EightyYears Since Kristallnacht

Glimpses of life in Budapest post WWII

Source

פיקטשער אוו די דעי - הרב ניסן מאנגעל האט זיי איבערגעלעבט

See Story Here

"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.

Israel Zupnick's desperate effort to save his wife and children during WW2

Zupnick was a businessman from Czechoslovakia who was here in the US when the war broke out. He was thus stuck here. He had applied for visas for all of them to emigrate in November of '41 but Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, '41) kept them from being delivered. The folder is full of cables and letters trying to get any help he could. Ultimately he learned that they all perished, hy"D. He remarried but died childless. In between he helped build many of the Satmar Institutions in the US, as well as Charedi Eda Chareidis mosdos in Eretz Yisroel.

  wrb0781 by Hirshel Tzig on Scribd

Box.com link for non-Scribd users

Harper's Magazine - Warsaw Ghetto Revolt, 1943

Talk of Jews who were loyal to Poland and who felt part of its history and culture. They were tired of being called aliens. Tired of being helpless and pitied. If they were going to die they would do it as heroes, after fighting to the last breath. That would revive the self-respect and dignity of a people humiliated throughout the millenia. Nice of the Poles in exile to finally come through with some arms.

Box.com Link

הרה"ק ר' אברהם יעקב פרידמאן הי"ד מבאיאן-לעמבערג: יארצייט ב' אלול

בחנוכת הבית של ישיבת חכמי לובלין בשנת תר"צ, כמדומני
 מימין אדמו"ר מסאדיגורא-פשעמישל זצ"ל, רבינו הי"ד, בן אחיו אדמו"ר הגאון ר' משה'ניו מבאיאן-קראקא - שהיארצייט שלו חל ביום ג' אלול ושימש כנשיא הישיבה הנ"ל, והרה"ק ר' דוד מסאכאטשאוו - השם ינקום דמם 

It takes work and concentration, and maybe even an accounting degree, to keep track of all the Ruzhiner Rebbes before the war. Like to know that Reb Moshe'nyu, despite being a Boyaner Rebbe, was not a Boyaner Eynikel. He was a Husyatiner who married a Boyaner, and was Reb Menachem Nochum, son of Reb Yitzchok's son-in-law. In other words he was the Lemberger's nephew. Today, after Hitler ימ"ש was done, that job is - unfortunately - alot easier. RAYF was the third son of the holy Pachad Yitzchok of Boyan, grandson of the holy Ruzhiner. RAYF was a Karliner and Tchernobler eynikel as well, his mother being the daugter of Reb Yochentshe Rachmistrivker, and his grandmother, the wife of Reb Avrohom Yaakov Sadigerrer the daughter of Beis Aron. He was known as a great Ohev Yisroel and Baal Tzedokoh where no Jew was turned away empty-handed. A short biography of RAYF can be found in אלה אזכרה ח"ג pages 28-31.

 הי"ד

Shanghai's Jewish Miracle

See HERE

סאטמארער (אהרונים) גליון באשולדיגט אגוה"ר און אגודת ישראל אין פארשווייגן נאצישע שחיטות און נישט וועלן ראטעווען אידן

און זיי נוצען אלץ ראי'ה אן "אגודיסטישע" רב פון וויען-טאראנטא, הרב שמעון פירסט ז"ל. כ'ווייס נישט ווער דער גרינבוים איז. חפשתי ולא מצאתי דער ספר "עיר הגולה" פון הרב פירסט, אזוי ארום אז ס'איז שווער צו וויסען צו ער זאגט טאקע אזוי אין זיין ספר, צו איז דאס סתם א בלבול. ס'איז שווער צו גלייבען אז ער שרייבט אזוי, ווייל אינעם זעלבן מחבר'ס ספרים האט ער הסכמות פון הגאון ר' משה פיינשטיין זצ"ל, דער נשיא פון אגודת הרבנים... קומט אויס אזוי: דער סאטמאר רב האט כידוע באשולדיגט די ציונים אין וועלן אז מ'זאל אויסהרגענען אייראפעישען אידנטום "כי רק בדם יהי' לנו הארץ," דאס ווייסט יעדער בחור אין סאטמאר. עד היום האט מען אבער געמיינט אז די אגודה, ובראשם דער סאטמאר רב'ס ידיד נאמן הרב אהרן קטלר, האט יא געטוהן וואס נאר זיי האבען געקענט. געראטעוועט ישיבה בחורים, רבנים, און ראשי ישיבה. היינט אבער זעהט מען אז דאס וואס דער רבי ז"ל האט געזאגט אז "ציוניסטן, מזרחיסטן, אגודיסטן ימש"ו" איז נישט סתם א הלצה בעלמא, נאר די אגודה איז געווען בדעה אחת מיט די ציונים און האט אויך נישט געוואלט ראטעווען אידן! זיי האבען נאר געוואלט געלט און כבוד, און ווען נישט דער בחור'ל וואס בלאנדזשעט אריין אינעם ביורא פון אגוה"ר וואלט מען די הונדערט טויזנט טאלער נישט צונויפגעקליבען און מ'וואלט די מענטשען נישט געראטעוועט. זעהט די פערטער שטיקל, "די אגודה האט אויך פארשוויגן" ותמצא נחת. אוי לנו אז אזוי איז מען מחנך אינגע אידישע קינדער, און אוי להם לאחיי ורעיי חסידי ותלמידי סאטמאר אז ביי די אלטע לייט ווערט מקויים דער מאמר חז"ל זקני ע"ה כל זמן שמזקינין דעתן מטורפת עליהן.

