Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust

by Yaffa Eliach

Derived by the author from interviews and oral histories, these eighty-nine original Hasidic tales about the Holocaust provide unprecedented witness, in a traditional idiom, to the victims' inner experience of "unspeakable" suffering. This volume constitutes the first collection of original Hasidic tales to be published in a century.

"An important work of scholarship and a sudden clear window onto the heretofore sealed world of the Hasidic reaction to the Holocaust. Its true stories and fanciful miracle tales are a profound and often poignant insight into the souls of those who suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis and who managed somehow to use that very suffering as the raw material for their renewed lives." -- Chaim Potok

"A beautiful collection." -- Saul Bellow

"Yaffa Eliach provides us with stories that are wonderful and terrible -- true myths. We learn how people, when suffering dying, and surviving can call forth their humanity with starkness and clarity. She employs her scholarly gifts only to connect the tellers of the tales, who bear witness, to the reader who is stunned and enriched." -- Robert J. Lifton

"In the extensive literature on the Holocaust, this is a unique book. Through it we can attain a glimpse of the victims' inner life and spiritual resources. Yaffa Eliach has done a superb job." -- Jehuda Reinharz

Genres: Holocaust, History, Jewish, Nonfiction, Judaism, Short Stories, World War II

267 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1982

About the author

Yaffa Eliach (b. Yaffa Sonenson, Eišiškės, (Yiddish: אישישוק‎/Eishyshok) 31 May 1937) is a historian, author, and scholar of Judaic Studies and the Holocaust. She is probably best known for creating the “Tower of Life” made up by 1,500 photographs for permanent display at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

Yaffa Eliach was born Yaffa Sonenson to a Jewish family in Eishyshok near Vilna, now Eišiškės, Lithuania, a small town inhabited roughly in equal numbers by Jews and Poles until the Holocaust, where she lived until she was four years old. When the town was occupied by the Germans in June 1941 and most of the Jewish population was murdered by the Germans and Lithuanians, she and her family hid and survived in hiding places in the Eishyshok vicinity. Upon returning to Eishyshok after the arrival of the soviet forces in 1944, her mother and a brother were killed when the village, now occupied by the soviet army and security services (NKVD) was attacked by the Polish Home Army (AK) attempting to liberate Polish soldiers arrested by the soviet occupying forces. The Sonensons were hosting an officer of SMIERSH, soviet counter-intelligence (Yaffa Sonenson's father joined the soviet NKVD forces and helped them fight and arrest the Polish resistance, becoming a levtenant). The Russian officer and several of his soldiers have fired on the arriving Home Army from the Sonensons' house and as a result of a short exchange of fire there were at least three civilian casualties, a Polish woman and two above-mentioned Sonenson's family mambers . Later Yaffa Eliach accused the Polish Home Army of antisemitic motivation of the attack, however, her interpretation was found groundless by Polish historians as well as reputed Israeli scholars, including professor I.Gutman ("Znak", July, 2000).

Eliach emigrated to Palestine in 1946, and later to the United States in 1954. She received her BA in 1967 and her MA in 1969 from Brooklyn College, New York and a Ph.D. in 1973 from City University of New York in Russian intellectual history, studying under Saul Lieberman and Salo Baron.

Since 1969, Eliach was professor of history and literature in the Department of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College, and founded and served as director of the Center for Holocaust Studies in Brooklyn. She was a member of President Jimmy Carter's Commission on the Holocaust in 1978-79 and accompanied his fact-finding mission to Eastern Europe in 1979. She has been a frequent lecturer at numerous conferences and educational venues and has appeared on television several times in documentaries and interviews. She has written several books and has contributed to Encyclopaedia Judaica, The Women's Studies Encyclopedia, and The Encyclopedia of Hasidism.

Eliach has devoted herself to the preservation of memory of the Holocaust specifically from the perspective of a survivor's vantage point. She has also preserved her memories (via lecture) on video and audiocassettes. Her research has provided much material used in courses on the Holocaust in the United States.

Eliach thinks her generation “is the last link with the Holocaust”, and considers it her responsibility to document the tragedy in terms of life, not death, bringing the Jews back to life. In memory of her native Eishyshok she has written Once There Was a World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok (1998), recounting the colorful Jewish life of Eishyshok. Also in memory of the town, Eliach created the “Tower of Life”, a permanent exhibit which contains approximately 1,500 photos of Jews in Eishyshok before the arrival of the Germans for the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C..

