How Is Passover Related To The Holocaust

“Battle deaths alone amounted to about 15 million. Perhaps twice as many civilians lost their lives.” (World War II). Out of all the civilians, six million Jews were persecuted for their beliefs during World War II. Their most observed beliefs include Hanukkah, Yom Kippur, Pentecost, and Passover. During the war, Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler had directed orders to kill Jews in concentration camps, which is known today as the Holocaust. Germany had dominated all parts of Europe and as they conquered, they swept through Jews. The followers of Hitler, the Nazis, had also followed anti semitism, which promotes hostility or prejudice against Jews. Filled with discrimination towards the Jews, the Nazis had destroyed synagogues, arrested and imprisoned

Passover commemorates the story of the Exodus when the Jews were enslaved under Ramses the Second. During the Exodus, Moses had freed the slaves and lead them away and through the Red Sea in a journey known as the Exodus. Jews usually hold a dinner called seder that allows the families to speak of the Exodus. During Passover in the Warsaw ghetto, families were preparing for the seder dinner. It says, “In April the ghetto was rife with rumors of an upcoming deportation. Despite this, the Jews of the ghetto continued with their preparations for Passover. Some even baked matzot, obtained wine, and koshered their dishes in preparation for the holiday.” (cite). Jews throughout the Warsaw ghetto had not let the rumors get in the way of celebrating their holidays. They did not let fear overcome their faith in God and Passover. During a testimony, Shoshana Baharir states, “It was Passover eve, 1943, and we had arranged everything in the house in preparation for the holiday. We even had Matzot (unleavened bread), everything. We had made the beds…” (cite). Shoshana and her family in the ghetto had kept their faith by preparing for the holiday and to worship God during seder. On the eve of Passover, the Germans had invaded. Witness Tuvia Borzykowski describes, “Amidst this destruction, the table in the center of the room looked incongruous with glasses filled with wine, with the family seated around,

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, which is a day dedicated to reviewing the misdeeds of the previous year and praying for forgiveness. Since Yom Kippur is a fasting day, the day before is dedicated to eating. At camp Auschwitz, Joseph Kleinman describes his experience of Yom Kippur 70 years ago, “Usually they would hand out a quarter or a fifth of a loaf of bread; that day they brought to our hut a ration of a quarter, a third of a loaf of bread, together with additions of cheese and other items. There had never been anything like that in Auschwitz. We were very glad that we would be able to fast the next day.” (cite). At the camp, there were 2,000 youths, mainly boys, still inhabiting Auschwitz. The commanders had given the boys hope to celebrate approaching Yom Kippur. Later on Yom Kippur the boys were called to the football field where they took a height test and were sorted into groups. The boys had known the smaller boys were destined to die. Dr. Mengele was in charge of the boys and told them as Kleinman describes, “We gained the impression that Mengele wanted to show us – there it was written in the prayer “He causes his flock to pass beneath his rod” – and he wanted to show the Jews of Auschwitz that he was the one who was causing us to pass, and no-one else.” (cite). Dr. Mengele had used Yom Kippur to make the boys not assume what would occur over the next few days. During another Yom