40—Friday, April 13, 1973

The Last Passover

By DAVID M. MILLER
David Miller was graduated from the University of Chi-
cago, Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude, and from. the law school
of CWRU, Cleveland, where he participated in the national
student Zionist movement—Avukah. In 1937 he joined the
International Brigade and saw service, 'military and civil-
ian, during the Spanish Civil War. He served in the Amer-
ican army during World War II, subsequently serving as gov-
ernment attorney. He wrote a novel of Jewish life, "The
Chain and the Link," and published articles from time to
time in Davar, Israel, Universidad Obrera (U.O.), Mexico
City, and Jewish Frontier.
and God was among them;
May
it not be with us, as it was for he too was of all these
with our brothers during places, and more beside.
their Last Passover in the These
deith camp of Bergen-Bel- sages, who reclined together
sen, in 1944. It was their at the Passover table in Ber-
Last Supper: they had no gen-Belsen, related the go-
matzo, nor wine, nor any ing out of Egypt all that
of the appurtenances of Pass- night; until their disciples
over; they had only bitter came to them, and said —
herbs, bitter.
"Masters, the time has come
to greet the dawn with Hear
They
turned to their Lord God; 0 Israel, thy God is one-
for he too was a prisoner One—even in this place of
with them in the death camp; death."
he stood before them in pris- The
on garb, with vertical stripes; Cobbler of Warsaw spoke;
and as their God was clad, and he said—"Lo, I am like
in prison garb, with vertical unto a man of seventy years;
stripes, so too were our yet I never understood why
brothers clad, in prison garb, the departure from Egypt
should be related at night,
bitter.
until there came the Tailor
They
said to him. to God: "Behold, of Vilna; and he explained
it is our desire to do your it, thus—
will; but enslavement pre- "It
vents us; our life is periled is written: remember the
in this place of death; and exodus from Egypt all the
of all your words to us, we days of thy life; but now
can uphold only those which that Hitler rules, the days of
declare—"Ye shall live, and life are departed from this
world; and all that remains
not die."
in this world is its night; yet
Then
they sat down to celebrate shall you remember the go-
the Passover; and since they ing out from darkness even
had nothing else to give, the though you dwell in dark-
one to the other, each gave ness. -
his life to his fellow man, his Then,
soul to his fellow man, his other sages spoke; they ex-
heart to his fellow man, his plained the exodus different-
ly; and they said—"Scripture
mind to his fellow man.
teaches that it is not enough
God,
was in their midst, at the to enthrone freedom in this
Last Supper, in prison garb; our mortal life; we must also
to him also they gave life, enthrone freedom beyond our
soul, heart, and mind; and human fate, even into the
since they had no matzo, days of the Messiah, beyond
they said to their God — this place of doom, of death,
"This is our body; take of it beyond our doom, our death,
and eat;" and since they had beyond . . .
no wine, they said to their In
God—"This is our blood; that moment the door
opened; and there entered
take of it and drink."
one who was clad in the uni-
Among
these, our brothers, there form of Hitler; on the uni-
were men of wisdom and form he wore the swastika
learning—U....a-Cobbler, he of of Hitler; and those at the
Warsaw; the . Tailor, he of Last Supper said to him,
Vilna; the Blacksmith, who "Who are you? Declare your-
had been among the Sages self;" and he declared him-
of Lublin; the Watercarrier self—''I, am the Messiah: I
of Kovno; the Brickmaker of have come to lead you to
Riga; and more, and more; the eternal Passover beyond
this world."
Then
the Blacksmith, who had
been among the Sages of
May
Lublin, said to the Messiah
— "Lead; and we will fol-
low; for our Truth is ever-
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Is- lasting, even in this dark-
rael is considering possible ness."
economic and technical aid The
to South Vietnam, it was dis- Messiah led; and they follow-
closed here.
ed; and even as they walked
Shimon Avimor, Israel's in darlmess, they celebrated
ambassador to Thailand, has the liberation of the human
met on the matter with offi- hody, eiid the ever-renewed
the human spirit; as
cials in Saigon where he was
invited in appreciation for his it is written in the Torah —
Prod:Jim freedom through-
role in establishing diplomat.
ic relations between Israel . out the Lind."
and the Thieu regime.
Then
Avimor's instructions were as the sae,::: Littered the word
to listen but not to offer any- freedom, freedom, they ar-
thing specific at this time, of- rived :it !fie gas chamber; the
ficials here said.
Mefe;ia ope bed the door;
They said more concrete they entered, and God was
talks would be held by Is-
hem--God . .
rael's ambassador designate lit
to Saigon, Yair Aran. Aran's that gas chamber they look-
appointment was officially ed about them; they dis-
accepted by the Saigon gov- cerned a dim form; they said
ernment.
to him, "Declare yourself;"
Israel said there have been and he answered — "I, am
no requests for imiltary aid Death; -I sere- the heil-men
4)y South Vie-triejni / E4

