Quote 28
Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement. Should we fast? The question was hotly debated. To fast could mean a more certain, more rapid death. In this place, we were always fasting. It was Yom Kippur year-round. But there were those who said we should fast, precisely because it was dangerous to do so. We needed to show God that even here, locked in hell, we were capable of singing His praises.
I did not fast. First of all, to please my father, who had forbidden me to do so. And then, there was no longer any reason for me to fast. I no longer accepted God’s silence. As I swallowed my ration of soup, I turned that act into a symbol of rebellion, of protest against Him. (5.23-24)
The irony of fasting or not fasting in a concentration camp for religious fasting period does not escape Eliezer’s notice. Not fasting isn’t only an act of self-preservation, but a rebellion against God. Clearly Eliezer still believes God exists, because Eliezer is rebelling against Him, but Eliezer chooses not to accept God because God has not stopped the horrors Eliezer witnesses daily.
Quote 29
Akiba Drummer has left us, a victim of the selection. Lately, he had been wandering among us, his eyes glazed, telling everyone how weak he was: "I can't go on ... It's over …" We tried to raise his spirits, but he wouldn’t listen to anything we said. He just kept repeating that it was all over for him, that he could no longer fight, he had no more strength, no more faith. His eyes would suddenly go blank, leaving two gaping wounds, two wells of terror.
He was not alone in having lost his faith during those days of selection. I knew a rabbi, from a small town in Poland. He was old and bent, his lips constantly trembling. He was always praying, in the block, at work, in the ranks. He recited entire pages from the Talmud, arguing with himself, asking and answering himself endless questions. One day, he said to me:
"It’s over. God is no longer with us."
And as though he regretted having uttered such words so coldly, so dryly, he added in a broken voice, "I know. No one has the right to say things like that. I know that very well. Man is too insignificant, too limited, to even try to comprehend God’s mysterious ways. But what can someone like myself do? I’m neither a sage nor a just man. I am not a saint. I’m a simple creature of flesh and bone. I suffer hell in my soul and my flesh. I also have eyes and I see what is being done here. Where is God’s mercy? Where’s God? How can I believe, how can anyone believe in this God of Mercy?"
Poor Akiba Drumer, if only he could have kept his faith in God, if only he could have considered this suffering a divine test, he would not have been swept away by the selection. But as soon as he felt the first chinks in his faith, he lost all incentive to fight and opened the door to death. (5.105-109)
It isn’t only young Eliezer who loses his faith in the concentration camps, but other long-time believers as well. Akiba, who was the man who studied Kabbalah and used his numerology to determine that God would soon deliver them, has nothing to live for once he loses his faith. Even a rabbi can’t help but doubt God’s mercy.
Quote 30
And in spite of myself, a prayer formed inside me, a prayer to this God in whom I no longer believed.
"Oh God, Master of the Universe, give me the strength never to do what Rabbi Eliahu’s son has done." (6.65-66)
Though Eliezer has lost his faith, he still prays for strength to keep himself from abandoning his father, the most important person in his life. It is as if he is saying a prayer asking for the strength to preserve his humanity, because in the prison camps, so many are reduced to their most basic, inhumane instincts which place self-preservation as the most important goal.