As American soldiers advanced through Europe they encountered vast numbers of refugees whose plight was stark and heartbreaking. The war had shattered their homes, families, and communities. Chaplain Rabbi David Eichhorn had a special concern for the beleaguered Jewish remnants scattered through each country. In the little village of Rosieres-aux-Salines he found twenty-two Jewish women, aged sixty-eight to ninety-seven, whose husbands had been deported early in the war. The wives were left deliberately as a burden on the rest of the village. The chaplain found them in two rooms of a hospital, dirty and half-starved. After supplying food, clothing, and fuel to keep them alive, he went about raising money for their continued care. His account is uplifting:
The soldiers in the past two weeks have given me over $800 to help these and other Jewish refugees who needed help. God bless the American Army and American Jewish soldiers. There is no other Army like it in the whole world. I had to plead with these men not to give me as much as they wanted to give. Many of them wanted to empty their pockets and give me all they had.484
We know there are many biblical imperatives enjoining us to be charitable. “Blessed is he who has regard for the weak”(Psalms 41:1). “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures forever”(Psalms 112:9). “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor”(Proverbs 22:9). We are also very specifically called to direct our charitable efforts to the widows and orphans. Without husbands and fathers they are in special need of the material and spiritual support of the body of Christ.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
November 21
Isaac Avigdor was one of ten thousand Jews transported in 1944 from Poland to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. There he was put on the infamous “Quarry Detail,” removing by hand large rocks blasted from a mountainside. After each dynamite blast, the prisoners were ordered to carry away a large rock to the disposal area. Being the new man on the detail, Avigdor hesitated after the first explosion while the others rushed in to pick up the rocks of manageable size. He could find only a boulder that he could barely lift. At first he tried to carry it in his hands, then on each shoulder. Soon, his shoulders were bleeding, and he was lagging behind. He knew that laggards were usually shot and that thousands had already died in the same situation. As he stumbled and fell, he knew that this was the end for him.
I didn’t care anymore: let them shoot me, or throw me off the mountain, and I let the rock drop to the ground. And the miracle happened: the rock hit the ground and split in two. Quickly, unnoticed by any one, I picked up one of the pieces and resumed marching. There may have been a natural crack in the rock that caused it to split the moment it received a blow. None the less, a threefold miracle happened to me: the rock split; I had enough presence of mind to realize at once to take advantage of what had happened; no one noticed.485
In recalling this incident, Avigdor thought of another rock made famous in the Old Testament. Jacob used a stone for a pillow as he dreamed of a ladder to heaven. He made the stone a pillar and declared, “This stone… will be God’s house”(Genesis 28:22). There are other occasions in the Bible where God uses rocks miraculously. Moses drew water from the rock at Horeb to satisfy the thirst of the Israelites and to demonstrate God’s presence (Exodus 17:6). An angel caused fire to come from a stone to give Gideon a sign of God’s favor (Judges 6:21). I believe that we can accept Isaac Avigdor’s witness as evidence of God performing another miracle with a rock, in a time much closer to the present day.
Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Ah, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”
November 22
Paddy Crean was an Irish priest from Dublin. He joined the British Army in 1941 and served with distinction as a military chaplain for more than twenty years. During World War II he landed at Normandy with the 29th Armored Brigade and saw action in Belgium, Holland, and Germany. For his heroic service he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). After the war he served with two United Nations peacekeeping missions to the Congo. Father Crean wrote many letters home during the war, revealing his low-key personality and deep faith. Soon after D-Day, he wrote,
After 16 days at this second front thank God I am safe and well. We are in France as you know and everything is going well. I am overwhelmed with chaps all clamouring for the comforts of the Faith and I must say whatever dangers there may be and there are some of course, it is all well worth it. I have been up to the front quite a lot and been shelled once! However, God is Good.486
His qualities as a chaplain were illustrated in the citation for his MBE:
Possessing a quiet, sincere and likeable character, he has always been on the best of terms with all ranks. He has never spared himself in his work and has afforded great assistance and comfort to many. He has made constant visits to the wounded, often in advanced medical posts and has throughout shown great keenness and organizing ability in arranging clubs and rest rooms, which have not been confined to those of his own creed.
He has been a strong rock to those of his own flock, and has throughout taken the greatest interest in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the troops. He has set a very fine example and has made a great contribution to the happiness and wellbeing of the men.487
Paddy Crean is another distinguished example of a clergyman who heroically and selflessly served his nation, his fellow soldiers, and his God during wartime. In sacrificing for others, he never spared himself.
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
November 23
