Introduction
As a Jewish person, I grew up in the dark shadow cast by the
Holocaust. My grandparents were pre-Holocaust European
Jewish immigrants to the United States. Like so many others, my
grandparents never talked about those tragic days. They did not
walk through it personally, but knew a lot more than they would
ever tell us. Perhaps they wanted to spare us and themselves
from the horrific details of the darkest chapter in the story of our
Jewish people. I was raised with photographs of my aunts and
uncles that I would never meet because the died in the Holocaust.
As a Messianic Jew, I wondered if my relatives who lost their lives
in the midst of Nazi terror ever heard of God’s grace through
Jesus the Messiah—either before or during the days of the
Shoah (Holocaust). Knowing the answer to this question became
somewhat of an obsession for me over the years.
I began to wonder if there were instances of God’s presence
during the Holocaust. As the president of Chosen People
Ministries, with access to our archives reaching all the way back
to 1894, I knew that our Mission had a significant ministry during
those desperate days. I began looking through these documents
to try and discover what transpired through our ministries in
Europe at that time.
I was astounded by what I found. I want to share these amazing
accounts of grace and mercy with you. There are so many stories of
how our ministry served Jewish people during the dark days of the
Holocaust. The following pages contain some of the most poignant
articles that we have compiled for you to read and reflect upon.
This Chosen People Ministries publication reflects the writings
of Joseph Hoffman Cohn, the son of our founder, Rabbi Leopold