In 1953, Eliach married David Eliach, now principal emeritus of the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School. She has a daughter, Smadar Rosensweig, Professor of History at Touro College (NYC), and a son, Yotav Eliach, the principal of Rambam Mesivta High School. She has 14 grandchildren, including Itamar

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It will soon be Christmas Eve, and there are few spiritual works I could recommend during this holy winter season as memorable--or as useful—as Yaffa Eliach's Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust. Whatever our religious background—whether we simply await the growing sunlight, laud the birth of goodness in a fallen world, or tell about how one bowl of blessed oil lit the holy lamps for eight days—our traditions assert warmth's dominion over a frozen land, anticipate the coming light at the moment of greatest darkness. In such days, what could be better than these Hasidic tales, stories that discover the presence of God even in the Nazi death camps?

This book is so rich in stories that it is difficult to pick favorites, but I was most moved by the ones involving makeshift rituals, memories of family and food, even in the shadow of the gas chambers: the coffee cauldron used to conceal a shofar, the Bergen-Belsen seder where “we only have matzah,” the Hanukkah light consisting of a wooden clog for a minorah and one poor thread taken from a prison uniform (and blackened with shoe polish) for a wick, or the many narratives about dreams—visitations at moments of great suffering, sometimes just before liberation—of grandparents and parents bringing not only love but also the delightful smells of the old family kitchen. It is not only food and rituals that help our storytellers survive, but any object or memory which maintains the link with tradition: a religious amulet, a goblet for kiddush, the memory of a revered rabbi's special blessing or kiss. These are the things that sustain them, even through the most extreme suffering.

At the holiday season--and throughout year--such stories carry a warning and a promise to us all: we must cherish our families, our foods, our traditions, for these are the things which can sustain us through the most difficult of times.

Yaffa Eliach does a fine job organizing these narratives, but her greatest achievement is her skill at becoming a listener worthy of being trusted with extraordinary stories. Without her faith, her reverence, her empathy, we would not have been graced with this marvelous book, nor the strange blessing of its tales.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Jewish author that wrote this book should get a medal. She wrote this story in a very Jewish manner using words - phrases and culture that only the Jewish people would understand. Ahhhh, but there is a really good glossary at the end of the book that will help you/me out.
At times some of the stories may be hard to grasp or understand the miracles since they are about how the Jewish faith plays a role. That is what makes this book so interesting.
Found this nice treat at HalfPrice bookstore for a couple bucks.

[cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little gem of a book of very short stories. Aside from piercing looks at Holocaust experiences I got an even better glimpse of not only some Hasidic culture but more importantly, philosophies regarding how anyone explains or absorbs this horror with their faith still intact and this is a subject I'm very interested in.

[Kressel Housman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author of this book is not Hasidic herself, but in producing it, she interviewed many Chassidim about their experiences in the camps. She also stuck to the main concept of a Hasidic story, which is that it must end on a positive note. How is that possible with the Holocaust? Leave it to Hasidic Jews to remember G-d in the darkest of circumstances. Especially inspiring are the stories of Rebbetzin Bronia, who later married the Bluzhover Rebbe, and his words of Torah introducing the book literally changed my perspective on life.

[Arthur Gershman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The gold standard by which Holocaust literature is judged is Elie Wiesel's Night/Dawn/Day trilogy. If that is 24k this is 22k gold. Does that mean 4 or 5 stars? I'm no mathematician, only a humble mechanical engineer, so I gave it 4 stars, on the grounds that Amazon.com predicted I would!
These tales are mostly short and so, emminently readable. Above all, one remains in my mind. It is the story of little Shachne Hiller, Mr. and Mrs. Yachowitch, and a young Polish priest. Schachne is 4 years old when he is given up by his Jewish parents into the care of the dutiful and trustworthy Catholic Yachowitchs. The Hillers are careful to instruct the Yachowiths that they wish Shachne to be brought up Jewish. Time passes and the Yachowiths come to love little Schachne dearly. Mrs. Yachowitch takes the little boy to a young priest, explains the situation and asks that the boy be baptized. The young priest refuses. That priest, who is Karol Wojtyla refuses and eventually becomes Cardinal and is then elected Pope. The boy comes to America, becomes a successful businessman and a devout Jew. According to the Grand Rabbi of Bluzhov, Rabbi Israel Spira, "God has mysterious, wonderful ways unknown to men. Perhaps it was the merit of saving a single Jewish soul that brought about his election as Pope. It is a story that must be told."
As for the rest of the stories, I was brought the point of tears by some, rendered incredulous by others, and rarely if ever bored by any. This is great book and highly recommended by a tough grader.

