The following story was related by the Bluzhover Rebbe, Rabbi Yisrael Spira, of blessed memory:
Every morning the Germans, may their name be erased, would bring us from the concentration camp to the factory, where we worked until late at night. The food they gave us was inadequate and barely edible. Many people became malnourished and found it difficult to stand. But the Germans were only interested in production, and woe to anyone who couldn't keep up.
Our lives were so irrational and absurd that they did not leave room for contemplation. Everyone just concentrated on surviving another day. In the mornings we wished it were the previous evening, and in the evenings we pined for the morning.
One day at work a woman, a forced laborer like myself, came over to where I stood. She walked very slowly and carefully so as not to draw the Germans' attention. I could see she was young, but in dreadful physical condition. The woman glanced around to make sure no one was watching; shirking off for even a moment was reason enough to be shot.
"Rebbe!" she whispered in my ear. The woman was clearly desperate. "Do you have a knife?"
I grasped her meaning and understood the great responsibility that had been entrusted to me. "My daughter," I said to her, "do not harm yourself. I know that your life is harder to bear than death, but it is forbidden to abandon hope. Every moment we must pray to G-d for a better future."
The woman gave me a piercing look. "A knife, Rebbe," she said. "I need a knife and I need it quickly, before it's too late."
I could see that she was determined, yet I hoped to dissuade her. "Listen to me," I said more severely. "We are not allowed to take a life, even our own." With every word the woman's face grew more despairing. "G-d gives us life, and only He can take it from us."
"A knife!" the woman insisted. "That's all I ask of you - a knife!" She kept repeating the word as if it were a magical incantation.
At that moment a German soldier noticed us. The woman paled, and I feared for both our lives.
"What are you doing there, you cursed Jew?" the Nazi shouted at her. When she did not answer he turned to me. "What did she want from you?" he yelled. I, too, remained silent.
The woman suddenly spoke up. "I asked him for a knife."
