And then Hitler marched into Poland. Why did he march into other countries? Because in those places the Am Yisroel had forsaken the Torah. Even those who kept Shabbos, they already were poisoned and they despised the Torah. Who were their leaders? They looked up to the atheists! Who got all the votes in Poland when the Jews voted for leaders? All the votes were given either to the Bundists, that’s the radical socialists, or they were given to the radical Zionists. The Zionists in Europe were radical atheists, and they were the ones who had the newspapers and the big organizations.
And even the Jewish masses, those who still kept kashrus and Shabbos, but inwardly they were rotten through and through. There still remained a small island, the Torah World – wonderful yeshivos. But they were a tiny minority because they had already been abandoned by the people. The heart of the people was already in the hands of the misleaders. And these misleaders didn’t say, “Look at what Hitler is doing! It’s time to do teshuva.” The Chofetz Chaim zichrono l’vracha said it; Rav Elchonon Wasserman said it, “Do teshuva,” but who listened to them?!