[Daniel L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harnessing the Power of Storytelling to Remember the Holocaust

Often, when Jewish writers and thinkers speak of the Holocaust, the question of “Where is God” comes up. Herself a Holocaust survivor, Yaffa Eliach, interviewed others who lived through this terrible period. Many found the Holy revealed in the ordinary, in the unholiest of places. The theme throughout this diverse collection of stories of the Holocaust is faith. Another great Jewish thinker, the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, spoke of the extraordinary faith of Jews in the worst of times, when hope seemed all but lost. Furthermore, Eliach set to give these people a voice, so they may tell their stories for future generations. The best people to tell their history are those who themselves experienced it, and to recount their past in their own way, on their own terms.
Dr. Eliach quotes another Holocaust survivor, the late Rabbi of Bluzhov, who told his congregants, “There are events of such overbearing magnitude, that one ought not remember them all the time, but one must not forget them either. Such an event is the Holocaust.” The Hasidim have been telling stories that embody a combination of wit, humor, and miracle since the days of the founder of the movement, the great Baal Shem Tov, along with such writers as the Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, Franz Kafka, I.L. Peretz, and S.Y. Agnon. And this practice continued through the Holocaust. This talent is evident in the interviews that make up the stories of this book.

The stories are divided among several themes.

Ancestors and Faith. For some imprisoned Jews, when the future seemed so uncertain, the memories of departed loved ones shared space with their grace. "I was holding on to my ancestral merit. I was holding onto the coattails of my father, and my grandfather, and my great-great grandfather of blessed memory," said the Rebbe Spira. "Tel me, my friend, how did you reach the other side of the pit?" The great Rebbe appears in several stories of this section. He was present even at the first Chanukkah and the Seder night at Bergen-Belsen, where those present had yet to escape the darnkess of the Narrow Place. Rabbi Israel Abraham Koczicki's mother was present in spirit at Belzec. And at Bronia, "God is everywhere... but..." Yet, in a Lithuanian shtetl, "The Messiah is already here," even if He could not be seen.

Friendship. These could occur in the most unlikely places at the least likely time. In my personal favorite, "The Mosaic Artist's Apprentice," the friend who saved thirteen-year-old Jacob's life was none other than.... And who was that little girl Esterke?

The Spirit Alone. Some are "slain with the sword"; others, "slain with hunger." In such dark places, even "Satan's altar," "even the transgressors in Israel are as full of good deeds as a pomegranate is filled with seeds."

The Gates of Freedom. In this section and throughout this anthology, Jewish tradition is ever present. It and faith keep alive that even these places where "God does not live here anymore," in the end, there comes redemption, when it was possible to rejoin the human race.

Where was God? It may have seemed to be nowhere; yet, He was everywhere.

[Leora Wenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

You might think a book called Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust would make you incredibly sad. Perhaps. Well, most probably. But perhaps also it will give strength, hope, inspiration. In the forward to the book, Yaffa Eliach explains how she gathered these tales. They are based on interviews and oral histories, compiled with the help of her Brooklyn College students. She begins by relating the history of Hasidism, a movement founded by the Baal Shem Tov (1700 – 1760). From the foreword: “The main themes of Hasidic Tales are love of humanity, optimism and a boundless belief in God and the goodness of mankind.” One can see why this form of tale could be helpful in relating the horrors of horrors of the Holocaust.

“You can’t fool me there ain’t no Sanity Clause.” That phrase from the Marx Brothers movie came to mind as I was reading the book. But instead, I thought, “You can’t fool me, there ain’t no happy ending!”

More here: http://www.leoraw.com/blog/2014/08/bo...

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book broke my heart and wrenched my kishkes.

This book helped me see communities of chasidic Jews go through the Holocaust as chasidim.

