(The photograph and excerpts below – from Moshe Flinker’s diary – have appeared in the header of this blog since its creation in 2016. (Gadzooks! – has it been that long?!) To make Moshe’s thoughts more accessible – internet and appearance wise – I’ve turned this content into the post, below…)
“…in my opinion, as I have already written several times in my diary,
the end of the war and our salvation are not synonymous.”
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Young Moshe’s Diary – The Spiritual Torment of a Jewish Boy in Nazi Europe
[Diary of Moshe Flinker, translated from the Hebrew]
Yad Vashem Publishers – 1965
There is, however, one further difficulty,
namely that if we already deserve to be redeemed because of our great sufferings,
there is the danger that the Jews themselves will not want to be redeemed. (29)
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Now if England wins,
most of the Jews (even those of us who wish to be redeemed)
will be able to say that not the Lord
but England saved them.
The gentiles will say the same.
Obviously my outlook is a religious one.
I hope to be excused for this,
for had I not religion,
I would never find any answer at all to the problems that confront me. (30)
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But our people are so exile-minded
that many generations would have to pass
before we became a free people physically and mentally (the latter is the main thing). (36)
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What good are the prayers I offer up with so much sincerity? (39)
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Therefore we should not look to
Russia,
England,
or America,
because salvation will come from a completely different source. (55)
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An Allied victory will put an end only to our momentary troubles,
those from Germany,
but along with this it will mark the beginning of troubles
far greater than the present ones,
because instead of coming from one source,
Germany,
they will come from everywhere in the form of unlimited world-wide anti-Semitism.
For this poison,
which the cursed Hitler has injected into humanity,
is spreading,
and after the war ended by such an Allied victory
it would not be limited to the vanquished Germany,
but would cross the borders of the victorious nations as well.
The victors will have to find some scapegoat to blame
for the innumerable crises which will come after the war,
and who will be more suitable then the Jews for such a role?
No,
not from the English
nor the American
nor the Russians
but from the Lord Himself will our redemption come.
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And for that I pray always.
Therefore I see in every victory of the Allies a prolongation of our troubles.
Already after reaching this conclusion,
I have begun to doubt whether the time has really come
for the end of our two-thousand-year exile. (72-73)
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While it is true that the Germans and Italians have been chased out of Africa,
this, in my opinion, does not bring the end of the war much closer.
I intentionally write the end of the war rather than our salvation
because, in my opinion, as I have already written several times in my diary,
the end of the war and our salvation are not synonymous. (97)
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Supplications and beseechings cannot reestablish our continually violated honor.
Action alone is of any use. (103)