Q:
Why were the Danish and Finnish Jews spared in the Holocaust? Were they better than the Jews in other countries?
A:
And the answer is that Hakodosh Boruch Hu was leaving a little space where Jews could escape. Many Jews escaped by means of Denmark and Finland and also Sweden. And therefore some of the surrounding countries had to remain for Jews to escape. There are other reasons too, but that’s one of the reasons.
There weren’t many Jews in these countries anyhow; it was the places with many Jews, that’s where the assimilation was most conspicuous and therefore the hand of Hitler was heavy in those countries. But if it’s only a few Jews, the sins haven’t added up yet – like it says about Tzohar when Lot wanted to escape from the decree of the destruction of Sedom, he said הלא מצער הוא – “It’s only a small place, ותחי נפשי – I can run there and be saved.” It’s a small place and so it doesn’t have many sins yet.
Give it time though. Sweden is adding up a lot of sins now and someday something will happen to Sweden, you’ll see. Today, Sweden is of the worst countries in the world when it comes to immorality. They’re leading the way in very many respects. But at that time, they didn’t deserve destruction yet.
By the way, you could also ask, why were American Jews spared from the Holocaust? It’s a good question – there are plenty of Hitlers in America. But that’s a long subject and since you didn’t ask that, we’ll leave it for a different time.
TAPE # 731 (March 1989)
