In his book “The Great Partnership,” subtitled “Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning,” Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, zt”l describes in Chapter 10 what happened in the lives of two different men.
The first story was about Max Ostro, who lived in Poland when the Nazis came and his family was rounded up. In the cattle car, on the way to Treblinka, his father held Max and his brother, and said to them: “Mein kinder, if you stay on the train you will die. It belongs to the Malach Hamoves. I want you to daven Maariv. Then I want the two of you, when the opportunity presents itself, to jump. The Nazis will shoot. But one of you will survive. This I promise you: One of you will survive.”
The sons prayed. Both jumped from the train. Max’s brother was killed; under cover of darkness, Max survived.
The family had hidden a sum of money, which Max recovered and paid to a farmer to hide him.
In November 1944, the Nazis made a renewed effort to round up the remaining Jews. Max later told his son that he had a dream where the Rebbe told him: “It is no longer safe for you in the barn.” Max arranged with the farmer to bury him in a grave with only a narrow space open to the sky. Once a week the farmer would bring him food and drink. After two months he was rescued when the war came to an end.
After the war Max came to Britain, married, had two children and built a business. He lived as an Orthodox Jew and gave much of his money to tzedakah. Max died while Rabbi Sacks was writing this book, who heard the story for the first time during a shiva visit to Max’s son Maurice.
The second story, about Louis S., is not a Holocaust story. His family left Poland long before the war. He came to Britain at the age of 6. The family was poor, and he had to leave school when he was just 14 to help support his family. Some years later he was able to open a shop selling remnants, schmattes, to local tailors. Many days there was not a single customer, and Louis would spend his time listening to the radio or reading.
Louis went to shul every day although he knew little Hebrew, but he knew he was a Jew, and he believed in God. Toward the end of his life he had to undergo five major surgeries, which made him weaker and weaker. In the hospital he had his tallit and tefillin with him and he would put them on as best he could. He died peacefully with one of his sons holding his hand.
Louis was Rabbi Sacks’ father.
Rabbi Sacks tells these stories because both men were ordinary people. Max had a quiet greatness put upon him by surviving the darkest nights, and Louis had a dignity and thankfulness to which his son could barely aspire.
The chapter in which these two stories appear is titled “A Meaningful Life.”
On April 3, 2014, The Jewish Link published a short biography written by Elizabeth Kratz, associate publisher/editor, titled “A Meaningful Life.”
The biography was a summary of my life’s story. I hope I’ve lived up to the life of dignity these men represented.
