One cannot underestimate the importance of the historical documents in this volume of the first letters written by Holocaust survivors after their liberation, titled Dew Of Revival: First letters of people of faith after the Holocaust (Jerusalem: Michlalah Jerusalem College and Mossad Harav Kook, 2024). . Painstakingly collected by Hebrew University-trained Rebbetzin Esther Farbstein, the leading Haredi scholar of the religious response to the Shoah, they preserve the intense feelings that ranged from grief, despair, hope and calls for revenge, while recognizing the need to reconstruct their lives, even as they felt adrift.
Some letters were written succinctly and with restraint as if to preclude “touching an open wound.” As the survivors began realizing the magnitude of the destruction and the extent of their loss, soul-searching led to questioning why they had survived while others more worthy were murdered. Having been spared, what were they now expected to do with the rest of their lives?
They soon discovered that freedom did not ensure them the ability to experience a feeling of joy so long as they lacked a link to their past and the loving connections they once felt to their family, friends and community.
Urgent Need to Search for Family
The urgent need to find spouses, parents, siblings, and children who were placed in hiding in monasteries and in private homes of non-Jews became a major focus. A daunting and frustrating task in chaotic post-war Europe.
The American military expected the Jews, like the millions of non-Jewish DPs in post-war Europe, would be eager to return to their former residences. Many Jews were averse to going back to their native lands, particularly those from eastern Europe, who comprised a significant portion of the Jewish survivors. Some returned to their homes to search for loved ones and friends. Once they finished their mission, they returned to the American zone in Germany, where the Americans had established camps for Displaced Persons (DPs).
Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. The British were in the northwest, France in the southwest, the US in the south and the Soviet Union in the east. Berlin, the capital city situated in Soviet territory, was also divided into four occupied zones.
In their former homelands, Jews encountered contempt and rejection, and often harassment. Some were arrested on the spurious charge of having collaborated with the Germans. Many Jews found themselves without homes, since their residences had been appropriated by former friends and neighbors.
The Jews from western Europe, Hungary, Romania, and Czechoslovakia were in a better position to reclaim their possessions and begin to rebuild their lives.
Impediments to Contacting Family
Today, it might be difficult to understand the anguish the survivors experienced as they searched for information. Quite often, survivors did not know or remember the addresses of their relatives in Europe or elsewhere in the free world. Furthermore, the mail service was sporadic or not functioning at all.
Thousands of letters sent by survivors wound up in the archives of Jewish organizations because they were never delivered. The survivors did not know why there was no response. All they felt was “frustration, bitterness, hurt feelings,” and a profound sense of loneliness and abandonment.
“Rekindling The Flame”
What distinguishes this volume from Yad Vashem’ s After So Much Pain and Anguish: First Letters after Liberation, is that it offers a voice to those who have not yet been adequately heard from—the believers in G-d, faith, mutual responsibility, family, lovers of Torah, and the traditional Jewish way of life.
Founded on these principles of observance of Torah values, they rebuilt their lives.
“The Stories Behind the Letters”
Every letter in this book contains “behind the scenes” background information about the author, the historical context, and some of the individuals who are referred to. For the most part, letters were written in eastern and western Europe in1945 and 1946 by persons of different ages and social backgrounds—from average Jews to eminent leaders. Though most letters were written by survivors, there are also a number from close and distant relatives.
Letters written by Jewish soldiers, serving in the American military in Europe, to their families describe the contact they had with those termed the Shearith Hapletah—the survivors of European Jewry. In many cases, this was the first encounters with American Jews. The sight of American Jews in uniform gave them of feelings of pride and hope. The information the soldiers sent to their families about the plight of the survivors helped shape American Jewish response to them.
Volume of Letters
The number of letters Rebbetzin Farbstein collected and continues to receive is so vast that they will have to be included in a future volume.
A Final Note
Elie Weisel stressed “the mystical power of memory. Without memory,” he said, “our existence would be barren and opaque, like a prison cell into which no light penetrates; like a tomb which rejects the living….If anything can, it is memory that will save humanity. For me, hope without memory is like memory without hope.”
We are indebted to Rebbitzin Esther Farbstein, the founder and head of the Holocaust Research Center, Michlalah — Jerusalem College, for this remarkable volume and for her other pioneering studies on Orthodox life in Europe before and during the Holocaust: the role of rabbis during the Holocaust; Halakhic responsa pertaining to the Holocaust; and Hungarian Orthodox Jewry during the last century.
In addition to her academic credentials, and many years of teaching in Jerusalem’s Ulpenat Chorev, she is the daughter of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Heine and a great-granddaughter of the fourth Rebbe of the Ger Hasidic dynasty, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter, known as the Imrei Emes. Her husband, Rav Moshe Mordechai Farbstein, shlita, serves as the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Chevron in Jerusalem.
