Wow

Yated Ne'eman 9/24/04, p9-11

The Nuremberg Trial By Yaakov Astor

May 22, 1945, about three weeks after Germany's surrender. Henry Blitt, an American major, who is also Jewish, makes an unplanned stop at a farmhouse just off the road on his way to Bertchesgarden, Hitler's favorite retreat now in Allied hands. He meets the farmhouse's occupant, a short, whitehaired, bearded man.

"What do you think of the Nazis?" Blitt asks.

"I'm an artist," comes the reply, "and have never bothered about politics."

"But you look like Julius Streicher!" Blitt says jokingly in broken German, trying to make conversation.

There's a silence. Then...

"You recognized me?" the man blurts out incredulously, startling Blitt.(1)

After a moment's pause, Blitt composes himself and arrests the man who, both inside and outside Germany, was considered Nazidom's number one Jew-baiter.

A BAND OF THUGS

Indeed, since the 1920s, Streicher, Nazi ideologue and originator of some of the most vicious slurs against Jews, had been editor of Der Sturmer. Containing everything from grotesque caricatures of Jews as long-nosed vampires extracting blood from German youths for ritual slaughter to calling for the outright expulsion and then extermination of Jews,(2) Streicher printed as many as two million copies a year of his paper during its peak in 1938.

Streicher was one of 24 major Nazi war criminals brought to the historic Germany city of Nuremberg(3) to stand trial for crimes against humanity. Although some legal scholars today question the validity of the trial,(4) even Hans Frank, the "Jew Butcher of Krakow,"(5) and one of those hanged for his part in Nazi atrocities had to admit: "Here [in the prison at Nuremberg] are the would-be rulers of Germany - each in a cell like this, with four walls and a toilet, awaiting trial as ordinary criminals. Is that not a proof of God's amusement with men's sacrilegious quest for power? ...This trial has been willed by God."(6)

Little did he or his captors realize how true it was, for an incredible string of "coincidences" tie the events in Nuremberg 1946 to events in Persia some 2,500 years beforehand.

HAMAN'S TEN SONS

Megillas Esther, as is well-known, tells the story of how the Jew-hater, Haman, a high official in the Persian empire, persuaded King Ahashverosh to issue a decree to annihilate all Jews. Esther became the wife of Ahashverosh, and was able to turn the tables on Haman and his diabolical plan. As a consequence, Haman and his sons were hanged on a gallows.

In the ninth chapter of Esther, the names of Haman's ten sons are mentioned explicitly:

Also Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vajezatha the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews they killed.... (9:7-10)

Oddly, the verses go on to say that Esther made another request [besides] the hang[ing of] these ten sons:

Then Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do again tomorrow according to today's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on the gallows." So the king commanded this to be done; the decree was issued in Shushan, and they hanged Haman's ten sons. (9:13-14)

In the Midrash, Chazal comment that Esther was asking God, the King of Kings (according to tradition, every time "King Ahashverosh" is mentioned the reference is to him, whereas when the word "the King" [hamelech] appears on its own, it refers to God) to repeat the incident in the future.

About 2,500 years later the Nazis(7) tried to wipe the Jewish people off the face of the earth. After the war, the surviving Nazi leaders were tried at Nuremberg for this and other war crimes. These trials began on November 20, 1945. On October 1, 1946, twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death by hanging for their part in the atrocities committed against the Jews and others. One of those convicted was Martin Bormann, who was sentenced in absentia. A second was Hermann Goring, who committed suicide in his cell just hours before the executions.(8) The remaining ten Nazis were hanged to death on October 16, 1946.

Although the sentence handed down by a military tribunal should have resulted in death by firing squad (or by electric chair as practiced in the US) the court specifically prescribed hanging, exactly as in Esther's original request:

"...let Haman's ten sons be hanged."

