On March 21 of this year, Rabbi Herschel Schacter died at
the age of 96. Rabbi Schacter had
a long career as a pulpit rabbi in the Moshulu Jewish Center in the Bronx.
But he is even more widely known as the first Jewish
chaplain to enter Buchenwald following its liberation by General Patton in
April, 1945.
When he entered, he asked if there were any Jews still alive
and was taken to a barracks of Jewish inmates, lying on planks. They looked down at Rabbi Schacter, in
military uniform, and they were frightened.
He said, Shalom
Aleichem, yidden. Ihr sint frei. Greetings, Jews. You are free!
And slowly, slowly, people began to absorb the significance
of what had happened. And some
started to join Rabbi Schacter, going from one barracks to the other, telling
one another that they were now free.
Weeks later, it was Pesach Sheni, the second Pesach, the day
set aside in ancient times for those who were unable to celebrate Pesach during
its ordinary time.
According to an account by a prisoner of the camp, Shiku
Smilovic, Rabbi Schacter brought matzah and distributed it to everyone. He started to deliver a sermon to all
of the recently liberated prisoners.
At one point, the rabbi said, “We know what you have gone through” and a
former prisoner started to scream.