Kamenets-Podolsk Massacre and Horav Boruch Rabinovitch's Testimony in יד-ושם

Photo source

by Mark H. David

Hirshel: I was surprised by your article here. I have been studying off and on for years the Kamenets-Podolsk massacre of Jews in 1941, of which Horav Boruch Rabinovitch is thought to have been one of the few who were actually saved through somewhat official channels. This is documented briefly in a non-obscure book, Sefer Marmarosh, which is also online now I read your article somewhat superficially, so I apologize in advance if I missed anything. But I found some pretty major inaccuracies.Thought I should try sending you two examples, see if any response comes, and what could be done.If no response, I’ll just have to ignore it.If there’s interest, I could try to work with you to improve this. You say: He was rounded up with thousands of other Polish and Foreign Nationals and delivered over the border to Kamenetz-Podolsk in the Ukraine. Literally just dumped there. Only by a sheer miracle was he rescued from the massacres that the bastard Ukrainians carried out on would when the Nazis overran the Ukraine in the summer of '41. You say: Truth be told, there isn't much information out there about RBR's wartime activities. They say that he wrote a book and still saw it published right before his passing on Chanukah 5758. Before that time he wouldn't discuss what he did.


On (1), the Kamanets-Podolsk massacre of the Jews deported from Hungary is generally not very well known by the average man in the street, but there has been plenty of studies of it.  Every study says the same thing: these Jews were brought there as prisoners of joint German-Hungarian military teams. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website has one variant of the story, and I’m sure a very well researched one. I’m not aware of any account that has the Jews massacred directly or primarily by Ukrainians. At worst Ukrainians may have been aids and helpers of the killers, but not the killers themselves.Note that there are obviously numerous massacres by Ukrainians of Jews, both before and during the Holocaust. I’m not interested in making up new ones, and I am interested in having historical events conveyed in accord with facts as they are actually known, and that is the reason to bring this to your attention.Note, too, that there’s no account of Jews “literally” being dumped in this area.  They were under military guard the whole time.Also, this is generally considered to have been the first mass-killing of Jews by German milltary (SS), and is considered a precursor to the Babi-Yar massacre, which is much-better known and with many more estimated victims, which happened fairly soon afterwards in the same year (1941).

 Further on (1), the article in Sefer Marmarosh specifically states that the Rabbi was one person who was actually saved through “shtadlones” (intercession, mediation). It is surprising to simply refer to this as a “sheer miracle”. What justifies calling this a miracle There were people who crawled out of pits, from under dead bodies, missed by bullets in the mass killings that were the Kamenets-Podolsk massacre; I can see someone calling such cases of survival to be miraculous, and I wonder how a negotiated release through shtadlones rises to that level. Also, note that most of the people deported were actually born in the region from which they were being deported, not from Poland, but they just couldn’t find their papers: nobody had any papers. It was just arbitrary. I didn’t know the part about the rabbi being actually a Polish national, but in most cases the people deported were born there, with brothers, sisters, parents, etc., who were not deported. It was very random. Finally, on (2), the account in Sefer Marmarosh specifically states that the Rabbi gave testimony about the whole experience at Yad Vashem, and it was recorded and transcribed. I would really like to hear and read a transcript of this testimony. I hope to find it some day. In that testimony, according to Sefer Marmarosh, the Rabbi gives his opinion that the Nazis intentionally conducted the massacre openly as a way to test out the theory that the Allies would not react. I’ll put the Sefer Marmarosh account at the end. It’s in Yiddish.  Thanks for listening,