HOSHANAH RABBAH 5707

There are a couple of other chilling details to consider. These hangings took place on October 16, 1946. On the Jewish calendar, October 16 1946, corresponded to 21 Tishri, 5707. This date was the seventh day of Sukkos, specifically Hoshana Rabba, which according to Jewish tradition is the day the judgment of the non-Jewish nations is finalized.(9)

Even more improbable, however, is a strange tradition in the text itself. We know that every variation of the surface text, whether it be the size of the letters themselves or a variant spelling of a word, has specific meaning. In some cases, that meaning remains a mystery. In Esther 9:7-9, in the list of the ten sons of Haman there is an ancient tradition to change the size of four letters - the first three are: the tav in the first name, the shin in the seventh name, and the zayin in the tenth name. These letters all have to be written by the scribe smaller than the other letters. In Hebrew, tav has a numerical value of 400, shin a numerical value of 300, and zayin a numerical value of 7. The tav, shin, and zayin, totaled from top to bottom, equal the number 707.

In addition, there is a fourth letter, a vav, which is also part of the tenth name, and which tradition dictates must be written larger than all the letters around it. Vav, numerically, equals six.

Putting this all together, the different size letters point to a specific year in Jewish history. The large Vav represents the millennium, while the small letters the century. This yields the year 5707, or the exact year that the ten Nazi war criminals were hanged!

Although the striking parallels may have been lost on most observers at the time it did not pass that of Nazidom's most virulent anti-Semite: Julius Streicher. Just a couple of days before his execution Streicher chatted, as he often did, with court-appointed, psychologist, Gustav Gilbert, a Jew. Gilbert must know about his people's celebration of Purim, the Nazi said. Imagine the irony of that event,(10) he bellowed: Haman, the cruel minister of the Persian monarch, and his ten sons, marched to the same gallows when he had intended to hang the Jews.(11)

The idea flittered around Streicher's perverse mind and stuck in gut till the very end. A couple of days later, as the noose was put around his neck, mere seconds before he was hanged, he shouted, "Purim Fest 1946!"(12)

THE AFTERMATH

The truly extraordinary messages inextricably woven into the fabric of the Nuremberg, the war's final chapter, bring a measure of comfort and closure to the generations that follow. The Nuremberg Trial did not and could not restore the lives of six million Jews, nor the millions of others who fell victim to Nazi insanity. However it restored, no matter how small in comparison, a relative measure of justice to the world. And, as Chazal teach, "The death of the wicked benefits themselves and the world" (Sanhedrin 71b).

Beyond the death of the wicked individuals, the Nuremberg Trial exposed Naziism for what it was. Judges and journalists - and hence millions of others - viewed images of concentration camp victims for the first time. Words like "Final Solution," "Auschwitz," "Gas Chamber" and the like were first heard and became part of the public consciousness. The utopic vision of Olam Habah might not have followed in its wake, but the world after the Nuremberg trial was at least somewhat more cognizant of its potential for evil; it had at least one extra anti-body to immunize itself against the next Hitler.

THE GREAT TUG-OF-WAR

This is not an improvement to be taken lightly. Our Neviim [prophets] foresaw a time when good and evil would partake in a tug-of war to end all tugs-of-war. The majority of the human race who would otherwise be neither aligned completely with the good nor the evil - will be pulled to one side or the other. This tug-of-war is called Milchemes Gog Umagog, the "War of Gog and Magog." Not coincidently, the haftorah describing Milchemes Gog Umagog (Yechezkal 38) is read on Shabbos Chol Hamoed Succos, the Shabbos of the same week the Nuremberg criminals were hanged in 1946.

Milchemes Gog Umagog is the Armageddon-type war that takes place before Mashiach accomplishes his mission. Rabbi Moshe Eisemann (commentary to Yechezkal, Chapter 38; Artscroll) explains that while Magog is a group of people (descended from Noah's son, Yefes), Gog is an individual. Moreover, Gog is an individual from the archenemy of the Jews, Amalek (the Vilna Gaon considered the Germans bearers of the seed of Amalek). In the paradigm of Milchemes Gog Umagog Gog, a rabid, anti-Semitic individual, will incite Magog, descendants of Yefes, to seek the annihilation of the Jews.

On a deeper level, Yefes is the forerunner of Greece, the foundation of much of Western civilization.(13) The word, "Yefes," comes from the word meaning "beauty," and thus represents humanity's secular sense, including everything from art and philosophy to science and mathematics. Beauty, however, is morally neutral. It can inspire to good or intoxicate toward destruction. Yefes, consequently, can place his gifts at Amalek's feet as readily as he can subordinate them in the service of holiness.

