Jews Fined for Singing 'Ani Maamin' at Auschwitz

Arutz Sheva ^ | 8-3-14 | Gil Ronen

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Guards at the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp memorial site shouted at Jews who sang “Ani Maamin” – a song based on lines from Rambam (Maimonides) which was known as the Hymn of the Camps – during a visit to the camp and fined their guide 1,000 zloty, or about $350.

So says the guide, Rabbi Rafi Ostroff, who is also the head of the Etzion Bloc Religious Council.

Ani Ma'amin has several tunes, one of which was composed by a Hassidic rabbi in the cattle cars en route to the Nazi concentration camps. The song was then adopted by other Jewish prisoners and became known as the Hymn of the Camps

“Dear friends,” wrote Rabbi Ostroff on Facebook. “Friday-yesterday. I am leading a group of Bnei Akiva from Australia and South Africa. As usual the group sings holy songs of prayer during the visit. This time the guards of the camp hounded us all the time, shouting at us not to sing. Even in the gas chamber of Aushwitz 1, the guard came up to me and shouted at me: 'tell them immediately to shut up'.

"We then went to Birkenau. In a secluded part of the camp the boys spontaneously started singing 'Ani Maamin'. This was the song that prisoners sang on the way to be murdered there. A guard drove after us with his car and demanded that they be silent. I told him that I don't have control over this as they are singing from their hearts. He then threatened to arrest me and called the police.

"In my group were a few boys [whose] grandparents were prisoners or were murdered in Auschwitz. We cried a lot on that day when they shared their stories with us. I was threatened with 24 hours imprisonment or paying...

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

lyrics translated into English for Ani Ma'amin (I Believe)

I believe with complete faith
In the coming of the Messiah, I believe

Believe in the coming of the Messiah
In the coming of the Messiah, I believe
Believe in the coming of the Messiah

And even though he may tarry
Nonetheless I will wait for him
And even though he may tarry
Nonetheless I will wait for him

Nonetheless, I will wait for him
I will wait every day for him to come
Nonetheless, I will wait for him
I will wait every day for him to come

(Ending)
I believe

[Resettozero]

Jews on FR would do well to research WHY true Christians are so favorably inclined towards and supportive of Jews and the Nation of Israel and why no one else in the world ever has been.

[Talisker]

Even the Nazis didn’t stop the Jews from singing this song there.

[reg45]

Jesus was Jewish.

[Resettozero]

Jesus was Jewish.

Yes He is. And that is the foundational reason I posed my suggestion to those on FR.

Virtually all the first followers of and believers in Jesus Christ...also were devout Jews.

[null and void]

Worth repeating:

Even the Nazis didn’t stop the Jews from singing this song there.

Even the Nazis didn’t stop the Jews from singing this song there.

Even the Nazis didn’t stop the Jews from singing this song there.

[bandleader]

They should be”Saluted”(NOT FINED),and it should have been a”LIVE-RECORDING”!!!GOD Bless The State of Israel!!!NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Christianity as it originally was meant to be was Jewish. It was a continuation of Judaism really, not a “new religion”. Jesus/Yeshua didn’t come to create a new religion...

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Sounds like some people today would love to out-do the Nazis if they could.... :-(

[Resettozero]

He said He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, not to destroy or overturn. The leaders of that time didn’t cotton to Him at all. Well, He DID call them a brood of vipers and hypocrites.

[Scrambler Bob]

M4l

[Nachum]

Poles, just being themselves.

[Leaning Right]

Perhaps the guards were told that, as a sight of respect for the camp, there is to be no singing, etc. Sometimes a dignified silence is best. Besides that, if that song - however appropriate - is allowed, then why not other songs? Why not the Russian national anthem, in honor of the Russians that died there? Then the guards will be forced to become song arbiters.

[null and void]

Starting with 1.3 billion muzzies...

[1rudeboy]

Hey, try to sing the National Anthem at the Lincoln Memorial and see what you get.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Exactly. He chewed them out not so much because what they taught was wrong (although he did address a few areas about how they nullified the Law through traditions of men), but because they were hypocrites and failed to practice what they preached.

I don't get why so many folks think he came to overturn/destroy God's law....I mean doesn't the Bible say that he is the "Word become flesh"? God's word is His law. If Jesus was coming to destroy the law he would be destroying himself figuratively.

[UnwashedPeasant]

The guards are probably required to maintain silence. In this case, they probably did not know the meaning of the songs.

Also, anywhere you have guards or bureaucrats, they fall in love with their authority and replace good sense with mindlessly enforcing the rules.

[happyathome]

“Perhaps the guards were told that, as a sight of respect for the camp, there is to be no singing, etc. Sometimes a dignified silence is best.”

I might agree if I hadn’t seen other people get away with being loud. When I visited in 2005 there was a tour bus full of French high school kids making all kinds of noise, laughing, goofing off, etc. No one said “boo” to them.

On another note, I was there with an unofficial guide who was showing me around and pointing things out. The official guides hounded us into silence because they weren’t getting a fee from me. Don’t think it was anti-Semitism, just greed.

That aside I have to say that most of the Poles I met were pretty cool people.

[Resettozero]

...(although he did address a few areas about how they nullified the Law through traditions of men)...

He told some particular Pharisee leaders and others that their father was not God but rather was the Devil.

He asked them how would they ever escape the condemnation of hell (gehenna).

I would propose that He came to do much more than make minor corrections to the religion of the Jewish leaders who denied He was Who He said He was and made sure that He was killed.

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Of course he accused some of them of not following God. Why? Because some of them were serving only themselves. As he says in Matthew 23: 1-3

"Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach."

Read the rest of the chapter. Not once does he say anything against the Law of God. He attacks them instead for their pride, their hypocrisy and for placing heavy burdens upon the people through the numerous traditions of the elders. It is not God's law that is burdensome (see Deut 30:11-14, 1 John 5:3), but rather the vast network of man-made traditions which Yeshua/Jesus considered burdensome.

And of course the leaders hated him for this. He revealed their pride and hypocrisy to the people.