The Vale of Tears

Rabbi Pinchas Hirschprung, Vivian Felsen

Description

An epic journey across borders, The Vale of Tears chronicles close to two years in the life of Rabbi Pinchas Hirschprung as he seeks an escape route from Nazi-occupied Europe. In this rare, near day-byday account, Rabbi Hirschprung illuminates what life was like for an Orthodox rabbi fleeing persecution, finding inspiration and hope in Jewish scripture and psalms as he navigates the darkness of wartime to a safe harbour in Kobe, Japan.

Sujets

• Jewish Studies
• Social Science

Informations

• Publié par: Azrieli Foundation
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781988065212
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Vale of Tears
Rabbi Pinchas Hirschprung
translated from yiddish by vivian felsen


The Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs
Naomi Azrieli, Publisher

Jody Spiegel, Program Director
Arielle Berger, Managing Editor
Farla Klaiman, Editor
Matt Carrington, Editor
Elizabeth Lasserre, Senior Editor, French-Language Editions
Elin Beaumont, Senior Education Outreach and Program Facilitator
Catherine Person, Educational Outreach and Events Coordinator, Quebec and French Canada
Marc-Olivier Cloutier, Educational Outreach and Events Assistant, Quebec and French Canada
Tim MacKay, Digital Platform Manager
Elizabeth Banks, Digital Asset Curator and Archivist
Susan Roitman, Office Manager (Toronto)
Mary Mellas, Executive Assistant and Human Resources (Montreal)

Mark Goldstein, Art Director
François Blanc, Cartographer
Bruno Paradis, Layout, French-Language Editions


Contents
The Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs
Series Preface: In their own words...
About the Glossary
Introduction
Translator’s Note
Editors’ Note
Map
A Word about This Book
A Few Words of Justification
Acknowledgements
My Shtetl Dukla
Poland on the Eve of World War ii
The Fifth Column at Work
Confusion
Growing Disappointment
Awaiting the Enemy
My Grandfather
In Great Turmoil
In One Breath
An Extra Measure of Holiness
Yom Kippur in the Attic
A Town on Edge
From Celebration to Expulsion
Crossing the Soviet Border
Outcasts
From Town to Town
The Force Forward
Aware of the Miracles
The Jerusalem of Lithuania
The Decree
Redeeming Captives
Hope and Delusion
The Path
The Japanese Professor Abram Kotsuji
Epilogue
Glossary
Appendix: Original Table of Contents
Photographs
Copyright
The Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs: Published Titles
About the Azrieli Foundation


Series Preface: In their own words...
In telling these stories, the writers have liberated themselves. For so many years we did not speak about it, even when we became free people living in a free society. Now, when at last we are writing about what happened to us in this dark period of history, knowing that our stories will be read and live on, it is possible for us to feel truly free. These unique historical documents put a face on what was lost, and allow readers to grasp the enormity of what happened to six million Jews – one story at a time.
David J. Azrieli , C.M., C.Q., M.Arch Holocaust survivor and founder, The Azrieli Foundation
Since the end of World War ii , over 30,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors have immigrated to Canada. Who they are, where they came from, what they experienced and how they built new lives for themselves and their families are important parts of our Canadian heritage. The Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program was established to preserve and share the memoirs written by those who survived the twentieth-century Nazi genocide of the Jews of Europe and later made their way to Canada. The program is guided by the conviction that each survivor of the Holocaust has a remarkable story to tell, and that such stories play an important role in education about tolerance and diversity.
Millions of individual stories are lost to us forever. By preserving the stories written by survivors and making them widely available to a broad audience, the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program seeks to sustain the memory of all those who perished at the hands of hatred, abetted by indifference and apathy. The personal accounts of those who survived against all odds are as different as the people who wrote them, but all demonstrate the courage, strength, wit and luck that it took to prevail and survive in such terrible adversity. The memoirs are also moving tributes to people – strangers and friends – who risked their lives to help others, and who, through acts of kindness and decency in the darkest of moments, frequently helped the persecuted maintain faith in humanity and courage to endure. These accounts offer inspiration to all, as does the survivors’ desire to share their experiences so that new generations can learn from them.
The Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program collects, archives and publishes these distinctive records and the print editions are available free of charge to educational institutions and Holocaust-education programs across Canada. They are also available for sale to the general public at bookstores. All revenues to the Azrieli Foundation from the sales of the Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs go toward the publishing and educational work of the memoirs program.
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The Azrieli Foundation would like to express appreciation to the following people for their invaluable efforts in producing this book: Doris Bergen, Sherry Dodson (Maracle Inc), Barbara Kamieński, Therese Parent, and Margie Wolfe & Emma Rodgers of Second Story Press.


