WHY THE HOLOCAUST?

Jan Willem van der Hoeven, ICZC
[source: email from ICZC-www.iczc.org.il]

Again and again, I hear people who are questioned about the holocaust say that there is no explanation for this terrible tragedy, which befell the Jewish people at the end of nearly 2000 years dispersion. How could God have allowed it? What was the reason and how can one still believe in a God Who apparently allowed such a disaster of such magnitude including the massacre of 1 ½ million children to take place in “christianised Europe.”

First of all, let me hereby state that the Holocaust was prophesied about in the scriptures. That a terrible, terrible disaster would happen to the Jewish people just before they would return to their own land.

In Ezekiel we read the following verses:

The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.
Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry.
Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’
Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.
I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord. (37:1,2,11-14)