This book is built around relatable characters telling their Holocaust stories and those of their families, completely down to how it dealt and what they dreamt. You feel the pain and the story is alive. Scenes in this book are painted with great care. This is a booklet work edited well in every sense down to the titles, notes, and cover art.

Further, these stories enrich your understanding of the Holocaust and the war. There is a lot of geography, a lot of information on where jews lived and thrived, the camps and ghettoes, dates and campaigns, and more.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is Judaism if not a collection of stories about surviving and thriving against all odds? Reading this made me feel like i was at my grandparents' house for shabbat dinner, listening to stories about those who came before me :)

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yaffa Eliach tells the stories of Holocaust survivors in Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust. It was frequently painful to read of the tortures and to realize that six million Jews suffered death at the hands of the Nazis. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to read these stories and to pray for all of those lost lives.
These poignant tales make me wonder how man can be so inhumane as the Germans were in trying to eradicate the Jewish population. Yet, we see today how Islamic fundamentalists are attempting to do the same against both Jews and Christians. God help us all.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't enjoy reading books about the Holocaust, as my book group well knows. But, 20 years ago a good friend loaned me this book and assured me that, hard as it may be to believe, these were uplifting stories. And it's true. This book is one-of-a-kind--a collection of testimonies to faith and miracles despite terrible adversity.

[Max Cowboyfan]

Many Holocaust books are too painful to read. Besides for the obvious, fist person accounts are very long and the writer has a desperate need to get their story out regardless of how it comes out.
this book is a compendium of first person accounts which are ultimately uplifting and right sized.
I speak only as a consumer even though I am also the son of an Auschwitz survivor who took her story to the grave.

[Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book. The "tales" are very brief, yet powerful, and so important as testimonies of the unbelievable events, both horrible and miraculous, that occurred in the lives of Hasidic Jews in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust. Every story touched me; many of the stories moved me. And there are a few that I know I will never be able to forget.

[Rauan · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful "stories"... collected from survivors and beautifully embellished by the author,... inspiring... a great counterpart to the no-hope angle of other Holocaust literature (notably Borowski,..)

[Joel Kleehammer · Rating 4 out of 5]

To read the tales from the Hasidic world, which almost disappeared entirely during the Holocaust, is both uplifting and saddening at the same time. These tales show you how even the victims of the most heinous human rights crimes can have a positive outlook when all is over.

[carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you are doing holocaust studies at any point, read a tale from here every night to inoculate yourself from complete despair. this pulled me out of a slump while i was doing just such a study.

[Hila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never read about the Holocaust from a Hasidic perspective before, and was glad I found this book. Moving, healing, and not the usual way accounts from the Holocaust are told.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories range from the heartbreaking to the humorous, from the affirming to the grotesque. It won't tell you much about Hasidism itself, but it will tell you some things about the Hasidim.

[Len Rudner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yaffa Eliach’s “Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust” is a collection of stories that were shared within the Hasidic community during and after the second world war. They are stories of faith, hope, tragedy and cruelty.

Some will read these stories and conclude that they are true, others will with equal certainty declare that they could not possible be true. I fall into neither of these extremes. The stories have value because the stories which we tell each other say something important about who we are and what we believe. In some cases – here especially – the stories provide a way to try to understand events and their meaning.

For all of the research and scholarship that has been devoted to the subject, the Holocaust – the genocide of six million Jewish men, women and children – remains an un-knowable mystery. Knowledge of the roots of antisemitism and its evolution from contempt to expulsion to slaughter falls apart in the face of a simple question: How could people do this to other people.

Not the first time this question has been asked, and certainly not the last.

The Hasidim of these stories struggle to survive in the kingdom of death while retaining their faith in God, even in those moments when God seems to have abandoned them. The meaning of these stories seems clear to me: God’s seeming absence does not absolve us of the responsibility to show up. We pray for deliverance and we are burned in our synagogues; in the face of death, we circumcise our newborn children, and receive a bullet between the eyes as our reward. In one of Elie Wiesel’s stories, Moshe the Beadle, escaped from a death transport, stands in an abandoned synagogue and says, “Master of the Universe, the Jews of Sighet are still here …. But where are you?”

But what I found most moving were the stories which demonstrated a faith in humanity in the midst of man-made death; how a Rabbi survived a selection in Auschwitz because in the crucial moment, the rabbi and the SS officer recognized each other from daily encounters in their village.
“The rabbi, now in his eighties, told me, ‘This is the power of a good-morning greeting. A man should always greet his fellow man.’”

