To the Shoah Survivors

God is Old and Deaf and Goes on Holidays.

This website is addressed to Shoah survivors. I worked with survivors for five years as an aged care worker and spent hundreds of hours talking to them about their lives during and since the war. There was a common thread in our conversations. The survivors couldn’t understand why God had allowed the Holocaust to happen. Some said He was old. Some said He was deaf. Others said He went on holidays. For your loved ones and community to be persecuted and killed by an evil regime is one thing. But to feel abandoned by the One who made you would make life pointless and futile. For many of my clients who did have a strong faith, even their relationships with God were mixed with doubt, ambivalence, and sadness. Because of my position as a worker for a home care agency, I wasn’t allowed to say much, but throughout those five years, I almost burst with a longing to respond and often went home in tears. This website is dedicated to those survivors that I wasn’t allowed to share my beliefs with because of professional ethics and to all Shoah survivors who wonder why it happened.

The Devil and His Followers.

The Tanakh has a lot to say about evil: evil people, and the evil one himself, Satan or Lucifer. A psalm of Asaph reads

“They have none of humanity’s trouble, nor are they plagued like others. Therefore, they put on pride as a necklace, and violence wraps around them like a garment. Their eyes bulge out from fatness. The imaginations of their hearts run wild. They scoff and wickedly plan evil.” Psalm 73:5-8.

An apt description of the Nazis. Evil people take on the nature of the evil one. The prophet Isaiah said of Satan,

“How you have fallen from heaven, O brighstar, son of the dawn. How you are cut down to the earth, you who made the nations prostrate! You said in your heart: ‘I will ascend to heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, ….. I will make myself like Elyon.’ Yet you will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest parts of the Pit.” (Isaiah 14: 12-15).

So, Satan was originally from heaven, but he was cast to earth for wanting to make himself God. His destiny is the Pit. Ezekiel the prophet, said of Satan that he was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, perfect in his ways, and placed on the holy mountain of God until unrighteousness was found in him. (see Ezekiel 28:12-15) Satan is very real and at large on planet Earth and he hates all that God loves, especially you, God’s chosen.

God Promises an Answer.

But in Genesis God promised an answer. The first man and woman were given dominion over the earth as described in Genesis 1, verses 26 and 27. However, the devil beguiled them and so dominion over the earth went to the devil. When God was talking to the devil after the Fall, He promised that He would put animosity between the devil and the woman–between its seed and the woman’s seed,

“He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

God promised redemption. He said that a descendent of the woman’s would defeat the devil. Adonai said to Moses, as recorded in Deuteronomy 18, that he

“will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him.”

These scriptures told of the coming Messiah. Isaiah also foretold of the coming Messiah. He said that he would not be beautiful but that

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, One from whom people hide their faces.” (Isaiah 53:3)

He said that the Messiah would bear the people’s griefs and carry their sorrows. And He would also

“be pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5)

So, God would send the Messiah who would not only defeat the devil but also be a sin-bearer. There are many references by the Hebrew prophets to the Messiah from Moses in 1500 BC to Malachi in 400 BC. I have studied these prophesies in depth and would like to share some of them with you. Many of them were not general prophecies but specific details of the coming Messiah’s birth, ancestry, life, death, and resurrection. Many of these prophecies were through Kind David. David said that the Messiah would be betrayed—

“Even my own close friend, whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” Psalm 41:10).

The price for His betrayal was foretold by the prophet Zechariah who said that the money would be cast unto the potter.

“Then I said to them, ‘If it seems good to you, pay me my wages, but if not, don’t bother’. So, they weighed out my wages—30 pieces of silver. Then Adonai said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter—that exorbitant price at which they valued me!’ (11:12-13)

Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be scourged

“I gave my back to those who strike, and My cheeks to those pulling out My beard” (Isaiah 50:6)

And King David writing 3000 years ago wrote graphically about the Messiah’s death

“For dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has closed in on me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones.” (Psalm 22:17-18).

David also prophesied in Psalm 22 that the Messiah’s clothes would be gambled for.

“They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” (Psalm 22: 19)

And in Psalm 69 (verse 22) David foretold

“For my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”

Jeshua.

