‘After everything, do you believe in God?’

Is it possible to believe in God after the Holocaust? That is a question that many authors and philosophers have pondered and written about. If you ask those who survived, you notice that each person reacts in their own way. Many who were of deep faith before the war say, ‘If this could happen, I no longer believe in God.’ I remember a religious woman in the cattle car on the way to Auschwitz, who asked her neighbour if she could try some of the ham she’d brought with her. On the other hand, there were a lot of atheists who became deeply religious after the war. They became profoundly convinced that it was God who helped them to survive.

Many of the deeply religious orthodox women I was with in the camps never lost their faith. One day, they came back from working in the ruins, joyful to have found a book of prayers. They prayed every morning and every night. They fully and firmly believed that the God who helped them to escape the gas chamber would continue to help them if they followed His commandments. Despite continual searches, they managed to keep their book of prayers and followed the religious commandments even when it was difficult. They managed to calculate the date for the Day of Atonement, the day when one must neither eat nor drink. There was never a question of whether or not they would fast. On empty stomachs, without even rinsing their mouths, they got in line for the march to the work site. Once there, they toiled away all day with the heavy sacks of cement without even wetting their lips.

Faith can be helpful on life’s journey, regardless of one’s religion. The danger appears when it goes too far and man gets into his head that everyone must share his faith. That is when faith has turned into fundamentalism, and the original commandment of love has been turned into a commandment of hate.

In the camp, there were a few atheists who laughed at the believers, while also demanding respect for their own non-belief. They had a hard time learning that tolerance must go both ways. I cannot demand tolerance of my faith if I do not tolerate yours.

For me, nothing has changed my previous attitude. I have kept the same faith that I had before the Holocaust. I was raised Jewish and have remained a Jew. But I do not believe that my God is special. If there is a God, it is the same God that we all share, whether we use the name Jehovah, Christ, or Allah. I don’t believe that God can be in heaven and watch over each and every one of us, telling us how we should act. God is found deep inside us, in the moral compass that helps us solve life’s problems.

The Golden Rule, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’, can be found in all religions and in all languages. If all people decided to be led by it, we would live in a better world.