Yad Vashem
Born in The Netherlands in 1926, Moshe Ze’ev Flinker was a Jewish teenager whose family fled to Brussels in 1942 to escape Nazi persecution. It was there, in November, that 16-year-old Flinker began to keep the diary for which he is now remembered: a deeply personal record of the challenges he and his loved ones faced, and a testament to his evolving relationship with faith during a time of crisis. This entry, one of his earliest, was written in December. Flinker’s family were apprehended in May 1944 and eventually taken to Auschwitz, where he and his parents were killed. Flinker’s sisters and brother survived.
The Diary Entry
December 12, Saturday evening
Thursday was the last night of Hanukkah. My father, young brother, and I lit the candles that we had obtained, though not without difficulty. While I was singing the last stanza of the Hanukkah hymn Ma’oz Tzur I was deeply struck by the topicality of the words:
Reveal Thy sacred mighty arm
And draw redemption near
Take Thy revenge upon that
Wicked people that has shed the blood
Of those who worship Thee
Our deliverance has been long overdue,
Evil days are endless,
Banish the foe, destroy the shadow of his image
Provide us with a guiding light.All our troubles, from the first to this most terrible one, are multiple and endless, and from all of them rises one gigantic scream. From wherever it emanates, the cry that rises is identical to the cries in other places or at other times. When I sang Ma’oz Tzur for the last time on Hanukkah I sang with emphasis—especially the last verse. But later when I sat on my own I asked myself: “What was the point of that emphasis? What good are all the prayers I offer up with so much sincerity? I am sure that more righteous sages than I have prayed in their hour of anguish for deliverance and salvation. What merit have I that I should pray for our much-needed redemption?” And then I thought about our first and best leader, Moses. He too was all alone [. . .]. Nevertheless, he reached the status of Prophet of Prophets and Prince of Princes. He did not attain his stature easily as he had to work and enslave his spirit for eighty years, as our teachers have carefully pointed out. Only after eighty years was he worthy.
And so I must learn from his enlightening example. I am irritable by nature and lose my temper easily, but by the example of the man whose name was the same as mine, I must make an effort to overcome this side of my nature. But every time I have resolved to do this I have got into an argument or fight with one of my sisters and forgotten all my good resolutions. But now I am writing down in black and white that I will strive not to lose my temper easily or, better still, not to lose my temper at all.
Further Reading
Moshe Flinker’s diary was originally published in Hebrew in 1958. An English language edition was published in 1971 by Yad Vashem, titled, Young Moshe’s Diary: The Spiritual Torment of a Jewish Boy in Nazi Europe. Excerpts can also be found in Alexandra Zapruder’s excellent anthology, Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust, which I’ve mentioned before.
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