Therefore, Rabbi Eisemann explains, "throughout history, we find Yefes fluctuating between the poles of true spirituality and the grossest sensuality. The same Yefes who allowed himself to be turned to holiness by his brother Shem was able, centuries later, to allow a Haman to control his empire [Persia is descended from Yefes], and attempt to wipe out Shem's descendants [Israel]. When Gog will seek supporters in his final war against holiness and Godliness he will turn to the pliable Yefes."

THE NAUSEATING REFRAIN

One of the most disturbing recurring themes at the Nuremberg trials was the nauseating refrain by Nazi leader after Nazi leader that were only taking orders. Others were to blame for the atrocities, they claimed. Even the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoess (who was apprehended after the trial began), saw himself as a bare functionary, albeit a person whose function happened to be the mass liquidation of an entire people.(14)

Milchames Gog Umagog represents a tug-of-war that has replayed itself throughout history, and will once more in the grand finale of the final battlefield between good and evil. The forces of light will hold one end of the rope while the forces of darkness will hold the other. When good people prevail the forces of Yefes become vehicles for light. When good people slacken the dark side takes over.

As the Rambam writes, nobody really knows how the prophecies about the "End of Days" will really pan out until they actually happen. Nevertheless, Rabbi Eisemann offers a possible insight into the nature of the War of Gog and Magog. "In the final struggle," he writes, "Yefes - representative of all the worldly culture of which the human race is capable - will be ranged with Edom [Amalek]. Man will have shown himself incapable of using these gifts in the service of holiness."(15)

THE SHADE OF THE SHECHINAH

This message is especially poignant coming as it does during Succos. At the time when we sit in our flimsy, temporary structures we would do well to remember that a flimsy structure positioned beneath the shade of the Shechinah is more sturdy and durable than a mansion protected by all the wealth and weaponry of Western Civilization. Even Western Civilization, with its democratic values and technological wizardry, is but a rope pulled back and forth between those with moral fortitude and those bent on evil. If good people fail to pull their end of the rope with sufficient vigor, then even a small band of criminals, misfits and terrorists can gain control.

The Nuremberg trial showed that the world still had backbone; that it could pull itself back from the precipice and judge fellow evildoers for what they were. Still, that is no guarantee for the future. As we sit in the sukkah we have to realize that we have no one to rely on except our Protector in Heaven, and only in His shade and under His wings are we secure and whole.

1 Of the original defendants put on trial at Nuremberg, Streicher had by far and away the lowest IQ (106), and indeed was the only one with an IQ not in the above-average range. The vast majority of those on trial had IQ's of 124 or higher.

2 He had once declared in 1935 to a closed meeting of a Nazi student organization: "All our struggles are in vain if the battle against the Jews is not fought to the finish. It is not enough to get the Jews out of Germany. No, they must be destroyed throughout the entire world so that humanity will be free of them." Cited in "Fighting Iron with Irony: A Contemporary Purim Story" by Rabbi Avi Shafran; Am Echad Resources; February 8, 2002.

3 Nuremberg, Germany, was chosen primarily for two reasons: 1) It had been the symbolic center of Nazism, serving as the for immense, dramatic Nazi Party rallies; and 2) although pulverized by Allied bombing, Nuremberg still had a jail and a courthouse, the historic "Palace of Justice," which was big enough to accommodate the landmark trial.

4 The validity of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) is still debated. Criticisms begin with the claim that the court was imposing "ex post facto law," i.e. defining acts as criminal after they had been committed. Another claim was that it was selective in its justice, only trying the losers. Stalin was a murderer on par with Hitler, but neither he nor any Soviets were tried (indeed, the war was all but started when Stalin signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939). The Americans and British bombed cities with large civilian populations, and sunk merchant vessels while failing to rescue passengers. Yet none of these acts were ever raised in any international tribunal. Furthermore, many of the individual verdicts were questionable: e.g. Fritz Saukel, head of the slave labor system, was put to death, but Albert Speer, his superior was not.

Nevertheless, as Joseph Persico, in his outstanding, "Nuremberg: Infamy On Trial," eloquently notes, the trial's questionable legal underpinnings and conclusions do not diminish the sense of justice it carried out: "Nuremberg may have been flawed law," he writes, "but it was satisfying justice." Nuremberg: Infamy On Trial, by Joseph Persico; Penguin Putnam Inc.; New York, New York; 1994; pg. 440

5 Frank, as well as other leadings Nazis (e.g. Heydrich and perhaps even Hitler), hid his Jewish ancestry. Psychologists explain the extreme antiSemitism of Nazis and the like who have some type of Jewish ancestry as zealous "overcompensation" to prove themselves to their non-Jewish peers.