Compare the scriptures of Zechariah with Matthew, the author of one of the gospels of Jeshua. He said that Jeshua was betrayed for 30 shekels of silver (Matthew 26:15) and that Judas his betrayer, feeling remorse tossed the silver into the sanctuary and hung himself and that the ruling kohanim and elders bought the potter’s field with the money (Matthew 27:1-4). Fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy, Jeshua was scourged, and fulfilling King David’s Psalm 22, His hands and His feet were pierced during crucifixion. Because His body was naked and exposed during crucifixion, He could see all His bones. True to David’s prophecy, Jeshua’s clothes were gambled for. John the apostle wrote that the Roman soldiers who killed Jeshua said to one another about Jeshua’s tunic

“Let’s not tear it but cast lots for it to see whose it will be.” (John 19:24)

True to David’s prophecy in Psalm 69 that the Messiah would be given vinegar, John wrote of the time of Jeshua’s death:

“‘I am thirsty’. A jar full of sour wine was sitting there, so they put a sponge soaked with the sour wine on a hyssop branch and brought it to His mouth. When Jeshua tasted the sour wine, He said, “It is finished.” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”

There are over 300 Hebrew prophecies fulfilled in the life of Jeshua. The genealogy of Jeshua in Matthew says that he was a descendent of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Jesse, David, and Solomon all predicted in in detail in Jewish scripture. Micah prophesied that He would be born in Bethlehem Ephratah. Hosea prophesied that he would be called out of Egypt when He was a child. And Isaiah said that there would come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch would grow out of his roots. The word ‘branch’ is regarded as a messianic title. In Hebrew it is ‘netser’ from which Nazara or Nazareth is derived. Even this apparent contradiction is explained in Jeshua’s life. Jeshua was born in Bethlehem, went to Egypt with His parents, and returned to Nazareth to live. As spoken by Isaiah, Jeshua was a sin-bearer. His cousin, John the Baptist, said that He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Isaiah in chapter 53 also spoke that the Messiah would live after death.

“Yet it pleased Adonai to bruise Him. He caused Him to suffer. If He makes His soul a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days.” (verse 10)

In Psalm 16, David said of the Messiah that God would not leave His soul in Hell or suffer the Holy One to see corruption. All four of the gospel writers attest that Jeshua appeared to his disciples after death. The gospel writer Luke said that Jeshua said to His followers

“Look at My hands and My feet—It is I myself! Touch Me and see! For a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” (Luke 24:19)

Isaiah said that the Messiah would sprinkle many nations (52:15). True to this prophecy, the knowledge of Jeshua has gone all around the world. He came first for the Jewish people but was also a light to the Gentiles. Jeshua said that Satan was the ruler of this world (John 14: 30). The devil actually killed Jeshua but it was through His death that He saved not only the Jewish race from which He came, but all humankind.

Protection is Through Jeshua.

He took our sins on Himself. But more than that, He promises protection from evil.

“For this reason was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 4:8)

“Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.” (Colossians 2:15).

Jeshua said of Himself

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (Matthew 28:18).

What I longed to tell my clients was that protection is through Jeshua. He is the Protector and Redeemer of Israel. He loves you. He didn’t stand back and ‘allow’ the Holocaust to happen. But God has bound Himself to the law of faith, like He has bound Himself to the laws of gravity. God answers prayers in Jeshua’s name: in His authority. Jeshua is the new mediator between God and the human race: He has taken the place of the priests and He is the new High Priest. He hasn’t forgotten you. You are the apple of His eye (Zechariah 2:8). God says in

Isaiah 49:15-16 “Can a woman forget her nursing baby or lack compassion for a child of her womb? Even if these forget, I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands.”

You are His beloved. He paid the ultimate price for you at Golgotha. He has also passed great responsibility on to His followers. Jeshua was sent by God to

“bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of Adonai’s favor”. (Isaiah 61:1-2).

Jeshua has passed this work on to His followers, but unfortunately many don’t obey Him. Many followers of Jeshua during the Holocaust turned a blind eye to your suffering: some were even perpetrators. Please forgive us. Forgive us our inhumanity and refusal to recognize that you are His beloved, His elect, and that He cherished you more than His own life. Forgive us. Jeshua is coming back soon. I long for you to know Him and His love for you.