South NTietnam
Receive
Aid From Israel

-

"You,
extol freedom; and I —
Death, the physician — can
grant freedom from pain,
and fi orn life — they are
the same! I grant freedom,
through death, to you, and
to the Six Million who are
within you, to mankind, with-
in you, and to God, within
you; for he has come with
you into the gas chamber,
that he may die with you;
for without Man, in you, God
cannot live . . .
Having
brought them all into the gas
chamber, and God with them,
the Messiah emerged: he
bolted the door; he waited;
there came a hiss of gas.
The Messiah looked in
through the tiny window, and
the sages lay prone, and God
among them, prone.
Then,
the Messiah opened the door
to the gas chamber; he
carried them out in his arms,
one by one, and God among
them, in his arms; the Mes-
siah looked down into the
closed eyes of the Tailor of
Vilna, of the Cobbler of War-
saw, and the others; and he
said of them — "They did
not die; nor the Six Million
within them; nor mankind;"
then he looked down into the
closed eyes of God; and of
him the Messiah said—"God
is dead, dead . . ."
The
Messiah lifted them up, his
brothers; he carried them
one by one, to the cremato-
rium, and God, his brother,
among them; he laid them
tenderly, lovingly, upon the
outstretched sinews of flame
that reached fiery fingers out
of the Hitler hell—hell! The
fingers of fire stroked and
caressed the Cobbler of War-
saw; caressed and stroked
the Watercarrier of Kovno,
the Six Million, and man-
kind; caressed them, stroked
them, until they were burned
to ashes, one by one, and
God among them, burned .
Heil...!
God,
the child of man, burned
. . . heil!
the father of man, burned
. . . heil
the brother of man, burned
. . . heil!
God, to ashes, burned,
heil . . .
ashes . .
Then,
the Messiah removed their
ashes from the flame . . .
The
Messiah looked down into
the pale ashes of the Water-
carrier of Kovno, the Tailor
of Vilna, the Six Million, and
mankind; and the Messiah
said — "It is an illusion:
their flesh has not been
burned to ash. They live!"
But of God, he said — "He
has become dust and ash in
this place of death; God has
dwindled into god, zero, in
this place of death; he has
dwindled into death - god,
nothing:god, in this place of
death."

In
that moment, the thimbleful
of ash which had been God ;
entreated the M es si a h_ -"R e -
deem me, that I may live;
that it may not be said
among the nations, God is
dead! God is nothing! Our
Eternal, the Divine Nothing
—dead''

Then,
the Messiah spoke to the
nothing-god, to him, thus: "If
you would indeed he God,
and not god, zero, then hear-
en to the Voice of Isr
ho chose you, and thus

-

came your chosen—who was
chastised -by you, and hence
won the right to admonish
you, thus —
"You
plucked me, a vine out of
Egypt; you planted me, in
your strength. But of my own
strength did I clear a space
round about me; I took deep
root where the swampland
had been; where the barren
rock had been; where the
desert had been; I filled the
Land with life, your Land —
my life — mine.
"Now,
that I have built, they seek
to break down my fences,
that all who pass may pluck
at me; the brown eagle from
beside the north sea, whose
feathers were of beaten steel,
the eagle whose cry was
heil — he plucked at me; the
red bear out of the tall for-
ests, whose open maw scarlet
in the white snow; the bear
that walks like a man — he
plucked' at me; the tawny
camel, whose hump moves,
shifting, like the yellow sand
dunes in the desert; the
camel whose home is Cairo,
DamaScus, Amman, he
plucked at me."
"Therefore?" asked God.
"Therefore,"
said the Messiah, "be mind-
ful of this vine, which your
own hand planted and made
strong, that you might lean
on it; be mindful of these
children of Man, if you, the
nothing-god, would be God
again, that it may not be
said among the nations —
"He is dead; God who dwin-
dled into god, nothing, he is
dead . . .
dead . . .
finally!"
"I will be mindful," said
God; "and as for my people,
who perished .. . "
"They did not perish," said
the Messiah—"you perished,
in the heart of man, because
of Bergen-Belsen . . .
you perished .. .
you . . . "

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

'Ju(lenrat' Wins '73 Book Award

Isaiah Trunk's "Judenrat" Councils in Eastern Europe
won one of the history prizes Under Nazi Occupation."
in the 1973 National Book
"Art Linkletter Schools
Award contest. The awards
have a few openings left
were announced in New York
in Nursery School.
on Tuesday.
Free busing, too!"
Trunk, a research associ-
Art Linkletter Schools
ate at the YIVO Institute for
28805
Evergreen, Southfield
Jewish Research, subtitled
357-1215 — 588-0300
"Judenrat" as "The Jewish

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