Shalom Everyone,

Today the worldwide Jewish community is commemorating Holocaust Memorial day, when at least six million of our people were systematically murdered by the Nazi war machine. However this number was taken from captured Nazi records and only counts those who were officially incarcerated and had their names and their deaths recorded. There is no official record of those who were killed before they were incarcerated, nor those who perished when the Nazi death squads overran east Europe and effectively annihilated whole Jewish communities that had been there for up to a thousand years. Hundreds of Jewish villages were liquidated, with no records of their names being taken and those who died during the round ups and during the transporting of people to the camps, did not have their names recorded by those who murdered them.

The number six million only counts those who died in the camps, and not those who died before the camps were set up or during the Nazi drive into the heart of Russia. A modest estimate should place the number at least double that of those six million who died in the camps, and we should also remember these people whose names were not recorded by those who murdered them.

As well, the Nazis went back into civic records and rounded up Jews who had converted to Christianity, but who still had at least two Jewish grandmothers. So a substantial number of those who died in the camps and those who died before they could be taken to the camps were Jewish converts to Christianity whose faith did not save them.

I am overwhelmed by the magnitude of this slaughter which wiped out up to 95% of the Jewish population which fell into Nazi hands. No other group was so effectively and ruthlessly annihilated and when the camps were liberated, barely 500,000 Jews were still alive and one of the greatest civilizations of modern times was effectively extinguished while the world watched silently, even though world leaders knew precisely what was going on.

Today, the descendants of the survivors number in their millions, because children and grandchildren are still the best answer to the horror of the Holocaust.

As a Messianic Jew, I realize that I would have faced a similar fate if I had lived in the path of Nazi aggression and I observed a moment of silence for the victims. Several years ago, when I visited the Washington Holocaust Memorial Museum, which is the biggest in the world, I was both overwhelmed and deeply touched by what I saw. The two main buildings of the Museum are linked by two passages whose windows are made of crystal and on one of them, all the communities which perished are listed and on the other, the names of all the extermination camps are given. As I went between the buildings, I paused and read both lists, under the eyes of a security guard who finally figured out what I was doing. Each reading took nearly half an hour as I remembered all the victims who just wanted to go about their lives peacefully and raise their children and earn a living.

The bald hatred of the devil was unleashed on the European Jewish community and the enemy is trying to muster his forces to rain down another slaughter upon our people who have taken refuge in Israel.

Join me in prayer for the safety of the remaining survivors and that G-d would bless their children and grandchildren. Many of them are coming to faith in our blessed Messiah and it is gratifying that so many Gentile Christians are ardent Zionists.

Do not be silent when people you know speak out against Israel – Anti-Zionism is the same as Anti-Semitism and all hatred of the Jews is inspired by Satan. The deceptions he is belching forth across our globe include a concerted focus on advocating the destruction of Israel and of all her Jewish citizens. Many naive people are being sucked into this hatred and we need to confront it whenever it rears its ugly head in our midst.

Join me in praying G-d’s blessing and protection upon Israel and upon the worldwide Jewish community. You know part of that prayer is that they will willingly and joyfully come to personal faith in the Messiah, but however long this takes, I passionately desire that G-d’s mercy and goodness will follow them all the days of their life.

Shalom,

Rabbi Mike