Shema and the Holocaust

R' Tzvi Hirsch Meisels (1901-1974) remarked that during the Holocaust he heard Shema recited many times by Jews before being murdered. In fact, when Eichmann ysh”v was being led to his court case in Yerushalayim, he said that he knew how to say the pasuk Shema Yisrael because he heard it many thousands of times during the Holocaust when the Jews screamed it before they were killed Al Kidush Hashem.

In a speech R' Meisels delivered in the Addas Yisrael shul in London on February 15, 1946, he gave the following interpretation of ים מדבר מתוך האש-השמע עם קול אלה.

He explained it in reference to the Holocaust as referring to Shema (השמע) recited by a nation calling out to Hashem (ים מדבר-עם קול אלה) from within the flames (מתוך האש).