About the Glossary
The following memoir contains a number of terms, concepts and historical references that may be unfamiliar to the reader. For information on major organizations; significant historical events and people; geographical locations; religious and cultural terms; and foreign-language words and expressions that will help give context and background to the events described in the text, please see the Glossary .


Introduction
Rabbi Pinchas Hirschprung’s memoir, The Vale of Tears , is a unique look at the early war years and the circumstances of the Jews in the town of Dukla in eastern Poland. Rav Hirschprung, as he was called by those who knew him, experienced the Holocaust through a particular emotional, spiritual and cultural lens, and to understand his viewpoint, it is essential to know a bit about his character.
Rav Hirschprung is rare among those who have chronicled their experiences during the Holocaust. First, he wrote his memoirs in 1944, before the end of the war and before knowing the full impact of the Holocaust on the Jews of Europe; the memoir was originally published in Yiddish as Fun Natsishen Yomertol: Zikhroynes fun a Polit (From the Nazi Vale of Tears: Memoirs of a Refugee). Second, it is highly unusual for a rabbi to write his own memoirs - more commonly, close adherents or professional biographers write their life stories. This work by Rav Hirschprung gives the reader insight into the soul and spirit of its author at a time when these were tested to the utmost.
At the time of his passing in 1998, Rav Hirschprung was regarded and renowned as one of the gedolei hador , the Jewish greats of the generation. Similar to his contemporary gedolei hador - who included such luminaries as Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe; Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik, known as “The Rav”; and Rav Moshe Feinstein - each of the avowed authorities of their generation achieved this accolade by exuding eminence not only in the areas where they left their particular stamp of distinction - the Lubavitcher Rebbe in worldwide outreach; Rav Soloveitchik in Jewish philosophy; and Rav Feinstein in contemporary Jewish law - but in the realms of wisdom, scholarship and personal character development as well.
A gadol hador achieves greatness in all areas of their humanity. All of the gedolei hador were renowned as geonim , spiritual leaders who achieved the highest levels of Torah scholarship in their generation. They had phenomenal retention of a vast amount of information, and rabbinic leaders internationally looked to them for guidance and direction as the world shook, monumental events occurred and technology exploded. The gedolei hador provided leadership and direction to their generation. Rav Hirschprung bestowed smicha , the title of Rabbi, upon thousands of young rabbinic students who would go on to teach, lead congregations and lead Jewish organizations across the globe, as the Jewish nation sought to rebuild after the destruction of the Holocaust. Most interestingly, he also established a rule that he would set aside time for anyone who wished to study with him, regardless of background or skill level.
But perhaps more intriguing is that gedolei hador, unlike notables in other specialties of scholarship and achievement, must also achieve the highest levels in personal character development. Rav Hirschprung, like his contemporaries, was a prime example of this. Anyone in his presence witnessed that he carefully considered each word he spoke and that his time was allocated judiciously to take advantage of every living moment. Material possessions and worldly pursuits were of little interest or value to him. He was ready to drop everything at a moment’s notice to respond to the requests of the community and individuals in need, whether financially, spiritually or emotionally. Rav Hirschprung lived simply and selflessly to serve God, the Jewish people and humanity at large, including many gentiles, since he viewed all of humanity as God’s most precious creation.
Like Jacob’s Ladder, described in the biblical Book of Genesis as having its feet on earth and its head in the heavens, Rav Hirschprung lived with his feet planted firmly in this world but with his head, heart and aspirations in a loftier world.
It is clear from his memoir that even during the darkest moments of the Holocaust, when he saw the town where he served as a young rabbi overrun by the Nazis and their collaborato