Explain the responses of two different Jewish theologians to the Holocaust.

823 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The jewish holocaust reflection paper

Religious people from many religions all over the world need a response to the Holocaust to understand what to believe, why it happened, and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. Some religious people need a response to the Holocaust to justify their belief in God after such destruction has taken place, even though God is supposed to be benevolent, all loving. Jews specifically need a response to the Holocaust a great amount of those who died in the Holocaust were Jewish and since then many theologians have tried to decipher the message of the Holocaust. Fackenheim has a unique response to the Holocaust and his theory of a new commandment, and his answers of how to prevail after such evil was committed are unusual and controversial. The 'Commandment' is explicit and detailed, and although Fackenheim's theories do not explain why the Holocaust happened, or how to prevent it, he explains how to live after the Holocaust. Sacks continued to believe in God after the Holocaust and does not think that the Holocaust was unique, and recognises the previous persecutions of the Jewish people. Although this constant destruction against the Jewish people is not positive, the idea that the Jewish people can always survive and recover from such events is encouraging and hopeful.
Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi in the UK, believes that the Holocaust was neither unique, nor special due to the fact that the Jews have been persecuted frequently throughout history. Therefore, he uses a lower case 'h' in the word Holocaust, to emphasise its indifference to other mass persecutions against the Jewish people. He believes that the Holocaust does not change anything, but he accepts that the Jewish people ‘will never understand the ...

... middle of paper ...

...heim said that to despair of the world in which God exists would 'make it a meaningless place and to abandon any of these imperatives... would be to hand him yet other, posthumous victories', meaning that anyone of Jewish descent ignoring these commands, would be letting Hitler triumph and be satisfied. In addition, to prohibit Hitler from winning further, the law includes grandchildren of Jews and Secular Jews (anyone whom the Nazi's would interpret as being Jewish). In addition, Fackenheim acknowledges that because 1 million Jewish children died due to the faith of their grandparents, the Holocaust could not have been a punishment from God. Overall, Fackenheim believed despite the horrific evil exclusively experienced during the Holocaust, it is now a commandment to persist in ones belief in God and to remain as a Jewish people, to ensure that Hitler cannot 'win'.

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of A Moral Reckoning By Daniel Goldhagen

    2636 Words  | 6 Pages

    REVIEW OF DANIEL GOLDHAGEN’S ‘A MORAL RECKONING: THE ROLE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE HOLOCAUST AND ITS UNFULLFILLED DUTY OF REPAIR’

    Read More

  • Intolerance In The Book Thief

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    Not even the most powerful Germans could keep up with the deaths of so many people, and to this day there is no single wartime document that contains the numbers of all the deaths during the Holocaust. Although people always look at the numbers of people that were directly killed throughout the Holocaust, there were so many more that were affected because of lost family. Assuming that 11 million people died in the Holocaust, and half of those people had a family of 3, 16.5 million people were affected by the Holocaust. Throughout the books and documentaries that we have watched, these key factors of hate and intolerance are overcome. The cause of the Holocaust was hate and intolerance, and many people fighting against it overcame this hate

    Read More

  • Historical Analysis Of Gerald Fleming's 'Hitler And The Final Solution'

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    before he came to power, he just used World War II as his golden opportunity to turn his dream into a reality. Others, with Andreas Hillgruber, argue Hitler was the only reason genocide even happened. If Hitler had not been in control, the Holocaust would have ceased to exist. His key sources include the Nuremburg Trials, quoting him saying “this struggle will not end with annihilation of Aryan mankind, but with the extermination of the Jewish people of Europe.” By using Hitler’s own words against him, Hillgruber makes it easy to prove Hitler’s malicious intent clearly and depict him as the mastermind behind the mass murder of the Jewish population. Gerald Fleming creates the last sub-argument in his book, “Hitler and the Final Solution,” provides an in-depth historical evaluation of German fascism and the mechanization behind the Nazi Party bureaucracy. His main point of reference is David Irving’s, “Hitler’s War,”

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Essay On The Holocaust

    668 Words  | 2 Pages

    Millions upon millions of people were killed in the holocaust, that is just one of many genocides. There are many similarities between different genocides. Throughout history, many aggressors have started and attempted genocides and violence on the basis of someone being the "other".

    Read More

  • Jews' Beliefs and the Holocaust

    533 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jews' Beliefs and the Holocaust In the eyes of many Jews, the Shoah was the most evil act taken out on. the Jewish community and the community. Shoah is a Hebrew word meaning "desolation." and has become the preferred term for the Holocaust for Jews. scholars who believe the word 'holocaust' has lost its significance.

    Read More

  • The Pure Evil of the Final Solution

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    For many educated people learning about the Holocaust can send them feelings of sorrow or deep remource. Not only for the meaning of the word, but why it is called that. The pure evil of the final solution created thought of and created by none other than Adolf Hitler will never stop haunting people more than half a decade later. One of the prominat things that everyone missed in his highly sold auto-biography "My struggle". The thought of solid hatrid found within the cover of the horiable book will always burn in the souls that it harmed from the day it began till the dawn of today.

