, Shindler and other great men were חסידי עומות העולם. They risked their lives to save so many people.

Denmark stood up for its Jews and chased the Nazis out.