Mathematical Patterns in Scripture.

God has revealed Himself not only through the Hebrew scriptures, but also through the four gospels and the letters of Peter, John, Paul, James, and Jude who were all Jewish. There is mathematical proof of the veracity of these scriptures as there is of the Tanakh. The importance of the number-7 is underscored in both the Tanakh and the New Testament. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. On the seventh time that the Hebrews marched around Jericho, the city walls fell. The seventh year in Hebrew ancient law is Shemitah when debts are cancelled. It took seven years to build the Temple in Jerusalem. In the Book of Revelations, there are seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven spirits, and so on. So, the number seven is important in God’s dealings with us. Looking at Genesis One and Matthew One, the first book of Jewish scripture and the first book of the New Testament respectively, we also see the importance of seven. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” contains seven words. “In the beginning God created” has 14 letters (7 x 2). “the heavens and the earth” has 14 letters (7 x 2). The Hebrew letters of “God” + “heavens” + “earth” are 14 (7 x 2). Matthew 1:1-11 contains the first part of the genealogy of Jeshua. It contains 49 (7 x 7) vocabulary words (words without repetitions). The number of Hebrew letters in the 49 words is 266 (7 x 38).

Michael Dov Weissmandl found numerical patterns in the Torah. He found the first letter of a particularly significant word or phrase in a text and then counted a set number of letters to the next letter of the word or phrase, and then counted the same number of letters again to the third letter of the word or phrase and found meaningful words were hidden in the text of the Torah. He found that the words occurred at equally spaced intervals or ESL. His discoveries inspired research on ESL at the Hebrew University in the 1990s done with the aid of computer programmes. Yacov Rambsel used ESL to analyse the text of Isaiah 52, 53, and 54, which describe the suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah. Jeshua, as well as many of the key figures around Jeshua at the time of His crucifixion are encoded in these messianic chapters. Jeshua Shmi, which means “Jeshua is my name”, is encoded in Isaiah 53:10. The High Priests Caiaphas and Annas implicated in the death of Jeshua, are encoded in Isaiah 52 and 53. The names of all the disciples are encoded in Isaiah 53. Mary (there were three Marys at Jeshua’s death including His mother) is encoded multiple times in these chapters. Jeshua was from Nazareth in Galilee, which are both encoded in Isaiah 53. Caesar, who ruled over Israel at that time is also encoded. The probability of these patterns of numbers in the scriptures being made by humans is infinitely small and virtually impossible. These Bibles were written across 1600 years by 33 different people ranging from goat herders and uneducated fishermen to military generals and kings. They are no doubt what they propose to be—messages from God to us.

Thank You.

I can’t imagine what you have suffered. Bad things have happened to me, but they pale into insignificance compared to the horror you have experienced. But like you, I often ask God “Why?” He tells me that some things I won’t understand until the next life. In heaven we will be given answers.

But for now, it’s war: war against a very powerful mastermind. We have to fight with all we have to gain protection, salvation, healing, and joy for ourselves and our loved ones. Although Satan robbed humanity of its power during the Fall, Jeshua has restored our dominion through belief in Jeshua. This includes dominion over evil. We need to fight with Jeshua and in His authority: His name. God remembers you: He remembers His own.

I want to thank you for all you have given me. You gave me love and hope. You showed me God’s face and demonstrated that love and courage win over evil in the end. You showed me the power of forgiveness. The Nazis and their evil god didn’t destroy you or your race. They failed, and you are proof of this. Evil will never destroy Israel because you are the apple of His eye. And there will be an end to all this evil. It is foretold in the Book of Revelations and in the prophet Joel. Joel said that all nations will gather in the valley of Jehoshaphat and the sun and moon will become dark and heaven and earth will shudder. Revelations says that there will be a new heaven and a new earth. There will be justice.

“But Adonai will be a refuge for His people, and a safe place for the children of Israel.” (Joel 4:16).

Shalom, Rose.

Click here for a link to Declaring the End from the Beginning

To the shoah survivors