Abomination of Desolation
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Shattered Dreams
Looking back on our youth, it appears to have been a fairy tale -- harmless, gay, and happy, with normal troubles and worries. It seems hard to realize now, that there was a time when people were at ease and at peace.
I remember the years before 1914. School with the usual liking and disliking of teachers, friendships, and occasional fights with fellow students. Never was the air filled with so much hatred and contempt, and with such a bloodthirsty desire to kill. Never was the earth as pregnant with the seed of destruction.
Yes, even before the years of war, there was some intolerance. As boys we had quarrels with some who believed in the superiority of their religion, but Jews could fight back and were not afraid to stand up and defend their creed. Children could avenge insults. Who expected from them, the love of enemies? It was too much -- we could pay ah eye for an eye, and school and state would exercise some justice, protecting us against unprovoked attacks. There was no fear in Jewish hearts. Altogether, our lives were balanced between happiness and depression. Life as we knew it, with work and vacation, with normal death and grief, was also filled with beauty and music, and love, and the opening of the eyes -- for the magnitude of God's creation.
The beginning of the downfall of European civilization came in 1914. A harsh voice called the boys from their schoolrooms to be drilled in the use of deadly weapons. It was a warm summer day with happy people on the streets and roads, thinking in terms of the sweet days of youth and protected old age. They were not so long ago - those days. The young boys could not believe that they would have to go into battle. War was something they knew from history, but could not come in the modem and civilized time in which they were living. It could not be possible that they should have to kill and murder people who never had done anyone ham1. How could they hate the English and French, they were not enemies? Something they did not understand had happened. Because of economic reasons, should nations be slaughtered?
From school into the army in gray cloth, high boots, out of the security of home, away from parents and loved ones, into the mud, into the fire of guns with other men, comrades in arms with men whom each had no more in common than with the Eskimo of the North.
The tragic years of 1914 - 1918: Death, destruction, burials, burning cities, whipped women and children, screaming men, blood, and torture. Men filled their pockets with gold from the sale of steel, iron, and gunpowder for murder and gain, exploiting the common people.
The downfall of the illustrious house of Hohenzollem came in 1918. The house that had reigned over a country and an empire for a thousand years was another chapter in the tragedy of mankind.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Dr. Henry Hillel was born in Germany in 1895. He was a brilliant surgeon, and not only had a private practice in a poor section of Berlin, but also owned a thriving hospital. 'Abomination of Desolation' is a true story of how he miraculously was able to escape the full wrath of Hitler. Arriving in America he was disheartened at the enmity that he had to overcome in his struggle to survive.
In 1914 the Good Doctor began keeping notes and journals about the happenings in his life. Prior to his death in 1984, he instructed his lovely wife Herta to make sure that after the demise of both of them, all his notes and journals were to be given to me to edit, revise and have published.
Herta passed away in December 1997, and even though I was given all his writings at that time, it wasn't until this past year I began compiling them. After 9-11, I realized how important it was to finish the manuscript. He saw many things happening in this country that had happened in Germany before Hitler took over. The Good Doctor's message reaches out from the grave to mankind pleading not to let history repeat itself in this great Country of America that he grew to love.
About the Author
Mrs. Helen I. Page met Henry and Herta Hillel in 1964 at the Warren Street Office of Syracuse Savings Bank. Over the years she grew to love and respect them. He was a brilliant and dedicated doctor and after he had a heart attack and had to give up his practice, she handled all personal, business, and financial affairs for them.
The Hillels supported Haddassah Hospital n/k/a Hadassah-Hebrew and also left them a good portion of their estate. Mrs. Page has set up a fund for Hadassah Hospital designating 25% of all royalties paid to her on the book. She has also designated funds to Israel My Glory and Youth for Christ Lighthouse Ministries.