Doing a very bitter LOL. Religion - it’s a disease of the mind.
My father always hated religion, very passionately. I learned that when he was a young boy - the youngest of 6 children - his mother was diagnosed with a kidney disease (probably Crohn) and was told by the doctors that she mustn’t have any more children. My own grandad was very religious, and decided to consult with his rabbi. The rabbi had no doubt - “pru urevu” (procreate) was the most important thing, God himself told us to “fill the land”. So she got pregnant; both she and the baby died at birth.
Also: when the Nazis invaded the Ukraine, where the family was staying since escaping from Poland, my grandfather decided that he wouldn’t run anymore - God will protect us! We must have faith! So, yeah - him, his second wife, my 8 years-old uncle and 6 years-old aunt were taken out to a field together with other captured Jews, dug a big hole in the ground and were then shot dead by the Germans.
L was a conscript in the Polish army when the Nazis invaded - far as we know he was killed very early on.
M escaped to Russia along with most of the family, and when the Nazis came was conscripted into the Russian army. He did shoot himself in the leg after a year and a half, so that he could go home and see the daughter that was born a year before… other than that - fine.
R was married with a 3 days-old baby boy, and decided to take his chances with those wacky Nazis. They were put in the Warsaw ghetto; after a couple of years him and the wife decided to make a run for it. They placed the boy in an orphanage, and escaped to the countryside, where a Polish farmer hid them for over a year. Problem: the boy. He was blonde and blue-eyed, and was never circumcised, so he had a very good chance of making it. However, his maternal grandfather decreed that he must be circumcised, so that he’ll “know who he was”. So the 2 year-old boy was circumcised, and some time later was picked up in a Gestapo raid. His fate is unknown.
Both M and R eventually made their way to Israel and took on new duties as my favorite uncles.
3 of My Uncles, Poland, 1938
J_Patish OP t1_jad5647 wrote
Reply to comment by AnonimousouminonA in 3 of My Uncles, Poland, 1938 by J_Patish
Doing a very bitter LOL. Religion - it’s a disease of the mind. My father always hated religion, very passionately. I learned that when he was a young boy - the youngest of 6 children - his mother was diagnosed with a kidney disease (probably Crohn) and was told by the doctors that she mustn’t have any more children. My own grandad was very religious, and decided to consult with his rabbi. The rabbi had no doubt - “pru urevu” (procreate) was the most important thing, God himself told us to “fill the land”. So she got pregnant; both she and the baby died at birth. Also: when the Nazis invaded the Ukraine, where the family was staying since escaping from Poland, my grandfather decided that he wouldn’t run anymore - God will protect us! We must have faith! So, yeah - him, his second wife, my 8 years-old uncle and 6 years-old aunt were taken out to a field together with other captured Jews, dug a big hole in the ground and were then shot dead by the Germans.