Once We Were Brothers

In response to Catherine’s question about maintaining faith in God in the wake of the Holocaust, Ben says, “That’s a question I’ve pondered all my life, as has every person affected by incomprehensible tragedy” (138). The question speaks to broader issues surrounding monotheistic religions over why a God who is believed to be omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent would allow so much injustice and suffering in the world. Although Ben is conscious of the theological uncertainties and contradictions laid bare by the Holocaust, he is steadfast in his answer to this question: “He was there, Catherine, weeping” (138).

To justify this conclusion, Ben looks to the idea of free will put forth in Deuteronomy:

“When Moses called upon the heads of all the tribes, the elders and the officers, and all the people to stand and receive God’s laws, they learned that God had set before them life and good or death and evil. They were told they had the choice. They were told to choose good and not evil, but they were given the choice” (138).

That raises the question of why God did not intervene to stop these evil men who, in Ben’s words, “had become infused of the devil” (139).