ABSTRACT
An American Jewish chaplain who attended the first post-Holocaust memorial Yizkor service on the festival of Shavuot in a Bavarian displaced persons camp observed that the officiating rabbi, himself bereaved, instead of comforting the survivors over their losses, ''Observe the Sabbath". Notwithstanding the importance of the ethical commandments, and many survivors themselves affirm that moral considerations motivate ritual behavior, the Jew is quite obviously identifiable, and judged "religious," by the doctrinal or ritual commandments he or she observes, rather than the ethical norms. The nonobservant survivor was one who characterized himself or herself as having kept no more than five of the most universally observed Jewish religious practices. When a survivor registered modifications in religious behavior due to the Holocaust there is of course no way of knowing whether the changes might not have come about at a later date in any event. The autobiographical statements provide reasons survivors offered for having been affected in their religious behavior by Holocaust.