דער ערשטע און גרעסטער מאסן־מארד איז דורכגעפירט געװארן אין 27־סטן און 28-סטן אויגוסט 1941 - ד' באלול תש״א - נעבן קאמענעץ־פאדאלסק. אין יענע צוויי טעג זענען 23,600 אידן דארט דערמארדעט געווארן, מערהייט 14,000 - 16,000 אונגארישע, די אנדערע ארטיקע. ווי עם שטרייכן די שואה־פארשערס איז די קאמינעץ־פאדאלסקער שחיטה געווען די ערשטע פון נאצישער "ענטגילטיקער לעזונג" װעמנס קרבנות עס זענען דערגאנגען צו די זיבן ציפערן. ווי עם גיבן איבר עדות וואס האבן צוגעזען די דאזיקע מאסן־שחיטה, האבן די דורכפירער אירע זיך נישט געמיט צו באהאלטן זייערע מעשים פון דער־־ארטיקער באפעלקערונגדער. מונקאטשער רבי הרב ברוך ראבינאוויטש וואס אויך איז געווען צווישן די דעפארטירטע און דורך שטארקער שתדלנות האט מען אים צוריקגעברענגט קיין אונגארן, האט דערציילט פאר אן אינטערוויוער פון "יד ושם" זיין יסורים-וועג. זיינע רייד זענען רעקארדירט און פארשריבן געווארן ווערן אפגעהיט אין ארכיוו פון דער דאזיקער אינסטיטוציע .03/3822 הרב ראבינאוויטש דריקט אין זיי אויס זיין סברא, אז מיט כוונה האבען די נאצים נישט פארבארגן זייערע מעשים כדי אויסצופרואוון און זען ווי אזוי עם וועלן רעאגירן די פארבינדעטע מלוכות און אז קיין רעאגרוגג איז נישט געקומען - ווי מיר אלע ווייסן. האבן דערפון רוצחים־פירערס פארשטאנען - און ליידער מיט רעכט - אז אידיש בלוט איז הפקר. קיינער וועט זיך פאר דעם נישט אננעמען און קיינער וועט נישט מאנען דערפאר. די אמינירטע דורכצופירן שחיטה איבער אידן האבן מיט מוט און חשק פארגעזעצט דעם מארד לויט דעם סיסטעמאטישן פלאן פון דער ״ענדגילטיקער לייזונג״

The wartime activities of the Munkacser Rov, Reb Barukh Rabinowicz, זצ"ל

From YU's Kol HaMevaser. By Akiva Weisinger

די ווארשעווער גורארי' משפחה אינעם געטא אויפשטאנד

משפחה חבדית במרד גטו וורשה

Box.com link for non-Scribd users

...את אחי אנכי מבקש

HT: Chakira Blog I would think that these thoughts crossed the mind of these Yidden rounded up for forced labor in 1939. How appropriate that I was sent this picture on this week, where יוסף הצדיק utters these same words.

Why did Agudath Israel not want to be part of the Jewish Welfare Board?

The following letters give us a glimpse into some of the happenings in the Orthodox Jewish world at the outset of WW2. The attack on Pearl Harbor had yet to happen, but there was talk of War, and as such the needs of the soldiers had to be met. Rabbi Leo Jung was Orthodox, as you all know, as was Rabbi Herbert Goldstein, so this wasn't a Stephen Wise we were dealing with. Did Reb Mike not believe that they could handle the needs of Jewish soldiers properly? It seems a bit odd that he would want to go around them just because. I'm sure a frumme bochur in the army could get the tefillin and heter to not use a razor through the JWB just as much as through the AI. And I doubt that the latter would have more pull than the JWB, even of they were more sympathetic to a frummere bochur's needs. Maybe you all can fill in the details. Some of us are losing sleep over this. The letter seems to be signed by Rabbi David de Sola Pool, Rabbi of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue in NYC and a musmach of the Hildesheimer Seminary. Reading between the lines WILL show you a bit of the "talking down" that Reb Mike gets from RDdLSP, and gives you a general idea of what the Yekkes thought of the Agudists...

  

Via Ancestory.com

א מופת פון פריערדיקען רבי'ן - Rabbi J.J. Hecht's Yohrtzeit today

Rabbi Hecht's untimely  - so to speak - passing on this day in 5750 shocked us all. See how he tells the story of he was saved from the draft during WW2 by a brochoh from the Frierdige Rebbe of Lubavitch. He also goes on to say that by extension every other Rabbi in the USA was thus exempt... And yes, you guys who know who you are can get in your daily fill of Lubavitch bashing by listening to the last 2 minutes of his speech here, which pertains to the story of ה' טבת. What a fiery speaker!

Remember the Arizona! (Pearl Harbor - שבעים שנה)

I think days like these are important to remember.

PicturesOfTheDay

 
Pictured: Shoproner Rov - Reb Shimon Yisroel Posen (r, with Rabbinic, flat Beaver Hat) & and (hidden) Rav Yisroel וועלץ (l) ראב"ד דקה"י בודאפעסט, and later in Yerushalayim. Center, with uniform - Rabbi Shenkelevsky from the Joint; Standing First on the left - Reb Shemtov Meyer - Mechutin to the Tosher Rebbe, father of the Lizhensker Rebbe of Monsey.. The Two young men Standing in the center wearing caps are children of the Shoproner Rov. We need to identify the man with the Platchiker Biber hat next to Rav Woltz.

