"Regards" from Oswiecim - אושפיצין

In the final photo - aptly so - we see the Jews being driven out of Oswiecim to one of the Ghettos mentioned in the caption. The neighbors are watching from the windows, they seem to be OK with it, we can maybe even detect a smile on some faces. If you'll look at the building on the left you'll see a sign for a bicycle shop, with the name Izak Hutterer. Some of you may have heard of the famous Bobover Chossid Reb Shaul Hutterer. He lived in Antwerp after the war and passed away not so long ago. He would come to NY to daven for the amud in the Bobover shul. He was from Katowiec but he had an uncle in Ushpitzin by the name of Yitzchok. I would assume this was his shop.

....רבי יצחק גרודז'ינסקי חוזר להימים ההם

Most bochurim who ever opened a קובץ שיעורים, even if only by mistake, couldn't help but read the fascinating תולדות, or Hakdomoh, written by his son, the late Reb Simcha Wasserman. The story of the passing of Reb Elchonon הי"ד al kiddush haShem is one that is better than most mussar seforim, so to speak. If you haven't yet, take a few moments in the future to do so. With him in the Ghetto, and maybe also in the same hiding place, was the Mashgiach of Slabodka, Harav Avrohom Grodzinski, הי"ד, brother in lw of Reb Yaakov Kamenetzki; they were both married to daughters of Reb Bere Hirsh Heller. Reb Avrohom was not taken to be killed that day, being that he was hiding in the attic. His son Reb Yitzchok, zol gezunt zein, recounts the story of what happened on that terrible day. Yud Aleph Tammuz marks 75 years since REW was murdered.

From the Hebrew Yated Ne'eman.

  הרב_גרודזינסקי_בעדות_נדירה_על_מר by Hirshel Tzig on Scribd

תודה להמשלח

Was Telshe in the US supposed to be a YU at first?

A kind and devoted reader sends us this letter, written by Reb Elya Meir to Reb Lozer (Lazer) Levi in the fall of 1941/ Aseres Yemei Tshuveh 5702. REMB thanks him for his new year's wishes and informs him of his plans to re-establish the Yeshiva in Cleveland, where his (then) brother-in-law Reb Mottel Katz is now, trying to organize the logistics. (They had no real idea as to what was happening in Telshe, that by then the Yeshiva and their familes had been murdered.) Said reader seems to think that R' Elya Meir wanted to open a sort of "competitive Yeshiva to YU," maybe thinking that only that would work in the US, or that yungeleit would never join a system that only pays the minimum kolel wage. Meaning a Yeshiva that allows the yungeleit to go out into the world after some time at the Yeshiva, and thus have enough to be מפרנס their families בכבוד.

to Yankel: with Love

This goes out to my friend, the commenter Yankel, who said things about what defines a true Gadol B'Yisroel. Maybe this will enlighten him a bit. In truth we can all learn from this.
Direct Link for non-Scribd users

  Here's my story: 12-6-14

In Elul 1941 RYDS and RAK sat on the "Moetzes" together

The wording is a bit different, but it looks like it's the forerunner to the current Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of the Agudas Yisroel. Reb Moshe Soloveitchik had passed away a few months earlier, in Shvat of that year, and his son was asked to join the newly formed Rabbinic body. I do not know how long he sat on the Moetzes, conventional wisdom u\likes to use WW2 or the creation of the State of Israel as the date that he switched from the Agudah to the Mizrachi. So it's not just the Chinuch Atzmai and Torah UMesorah dinners that they sat together... But maybe we can be "מלמד זכות" on RAK that he since he had just arrived to the States from the European inferno that he didn't want to rock the boat yet...

But I can dream, can't I?

Remember the Arizona! (Pearl Harbor - שבעים שנה)

I think days like these are important to remember.