Numerous commentators have noted that there is an uncanny resemblance between the hanging of Haman’s ten sons in the Purim story and the Nuremberg Trials following the Second World War, when 10 Nazis warcriminals were hung for the crimes against humanity that they committed. Additionally, in the Purim story, the Talmud claims that Haman’s daughter committed suicide and thus didn’t need to get killed, while following the Nuremberg Trials, Herman Goring a well known Nazi cross dresser, also committed suicide and thus did not need to get hanged in Nuremberg. In fact, Julius Streicher, the Nazi editor of the anti-semitic Das Strumer newspaper, even proclaimed before he was hung, “Purim Fest 1946.”
Indeed, given all of these facts, it appears as if there is merit to the claim that there is a connection between the Purim story and the Nuremberg Trials. The Tanakh specifically states that Haman, the evil Persian Prime Minister who sought to annihilate the Jewish people, was an Agagite.Agag was the King of the Amalekites, implying that all ten sons of Haman were also part of the Amalek nation. Interestingly, the Vilna Gaon claimed that the Germans are also descendants of Amelek. Simon Dubnow, Arthur Szyk and Raul Hilberg also identified the Nazis, who also sought to eliminate the Jewish people, as being Amalekites. There are also Talmudic passages that mention a nation called Germania during the Roman Diaspora that seem prophetic in retrospect.
Yet, the numbers of people executed in both instances and the fact both the Nazis and Haman’s family are reported to be Amalekites are not the only similarities between the Purim Story and the Nuremberg Trials. According to Dr. Moshe Katz of the Hebrew University, “The ten sons of Haman had already been killed, why bother to hang them? In the writings of the Sages and the commentators, we find several ideas that could clarify this: On the word ‘tomorrow,’ in Esther’s request, the Sages comment: ‘There is a tomorrow that is now, and a tomorrow which is later.’ In other words, Esther was asking that the hanging of Haman’s ten sons not remain an isolated episode in history, but should recur in the future, as well.”
Fascinatingly, if one reads the Purim story in Hebrew, one will find that four Hebrews letters in the Megillat Esther that mention Haman’s sons who were hung utilizes small instead of big letters. Jewish sages have taught throughout the generations that whenever there is a variation in the size of a letter or spelling of a word, it has a specific meaning. Thus, if these four small Hebrew letters are used to represent the Jewish number for recording years, it states the year 5707 on the Jewish calendar. 5707 was the year on the Jewish calendar that the 10 Nazi war criminals were hung for committing genocide against the Jewish people.
As Dr. Moshe Katz proclaimed, “Since the trial was conducted by a military tribunal, the sentence handed down should have been death by firing squad, or by electric chair as practiced in the U.S.A. However, the court specifically prescribed hanging, exactly as in Esther’s original request: ‘. . . let Haman’s ten sons be hanged.’ Though doubts may linger about the connection between the Book of Esther and the Nazi war criminals, the condemned Julius Streicher certainly had none. Through some insight, Streicher appears to have grasped this link to Purim, as revealed by his final shout, with the noose about his neck, mere seconds before he was hanged.”
