Ignaz Maybaum

Born in Vienna, Ignaz Maybaum was a rabbi and influential theologian of post-Holocaust thought. A disciple of the philosopher Franz Rosenzweig, Maybaum received his rabbinical ordination in 1926. In 1935, he was arrested by the Gestapo and spent several weeks in prison, which led him to emigrate to the United Kingdom. He is best known for his controversial contributions to post-Holocaust theology. In his most widely read work, The Face of God after Auschwitz (1965), Maybaum theorized the Holocaust as a sign of the Jewish people’s covenant with God, arguing that the Divine used European Jews as a sacrificial atonement for the sins of the rest of the world.