The world marks 78 years since the hell called Auschwitz was liberated by the Allies, signaling the start of the end of WWII and the Holocaust that claimed so many millions of lives. How is this auspicious date connected to the wild story of the rise of David in the Book of Samuel that we’ve begun this week?
Trauma and survival, persecution and victim mentality become powerful and dangerous ingredients in individual and collective identities, how much so when accumulated over time, and sometimes, generations. Righteous rage becomes revenge and blind hatred of the other - all others. Back in the Bible, young David is pursued and persecuted by Saul, a paranoid and fragile king. David hides in the wild on the fringe of society with a band of misfits, ‘with bitter souls’ and a rage against society. This is the army with which the future king of Israel leads on his path to the throne, and they will stop at little to get there, including acts of murder and terror against their own. That’s what trauma does, and time tries to erase.
Just one year after WWII was over, Jews in Jerusalem plotted to blow up the hotel named for the famed king. The King David Hotel served as headquarters for the British Army that ruled over Palestine and one of the more violent Jewish underground groups seeking Jewish independence blew up the hotel in July 1946, killing 91 people - Arabs, Jews, Christians, British and locals alike. The leader of this terror group was Menachem Begin, the man who would one day be Israel’s prime minister and Bibi Netanyahu’s political mentor.
Trauma and rage will lead to more of the same. Unless addressed, acknowledged, healed and dealt with - honestly. In these chapters of the Bible we see the seeds of tribal trauma in the making, persecution and fear planting the trees of distrust and decay. The hurt of those who survived the Nazi camps and wanted a homeland so badly became, for some, a vehicle for rage against the British machine that was the very same that liberated the camps.
The King David Hotel is still standing, on King David street in a city that today still thirsts for peace and justice, dignity and hope, a city cut in half by walls and suspicious minds but also fused on both sides with so much yearning and potential for love and respect.
Maybe by learning history we can undo some of its errors and page by page, breath by breath, make our way to better stories with less us vs. them and more of us, united, together, signing psalms of justice and joy?
Anyway, the saga of David is just getting started. Next week is more major drama.
Deep breath everybody.
Thanks for joining me Below the Bible Belt, one chapter at a time. Shabbat Shalom
BONUS: Henri Andréani’s 1910 Silent Short Film - David and Goliath:
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Auschwitz, Trauma & King David’s Hotel: