During World War II my grandfather used to trade cigarettes with the German and Japanese Prisoners of War on his ship. He would give them cigarettes and they would give him whatever they had. He showed me some of the Nazi memorabilia that he acquired. We both agreed that it was gruesome but he couldn’t get rid of it.

One of the items in my grandfather’s collection is a belt that changed my life. The fact that it is a belt worn by a Nazi is fascinating enough for a young boy, but it was worse: On the belt buckle, right above the Swastika, are the words “Got Mit Unz” – “G-d is with us”.

Chutzpah is too nice of a word. I still can’t get my mind around the fact that those sadistic and subhuman Nazis had the stupidity to entertain the idea that G-d was somehow on their side. May their name be obliterated forever.

Earlier this week I attended the Yom Hashoah event and had the privilege of hearing a lecture from a holocaust survivor named Werner Reich. Warner Reich remembered the belt buckle. He was a short eight year old when he went to Auschwitz and it was at his eye level.

Warner recalled being shocked by the belt buckle. “G-d’s with you!? G-d’s with us!”, he thought. “We are the ones who study G-d’s Torah and keep his laws. We don’t kill, we don’t steal, and we don’t covet. We honor the Shabbos and we dedicate our lives to representing G-d. G-d is with us!”

Warner was a tiny, scared, hungry, undressed orphan who had just come off of three days in a cattle car. He was looking at a well dressed and powerful officer with a highly polished belt buckle. But he knew that G-d was with him and not with the enemy.

We will never ever have to deal with anything even remotely close to what Warner Reich dealt with and survived. We will never ever have to deal with the indignities that Warner Reich suffered. But we will have challenges in your life. Some of those challenges will be formidable. Some will make us lose sleep and lose confidence. Some will make us scared.

G-d is with us. We walk the paths of men and women who live with G-d. And when you live with G-d you can live with anything.

It’s not that simple though. We are going to need to make Torah integral to our lives. We are going to need to allow the Torah to form who we are and how we act and how we react and what we believe in and how we live.

It’s not just our Torah, it’s G-d’s Torah. It’s the Torah that makes us special and able to face anybody and anything that dares to disparage our uniqueness.

May G-d be with us.

(Originally shared at the Bar Mitzvah of Yitzi Litt. Mazal Tov!)