Ironically, Frank himself had been commissioned by Hitler to research Hitler 's possible Jewish roots. He not only found documentation that Hitler's maternal father may have been Jewish but identified in Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf, some startling insights. For example, Hitler had written that children of the third generation from a mixed blood marriage (e.g. Jew and German) will "lack certainty" in decision-making and "arrive at half measures." Hitler, if nothing else, was unbendingly certain in his decisions.

No one could persuade him otherwise. Aware he may himself have been the third generation child of a mixed marriage, he overcompensated, acting more decisive, more certain and more anti-Semitic than anyone else. Another example: Hitler at one point tried to include in the Nuremberg Laws the peculiar clause that any Aryan female under the age of 45 was forbidden from working as a servant in a Jewish home. His grandmother was 42 when she gave birth to the illegitimate child, his father, while working as a maid in a Jewish home. (His grandmother, by the way, was given child support payments for 14 years by the Jewish family she had worked for. The question is were the child payments a way to cover-up the scandal, or a concession to blackmail by the real father, Johann Hiedler [from when the name "Hitler" derives], whom his grandmother eventually married.)

6 "Nuremberg Diary;" by G.M. Gilbert; Da Capo Press, New York 1947; ppg. 20, 47.

7 In Esther 3:1, we are told that Haman is an Agagite. Agag was the king of Amalek (I Sam. 15:8). Therefore, Haman and his sons were Amalekites. The Vilna Gaon held the tradition that the German nation was descended from Amalek.

8 The Book of Esther recounts how Haman's ten sons were hanged in Shushan. An eleventh child, a daughter, committed suicide earlier, according to an account in the Talmud. At Nuremberg, while eleven men were condemned to execution by hanging, only ten were actually hanged. The eleventh, the foppish, effeminate Goring, died in his cell only hours before the execution committing suicide with a cyanide capsule he had managed to hide from his captors

9 Zohar, Vayikra 31b.

10 Rabbi Shafran (loc. cit.) points out that another happy irony in Streicher's life involved the fate of his considerable estate. As reported in Stars and Stripes in late 1945, his considerable possessions were converted to cash and used to create an agricultural training school for Jews intending to settle in Palestine. Just as Haman's riches, as recorded in the Book of Esther, were bestowed upon his nemesis Mordechai.

11 "Nuremberg: Infamy On Trial," by Joseph Persico; Penguin Putnam Inc.; New York, New York; 1994; pg. 413

12 Sometimes it takes an anti-Semite to see and say things others cannot bring themselves to see or say. Balaam pronounced some of the greatest blessings of the Jews even as he tried his hardest to curse them. When one who is so sunk in evil finds himself compelled at the end of his life to acknowledge the symmetry of Divine Justice it serves as the greatest testimony that events are part of a greater tapestry being woven by the Master Weaver.

13 Albert Speer, a confidant of Hitler, wrote that, "Hitler believed that the culture of the Greeks had reached the peak of perfection in every field. Their view of life, he said, as expressed in their architecture, had been 'fresh and healthy.' One day a photograph of a swimmer stirred him to enthusiastic reflections: 'What splendid bodies you can see today. It is only in our century that young people have once again approached Hellenistic ideals....' By the theory, fostered by the scientists of his period, that the Dorian tribe which migrated into Greece from the north had been of Germanic origin and that, therefore, its culture had not belonged to the Mediterranean world." Inside The Third Reich, by Albert Speer; 1970; pps. 96-97.

14 "...[A]fter getting the clear direct order [from Himmler]," he said, "and even an explanation with it ["...the Jews were the opposite pole from the German people, and sooner or later there would have to be a showdown.... If Germany was to survive then World Jewry must be exterminated..."] - there was nothing left but to carry it out." Nuremberg Diary, by G.M. Gilbert; 1947; ppg. 268-9.

15 Rabbi Moshe Eisenmann, commentary to Yechezkal 38:2; Mesorah Publications, Ltd.