    Read More

  • Suicide Was the Only Option: Elie Wiesel's Night

    2138 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Holocaust was the genocide of approximately six million people of innocent Jewish decent by the Nazi government. The Holocaust was a very tragic time in history due to the idealism that people were taken from their surroundings, persecuted and murdered due to the belief that German Nazi’s were superior to Jews. During the Holocaust, many people suffered both physically and mentally. Tragic events in people’s lives cause a change in their outlook on the world and their future. Due to the tragic events that had taken place being deceased in their lives, survivors often felt that death was a better option than freedom.

    Read More

  • The Injustice Upon African Americans Slaves

    1055 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rosenbaum, Alan S. Is The Holocaust Unique?. 3rd ed. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2008. 387. Print.

    Read More

  • Different Perspectives of The Jewish Holocaust

    1631 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Holocaust tends to be a bitter memory and an unpleasant subject to discuss. Although this event took place many years ago, repercussions are still present in the twenty first century. Especially in Germany, the Holocaust not only influences patriotism, but it also influences education and immigration policies. In contrast to other countries where nationalism is common, Germany has been forced to lessen the sense of nationalism in order to dispose false beliefs some individuals have of German racism. By allowing people from other countries to become German citizens, Germany avoids transmitting the sense of being a better and a cleaner race. A further sector influenced by the Holocaust is the education system. Approaches to teach about this event are difficult since the Holocaust is a sensitive issue and continues having vital importance in numerous families. Although the Holocaust continues conveying negative influences, the Holocaust also led to positive medical and technological improvements. In fact, numerous improvements are unknowingly implemented in societies today. Therefore, the Holocaust is one of the most horrific and influencing events in history whose repercussions are still felt in Germany today. However, in spite of the horrific occurrences, the associated medical findings and technological improvements make it intricate to look at the Holocaust as plainly evil. Thus, societies should view the Holocaust with a broader perspective.

    Read More

  • Holocaust Denial and Distortion

    2232 Words  | 5 Pages

    As early as age thirteen, we start learning about the Holocaust in classrooms and in textbooks. We learn that in the 1940s, the German Nazi party (led by Adolph Hitler) intentionally performed a mass genocide in order to try to breed a perfect population of human beings. Jews were the first peoples to be put into ghettos and eventually sent by train to concentration camps like Auschwitz and Buchenwald. At these places, each person was separated from their families and given a number. In essence, these people were no longer people at all; they were machines. An estimation of six million deaths resulting from the Holocaust has been recorded and is mourned by descendants of these people every day. There are, however, some individuals who claim that this horrific event never took place.

    Read More

  • The Holocaust And The Holocaust

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Holocaust was an extremely horrific period of history. Millions were killed and lost everything, including money, family, and dignity. However, it has taught many lessons. We can study it today to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.

    Read More

  • The Holocaust And The Holocaust

    653 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Holocaust was one of the most tragic and harmful things to befall the human race. Yet not a lot of people understand just how terrible it was. But if we don't know about it, how will we know if history will ever repeat itself or not? We need to know because we can't let it happen ever again. There is so much to know as well. From the life of Anne Frank to World War II as a whole, there are so many things involved its unbelievable. But what exactly is the full depth of the Holocaust, and what was all a part of it.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Holocaust Genocide

    1225 Words  | 3 Pages

    What is genocide? “Genocide is a deliberate, systematic destruction of racial cultural or political groups.”(Feldman 29) What is the Holocaust? “Holocaust, the period between 1933-1945 when Nazi Germany systematically persecuted and murdered millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many other people.”(Feldman 29) These two things tie into each other.The Holocaust was a genocide. Many innocent people were torn apart from their families, for many never to see them again. This murder of the “Jewish people of Europe began in spring 1941.”( Feldman 213) The Holocaust was one of the most harshest things done to mankind.

    Read More

  • Female Holocaust Experiences

    2263 Words  | 5 Pages

    Levi, Neil, and Michael Rothberg. The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2003. Print.

    Read More

  • The Holocaust: A Solution To The Holocaust

    1573 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Holocaust was a sad period in our history where the corrupt moral code of a nation took the lives of Six million people. Germany under rule of Hitler’s Nazi party killed and incapacitated anyone who didn’t fit into the Nazi’s idea of an ideal society. Hitler inherited a decrepit nation; in the 1920s Germany was plunged into a depression, which left many citizens unemployed, hungry and homeless. Living in conditions of hopeless poverty the country was overwhelmingly starving for economical and social reform. Just as they thought their prayers for a new leader weren’t heard; Hitler emerged inspiring and charming the beaten down people of Germany with nationalism, giving them a new found since of unity. The nation of Germany so

    Read More

More about Explain the responses of two different Jewish theologians to the Holocaust.

Open Document