Spiritual Jugular

 
  The enemies of the Jewish people from time immemorial have always known that the key to destroying us is to prevent the yeshivah student from studying Torah.  Even the Nazis understood this.  In a memorandum dated October 25, 1940 and dispatched to the Nazi district governors in occupied Poland, das Reichs sicherheits haupttamt (the Central Office of the German Security Forces) instructed them not to grant exit visas to Ostjuden (Eastern European Jews).  The reason behind this order is clearly spelled out:  The Nazis feared that because of they “Orthodoxen einstellung” (Orthodoxy) these Ostjuden would provide “die Rabbiner and Talmud lehrer” (the rabbis and teachers of the Talmud) who would create “die geistege Erneuerung” (the spiritual regeneration) of the Jews in America and throughout the world.
    Whoever the Germans would fail to kill physically they sought to annihilate spiritually.

Excerpt from: The Torah Treasury, pg. 58