Norma Sadler - American Thinker
"After 491 days, Sharabi,the hostage, the survivor, arrived home. The quiet power of faith kept him and others free in their captivity."
"Over 85 years ago in Auschwitz and Dachau, Jews held on to their religious beliefs even though they were terrorized by their experiences in the concentration camps. Faith became an antidote to the degradation, terror, and hopelessness they experienced. Judaism helped them build a sense of community, which helped them survive their imprisonment. This community spirit persevered in spite of the Nazi ideology, which operated through fear, punishment, and death. Through faith, their lives gained purpose and meaning.
"Victor Frankl and Hannah Arendt survived the World War II camps. Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning, understood that finding meaning and purpose is a way to survive even through extreme suffering. Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism delineated the psychological and physical effects of isolation that erase personal identity and autonomy — not just in the camps of the past, but in the current terrorist regimes that stifle personal and political freedom, those two aspects in the common world of free societies. What could replace that world for those in the camps? Faith, hope, meaning, and purpose.
"For the past three years, the violent attack by Hamas on Israelis on October 7, 2023 has become a tragedy of immense importance in news cycles. The atrocities on October 7 rivaled those of the Holocaust with the kind of brutality that is difficult to hear or believe because of its depravity. Whole families were destroyed, mutilated, and their corpses defiled." . . . More...
