The Story Behind This Unimaginable Photo

By Sivan Rahav-Meir

This year, I received this incredible photo on WhatsApp, adding even more depth and meaning to the mitzvot of Purim:

The photo was taken during Purim in the Holocaust, March 1945. A group of Jewish American soldiers arrived at the vacation home of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi regime’s Minister of Propaganda.

This was a grand, historic castle where the Goebbels family used to vacation. The place was filled with swastikas, and a massive portrait of Hitler hung on the wall. And in what had once been the family’s retreat, this symbolic moment took place—something no filmmaker could have scripted:

Jewish soldiers, fighting against absolute evil, pausing to read Megillas Esther and celebrate Purim—the holiday that commemorates an attempt to annihilate us, and the Jewish triumph over total evil.

Goebbels was the minister who prepared public opinion for the “Final Solution.” Like Haman in the Megillah, who convinced King Achashverosh, he whispered into Hitler’s ear—and into the ears of the Nazi leadership—how to destroy and eradicate all Jews. It didn’t work. Not in the Megillah, not in the Holocaust, and not in our time.

The soldiers brought in an Aron Kodesh and a Torah scroll, laid a velvet Torah cover embroidered with a Star of David over the table, lit two candles, and held two prayer books. Then, they sanctified this defiled space with the ancient words of Megillas Esther: “For the Jews there was light and joy, gladness and honor.”

Shortly afterward, in April, Hitler committed suicide. Goebbels succeeded him but took his own life the next day along with his wife—after poisoning their six children with cyanide. Absolute evil was ultimately thrown into the dustbin of history.

And Goebbels’ house? A month later, hundreds of Jewish American soldiers turned that very hall into a dining room—and celebrated Pesach there.

May this soon be the fate of all the wicked in our time. Happy Purim!