Praying History Does Not Repeat Itself

Praying History Does Not Repeat Itself
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
April 12, 2022

As Christians the world over observe Holy Week, and the first Seder of Passover is celebrated by the Jewish community Friday night, also Shabbat, there is a juxtaposition of war and peace, politics and religion, and the quintessential David and Goliath story. 

In simple terms, little David, the Israelite boy not yet old enough to serve in the army, armed with but a slingshot, went up against the giant Philistine Goliath. But David found himself armed with more than just a mere slingshot - his faith in G-d cloaked him like a suit of armor. And as told in 1 Samuel “G-d who saved me from the claws of the lion and the claws of the bear, He will save me from the hands of the Philistine.” (17:37)

Not unlike the great underdog story of Indiana basketball lore in the Gene Hackman classic 1986 film, Hoosiers, (spoiler alert) the minute David slew Goliath, felling him with a rock to the middle of his forehead, collapsing the giant to the ground. The world is witnessing the potentiality of a modern version of the Biblical David and Goliath. President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Ukrainian people are holding their ground and remaining competitive against the much larger, greater weaponized Russian army and its despotic dictator Vladimir Putin. And literally akin to the Biblical David, Zelensky is also Jewish, young, and courageous beyond the expectations of his people.

If Zelensky has been described as (Winston) “Churchill in a t-shirt,” Putin can be compared to Hitler, and sadly, Joe Biden to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. It is typically ill-advised to compare anyone to Hitler as accusations of exaggeration or hyperbole will be levied. In the case of Putin, such comparison is warranted. 

After attacking Crimea during the Obama administration, Putin invaded Ukraine, its neighbor to the west, unprovoked, about 50 days ago. In 1938 Hitler annexed the Sudetenland from what was then known as Czechoslovakia. Less than a year later in September 1939, Hitler invaded Poland to the east, also unprovoked. War crimes and the slaughter of civilians ruled the day both then and now. Both Hitler and Putin were largely insulated from the general populace and detached from reality. Two megalomaniacs, paranoid, lacking reason, utterly delusional, and surrounded by brutal, barbaric yes-men.

Additionally, Putin unrealistically predicted and expected to capture Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in mere days. This is reminiscent of Hitler’s expectation to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943 just as quickly. In September 1939, following the Nazi invasion of Poland, more than 400,000 Jews of Warsaw became prisoners confined to a one square mile area of the Polish capital city. In November 1940 laborers sealed the ghetto with brick walls and barbed wire.

With limited food, medical supplies, and other resources, disease and starvation killed thousands of the Jewish prisoners each month, while Nazi guards murdered thousands more at will. In September 1942 Heinrich Himmler ordered the “resettlement” of Jews, to work camps. In reality, those were extermination camps - including Treblinka, where 265,000 Jews were dispatched from the Warsaw Ghetto. (Another 20,000 were sent elsewhere or killed en route.)

Between 55,000 and 60,000 Jews remained in the Warsaw Ghetto. Small groups of partisans and self-defense teams began smuggling in precious few munitions and arms. This was enough to temporarily hold off the Nazis for a few days beginning January 18, 1943 as they retreated from an attempted transfer of Jews to concentration camps.

The historic uprising began in earnest on April 19, 1943 as Himmler sent what should have been an overpowering force to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto in perpetuity. His goal was to complete the task in three days. Outmanned and outgunned, the Jewish resistance fighters held off the Nazis until May 16, by which time the Nazis had gone block by block, building by building killing or capturing just about every Warsaw Ghetto resident they encountered.

Seven thousand Jews were killed in the uprising and another 42,000 deported to concentration camps where they were ultimately murdered. Roughly 700 Jews actually fought the Nazis while thousands others simply did not report for the deportation trains. It is accepted that several hundred Nazi soldiers were killed during the uprising, which ended on May 16, 1943 - 28 days after it began, as the Warsaw Ghetto was ultimately razed, a far cry from the expected and predicted three days. On that same day, May 16, to punctuate the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, the Nazis completely destroyed that city’s Great Synagogue. 

Perhaps the miracle of the Jewish partisans ability to stall the Nazis for as long as they did under such overwhelming odds could be attributed to the miracles of Passover. April 19, 1943 also ushered in the first Seder night of Passover - an eight night, eight day observance of the Israelites’ escape to freedom from Egypt after more than 400 years of slavery. 

While celebrating either Passover or Easter this weekend, let’s keep the people of Ukraine in our prayers. Pray for peace, and a more successful outcome to the current war started by Putin than the ultimate fate of the Jewish prisoners in the Warsaw Ghetto at the hands of the Nazis.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.