Days of Sorrow and Pain

Days of Sorrow and Pain tells the story of the Berlin Jews under the Nazis. It is the tale of one man's valiant efforts to help the German Jews to meet the horrors of Hitler's regime.

Author Leonard Baker explores the dis-integration of German society, the plight of the Jewish minority and, most importantly, the philosophy of Leo Baeck. Baeck's approach to life and his understanding of Judaism enabled him to meet the challenges of the Nazi period and guide his people in their struggle for survival.

When Hitler came to power the German Jews saw the need to band together, and formed the Reichsvertretung with Leo Baeck at its head. As the leading Rabbi of Berlin, and even then one of the foremost Jewish theologians in the world, Baeck was the rallying point for the various Jewish factions. He dealt secretly with emissaries from abroad to arrange for the emigration of Jews, helping two-thirds of them escape Ger-many before the Holocaust struck. Involved in the underground movement, he made certain that any upheaval of the Nazi regime would allow for a Jewish presence in Germany. And, perhaps above all, he saw to it that Jewish children received religious educations. Young men were trained for the rabbinate in Berlin as late as 1942.

Leo Baeck could have left Germany, but chose to stay with his people. He was arrested five times, once after writing a prayer to be read in all German synagogues reminding Jews that even "in this day of sorrow and pain," they bowed only before God and never before man.

Arrested for the final time in 1943 at the age of sixty-nine, Rabbi Baeck was sent to Theresienstadt. The Nazis had him hauling trash carts by day, but by night he organized educational programs for his fellow inmates, consoling them, be-coming one of their strengths. When he emerged at the war's end, Baeck never sought revenge, but worked for a reconciliation of the Germans and the Jews. He had been a prisoner of the Nazis but was never conquered by them.

Leo Baeck survived the Holocaust to become 'a world leader of liberal Judaism. He never doubted the ultimate triumph of good over evil nor underestimated the responsibility of the individual in working to bring about that triumph. The significance of Leo Baeck's life is his demonstration that it is possible to suffer any tragedy that man with all his technical expertise can produce, yet still survive as a moral person.