How Boro Park Holocaust Survivor, R' Duvid Einhorn, Fasted Yom Kippur Of 1944

By Idy Perl

Ahead of Yom Kippur, BoroPark24 is gratefull to share a fascinating story from Reb Duvid Einhorn, a Boro Park resident and Holocaust survivor, recounting his Yom Kippur experience in 1944.

"I was in a work camp around six kilometers from Auschwitz,” Reb Duvid starts. “We worked very hard for 10-12 hours every single day, digging coal from the mines. On Erev Yom Kippur, I thought to myself, 'Yom Kippur is coming tonight, I want to fast. But how can I? I’ll lose the little strength I have left!’ I went over to a quiet corner in the side and davened for a few minutes, telling Hashem that I want to fast on Yom Kippur but don’t know how since I’ll have to work the entire day in the coal mine. I begged Hashem to give me the koach to be able to fast.”

Reb Duvid was still in his quiet corner a few minutes later when a truck full of heads of cabbage drove by around 50 meters from where he was sitting. A door on the truck opened, and the nes happened!

An entire head of cabbage fell out of the truck and landed right at his feet. 

“It was such a light in that dark place! I ate half of the cabbage then and saved the other half to break my fast on. Baruch Hashem I was zoche to fast on that Yom Kippur in the work camp,” he recounts with excitement.

“Since that year I have fasted every year on Yom Kippur. I can still taste the sweetness of that cabbage now.”

We wish Rabbi David many years of good health, and may he be able to fast this year, Yom Kippur 5785, and for many years to come. 

BoroPark24 wants to encourage Boro Park residents to take their children to hear from one of the last remnants of the previous generation and be inspired by his stories. Reb Duvid often sits on the bench at the corner of 13th Avenue and 46th Street.