WI: Holocaust Messiah?

[HueyLong]

Inspired by this thread. If this offends, I apologize. I understand it is a touchy subject for AH.

Basically, WI, during WWII, an anonymous Jew (or maybe a German Christian) begins spreading the idea that the Messiah has arisen again and it catche son in western papers and underground papers across Europe? Basically, as an inspirational story, and as a polemic against the Nazis.

"The Messiah, Our Lord and Shepherd, is, according to the Nazis, an untermensch destined for termination"

"Jesus is with Germany. In the camps, but with Germany nonetheless."

What effects does this have on the morale of the war and its survivors, and on post-War Christianity and Judaism? Does it give denial circles more fuel? What does it change of the view of the Holocaust?

[Max Sinister]

Sounds as if things would become confusing...

One thing that comes to my mind: A KZ survivor wrote about the KZs that "there were people doing good things, even though no living saints (although those would've been needed!)". Just to think about.

[Melvin Loh]

Well, could a guy like Mordechai Anielewicz or Isaac Zuckerman, had either of them been more devoutly Jewish, have stepped into fulfilling such a role ?

In my mind, I can't help but compare such a Holocaust Messiah to native American millenialist prophets like Tecumseh's brother Tenskawatawa, or Wovoka and the Ghost Dance movement during the 1880s/90s.

[Admiral Matt]

You mean noble, admirable, and utterly, utterly hopeless?

[Taninniver]

Well it really depends, I think. Is this "Messiah" an actual person, or just a make-believe invented by whoever started these rumors in the first place (I assume setting himself up as the Messiah's prophet)?

[HueyLong]

Originally Posted by Taninniver

Well it really depends, I think. Is this "Messiah" an actual person, or just a make-believe invented by whoever started these rumors in the first place (I assume setting himself up as the Messiah's prophet)?

A make-believe, I think, although I wouldn't doubt that people would contest that to this very day (Was he writing about a real person? Was it just a piece of propaganda? What of the various people who claimed to be the subject of his writings? etc....) Obviously, his "prophet" would need to be anonymous.

I don't really think anyone would stand up and claim to be the Messiah during the war (maybe afterwards they would posit themselves or candidates), as they would likely be killed or targetted fairly quickly. And, it helps the plausibility of their claims to an extent by obscuring the identity of the Messiah, and making it harder to disprove that there was a Messiah amongst the Jews of the Holocaust.