There was no overreaching German policy regarding Jewish prayer in the death camps, concentration camps, and labor camps. However, Jewish religion was as unacceptable to the Nazis as the Jews themselves were. Just as synagogues, torah scrolls, and Jewish texts were decimated throughout occupied territory, the very idea of Jewish religious worship was met with violent hostility by the guards of most camps.
Organized meetings were, as a rule, forbidden in the camps; therefore, prayer services were dangerous or impossible. And as camp prisoners were permitted few if any belongings, there were no ritual objects such as prayer books. Similarly, practices such as kosher food preparation were impossible. Therefore, much Jewish worship which is normally public and ceremonial became an internalized process, private and silent.
On a rare occasion, group worship services were improvised, and the sacred traditions of Jewish observance were replaced with symbolic forms of worship. This was the case at Erlenbusch, where, for Sol’s father, a washroom was used to conduct services on Yom Kippur, the holiest time of the year. There were also cases in which rabbis produced lists of camp foods which would symbolically replace the ceremonial foods of Passover.
But the most important element was the participants themselves, who continued to study and pray — in groups or alone, aloud or quietly. Jewish observance continued despite the impossible conditions in the camps. Turning toward God, the faithful tried to understand their faith, and trusted that one day salvation would come for the Jewish people as a whole.
