Rabbi YY Jacobson - What Saved Me on the Death March

Short Summary

Main recommendation: When facing overwhelming suffering, hold on to the conviction that you are never truly alone, because God walks with you, as the Baal Shem Tov taught. Rabbi Nissen Mangel credits this idea with carrying him through the Auschwitz death march as an 11-year-old boy. The video presents his story as an example of faith sustaining survival when physical strength had run out.

Key Points

• Nissen Mangel, who arrived at Auschwitz aged 10 and was liberated at 11, was likely one of the youngest survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
• He twice faced Dr. Josef Mengele, who considered experimenting on him, and twice escaped that fate.
• After his father was killed on the day of liberation, he was forced onto a death march from Poland to Germany while sick, hungry, and emaciated.
• Prisoners who stopped, stepped out of line, or sat down were shot, which is why most did not survive the march.
• Nissen considered stepping out of line to be shot, reaching a point where he felt he could not continue.
• A memory of his father telling the Baal Shem Tov story at a Friday night table gave him the energy to keep going.

Details Worth Noting

• Concrete instructions: The video gives no step-by-step instructions. The only actionable guidance is the Baal Shem Tov's teaching, as told in the video: a Jew never walks alone, and one should go forward with confidence and a sense of security, trusting that God is with them.
• The story itself: a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov was told to travel home at night through a dangerous forest when his wife went into labor. He was afraid of robbers, and the Baal Shem Tov told him he was not going alone.
• For a week on the march, prisoners were given no food and could only eat muddy snow from the ground.
• Nissen's father was there with him at Auschwitz but was killed on the day of liberation.
• Nissen describes the decision to step out of line and accept a bullet as a moment of despair, which the vision of his father's table helped him resist.

Bottom Line

Faith tied to a remembered teaching can provide a source of endurance when all physical resources have failed, as Nissen Mangel's account illustrates.