Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site fortune.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!fortune!burton From: burton@fortune.UUCP Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Re: Holocaust - (nf) Message-ID: <2707@fortune.UUCP> Date: Wed, 7-Mar-84 15:05:50 EST Article-I.D.: fortune.2707 Posted: Wed Mar 7 15:05:50 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 8-Mar-84 08:40:39 EST Sender: notes@fortune.UUCP Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA Lines: 33 #R:ihuxt:-29800:fortune:39800006:000:1629 fortune!burton Mar 7 09:36:00 1984 Maybe, just maybe, Hitler and Eichmann intended to war only upon observant Jews, but I can assure you that the populace in such countries as Poland missed that subtlety. They enthusiastically pointed out to Germain authorities those Jews who might have "passed." (There were, of course, exceptions, includin the woman who gave my mother a place to hide, fixed her up with identity papers - her own deceased daughter-, and actually taught my mother enough to be able to pass herself off even in church.) More generally, I would like to say the issue of revenge on Hitler cannot simply be discussed according to observance. There are converted Jews, often as a result of intermarriage, who are more observant than their Jewish spouses. Such converts, however, are not "culturally" Jewish, and commentators are worrying that this influence could hasten "assimilation". Further, it is not possible, except among the ultra-Orthodox, to define Jews according to the level of observance. Still further, for people like my parents, who did not see G-d intervene in the Holocaust, there are serious doubts about observance. *Survival* may not seem like much to people who are comfortable in the U.S. and whose biggest exposure to war has been a draft notice (which they somehow avoided). But, to people who lost everyone they knew because of starvation, the gas chambers, random killings by non-Jews, war actions, etc. Philip Burton 101 Twin Dolphin Drive Fortune Systems Redwood City, CA 94065 (415) 595-8444 x 526 - - - {allegra decvax!decwrl!amd70 cbosgd harpo hpda ihnp4 sri-unix}!fortune!burton