Why this Auschwitz survivor never had children: “When you don’t have faith, pray for the faith to have faith”
The Daily Article
The Denison Forum
4.9 • 576 Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
Teresa Regula arrived at Auschwitz as a sixteen-year-old. Speaking ahead of yesterday’s eightieth anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation by Soviet troops, she said: “When I returned (from the camp), I thought, ‘I’m never going to have children—ever.’ If they had to go through even a fraction of what I went through, I didn’t want that.” Though she later married, she has remained childless all her life. I would imagine that many of Hitler’s Jewish victims knew Psalm 22, David’s famous prayer of lament. David suffered in a prophetic parallel to Jesus’ own suffering on the cross, but neither lost their faith as their torment endured. Now comes the hard question: What do we do when God does not deliver us?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Greetings on this Tuesday, January the 28th, 2025. Welcome to the Daily Article podcast. I'm Chris Elkins, |
| 0:11.1 | narrating today's daily article written by Denison Forum co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jim Denison. |
| 0:19.2 | Teresa Regula arrived at Auschwitz as a 16-year-old. |
| 0:23.5 | Once a healthy child, she contracted chicken pox, measles, and scarlet fever in the horrific |
| 0:30.2 | Nazi concentration camp. |
| 0:32.0 | Speaking ahead of yesterday's 80th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation by Soviet troops, she said, |
| 0:38.3 | when I returned from the camp, I thought, I'm never going to have children ever. |
| 0:44.3 | If they are going to go through even a fraction of what I went through, I didn't want that. |
| 0:49.3 | Though she later married, she has remained childless all her life. |
| 0:53.3 | Having visited the Holocaust Museum in Israel and several U.S. cities over the years, |
| 0:58.0 | I know I cannot begin to imagine the horror of the atrocities inflicted on the Jewish people by the Nazis. |
| 1:05.0 | A million of them were murdered in Auschwitz, six million in total, a fourth of the victims were children. I would imagine |
| 1:13.3 | that many of Hitler's Jewish victims knew Psalm 22, David's famous prayer of lament. They, of all |
| 1:20.4 | people, would have the right to pray its opening words in verses 1 and 2, my God, my God, |
| 1:27.0 | why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me |
| 1:31.0 | from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, |
| 1:37.8 | but I find no rest. David goes on in this Psalm to describe his suffering in detail. From verse 7 and 8, |
| 1:45.1 | All who seek me mock me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusts in the |
| 1:51.2 | Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, for he delights in him. From verse 16, |
| 1:58.2 | they have pierced my hands and feet. Also verse 17, I can count all my bones. |
| 2:05.1 | They stare and gloat over me. And in verse 18, they divide my garments among them for my clothing, |
| 2:12.8 | they cast lots. And yet, we know from verses three and four that David refuses to abandon his belief in the goodness |
... |
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