Yaffa Eliach’s “Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust” is a collection of stories that were shared within the Hasidic community during and after the second world war. They are stories of faith, hope, tragedy and cruelty. For this alone, it is a book worth reading.
Some will read these stories and conclude that they are true, others will with equal certainty declare that they could not possible be true. I fall into neither of these extremes. The stories have value because the stories which we tell each other say something important about who we are and what we believe. In some cases – here especially – the stories provide a way to try to understand events and their meaning.
For all of the research and scholarship that has been devoted to the subject, the Holocaust – the genocide of six million Jewish men, women and children – remains an un-knowable mystery. Knowledge of the roots of antisemitism and its evolution from contempt to expulsion to slaughter falls apart in the face of a simple question: How could people do this to other people?

Not the first time this question has been asked, and certainly not the last.

The Hasidim of these stories struggle to survive in the kingdom of death while retaining their faith in God, even in those moments when God seems to have abandoned them. The meaning of these stories seems clear: God’s seeming absence does not absolve us of the responsibility to show up. We pray for deliverance and we are burned in our synagogues; in the face of death, we circumcise our newborn children, and receive a bullet between the eyes as our reward. In one of Elie Wiesel’s stories, Moshe the Beadle, escaped from a death transport, stands in an abandoned synagogue and says, “Master of the Universe, the Jews of Sighet are still here …. But where are you?”

This enduring faith in God is not that surprising, what is, though, are the stories which demonstrated a faith in humanity in the midst of man-made hell; how a Rabbi survived a selection in Auschwitz because in the crucial moment, the rabbi and the SS officer recognized each other from daily encounters in their village.

“The rabbi, now in his eighties, told me, ‘This is the power of a good-morning greeting. A man should always greet his fellow man.’”

A worthwhile read.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of the memories of Hasidic survivors of the Holocaust. Many of the stories pivot around miraculous events or answers to prayer, which you might think would make the stories feel less real. However, in reading, it becomes obvious that it would be hard not to see miracles when you survive where few others do.
In a way, I see this as a collection of legends, legends as they used to be told back in the time of oral traditions, except that the power of these stories is still fresh in our minds. Though not a book to go into great detail, it's a powerful combination of memoir, history, and story.

[Jo-Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

If one does not believe in miracles and the work of the Almighty, that will change after reading this book! It is certainly NOT an easy read, but well worth it from a spiritual perspective. Given the ongoing challenges we face in the world today, being reminded of the consequences of extreme racial, social and political ideology is a good thing. I could not put this one down, as tough as it was. Love and faith and family triumph in the end.

[M.J. Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when it was first published and I have trouble remembering details. However, I still remember themes, personalities and events in the book. I was so impressed by the stories of hope and faith in the midst of some of the worst cruelty.

The book was so well written and so touching that I still recommend it to people, especially to show signs of humanity in the midst of horror.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Hasidic story often tries to have a happy or uplifting ending. But when that story is also about the Holocaust it can become much harder to see that joy or that miracle.
These tales are based on interviews the author had with survivors & their families, and though some do include a “happy ending” most are heartbreaking as well.

[Anna Montgomery · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of stories was horrific but beautifully written. I cried through many of the stories because they are so heartwrenching but they are also raw and honest. Yaffa Eliach really manages to put emotion to paper while giving the reader a shocking and realistic account of what the Jewish people experienced in the concentration camps during the holocaust.

[Xavier Alexandre · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure that all these stories are authentic, but they are extremely poignant. And sometimes, offer a glimpse of coincidences that are not coincidental.

[Lori Ben-ezra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended.

[Abigail G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, what heartbreak! Yet somehow hope forever endures.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brings light on the true horrors of the holocaust families experienced.

[Corinne Blackmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

These Hasidic tales about first hand experience in the Holocaust have a definite ideological agenda and are not, in the end, terribly convincing.

[Matty · Rating 5 out of 5]

So professionally written and cited.
Every story is properly cited.
Author heard many of the stories firsthand and second hand.
Fascinating stories; truth is stranger than fiction.
Historical uncommon information; author covered all subjects with original historical data, for example referring to people and locations by their original names and titles, and stating how they developed into their current contemporary names.
Very informative notes.