 Seated right is the Shoproner Rov, left is Rav Yisroel Woltz of Budapest, zt"l. Child standing First to the left - Reb Avraham Chaim Spitzer. Seated second to the left is Reb Avraham Steinmetz, Sitting 2nd from the right is Reb Asher Zelig Steinmetz. Man sitting First left is also seen in the First picture, albeit without his hat. If you see other people in the picture that you can name, please do so in the comments. I should put a watermark on these never-before-seen pictures, but who has time? and why should I keep them from stealing it? let them enjoy.

?האלו? ווארשא?פארברענט

Aaron Zeitlin's masterpiece accompanied by vintage footage of pre-WW2 Warsaw, which is no more... Aaron was the son of Hillel Zeitlin, HaYaD, and came to America in March of 1939. The poem was penned in 1945.

Text of poem can be found here

Pleading for Help, 1943

From Here

The man in the video, standing next to Rav Lazer Silver and speaking the king's English is Rabbi Zev Gold. Schneur has told us much about Rabbi Gold, how he founded the Yeshiva Torah VoDa'as and named it after the famous Yeshiva that Rav Reines founded in Lida. The idea was that it be like its namesake, a place where Torah and, lehavdil, secular subjects were taught. The Yeshiva may have been that, and it still is, with many of the Touro studenten coming from Yeshiva Torah VoDa'ath, because they allow the bachurim to attend, but I don't think that this is what Rabbi Gold had in mind. Reb Shraga Feivel - whose Yohrtzeit is tomorrow - changed the course, him and R' Binyomin Wilhelm. I guess Rabbi Gold spoke the best English in the crowd, and the monocle he wore sure made an impression. I'm kidding. Visible in the picture preceding the moving picture is R' Avrohom Kalmanovich, Rav of Tiktin and President of the Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn, as well as the Bostoner Rebbe, R' Levi Yitzchok, in row 2, with the very Rabbinic hat. There are more, but I can't think of the names now. Maybe a Levovitz too. The Modzitzer Rebbe was there too. Much was made about the Lubavitcher Rebbe not traveling to that march on Washington, as if to say that he didn't care about the well being of his brothers and sisters in Occupied Europe. עפרא לפומיה of all those who say that. The guy in row 2 that gets annoyed from a hand on his shoulder and some fidgeting behind him obviously didn't realize the importance of the occasion if he could be disturbed by a trivial thing like that...

תורה ומדע - תורה עם דר"א in Di Bukovina (why not us?)

(a Kol Koreh for the Sereter Trade School)

A good friend of the blog sent us this flyer for a trade school, today's version of IDT, or The Lander Beis HaMedrash (Touro College) that was set up by the late Sereter Rebbe, Reb Burech'l Hager, in Seret, Bukovina before WW2. He asked the question: "How is it different than what Dr. Lander instituted, where students learned half a day and learned a trade the other half, so that they could feed their families once they got married? I have no real answer for him. As many of you know, I myself went and learned a trade after I was married, so that I could feed my family - not that it worked out so great... I never really asked anybody of authority if I should go and do it, I just did. We've discussed this before, don't be so surprised. Maybe what upset some people was that Touro caters to bachurim who should otherwise be learning. In that case so did this Yeshiva; they weren't catering to married men back then, you can be sure of that. So what else can we say is the difference between back and then and today? There are probably several, both, geographic, time period and personality, as well as the people involved today and in der alter heim. Allow me to explain:

Geography is important here for several reasons. Bukovina was a wasteland by that time, as far as Yiddishkeit was concerned. The youth was going downhill fast. His own father, the Rebbe der Ahavas Yisrool left Vizhnitz, Bukovina during WW1 never to return. He said he couldn't bear to watch the youth go astray. He said he did it to save his own children... Not every bachur went to Yeshiva in those parts, not by a long shot, so any one that would come and learn for a half day was a big deal already. The fact that he worked for half a day and was taught by a G-d fearing Jew was a bonus, they were saving lives by having such a Yeshiva. These boys were also needed at home, to work in the fields or to do other work so to help feed the rest of the family, who might have otherwise starved. (Not that today is any different - many families would do alot better if the older boys went to work and helped with the bills, especially some of the boys who are wasting their time in Yeshivos... There, I go again, destroying my own point...) So to compare Bukovina, 1938 to Flatbush, 2009 may be a bit disingenuous. Or at least that's what they'll have you believe. The "time period" difference that we mentioned can be closely related to the "geography" issue, being that the time period has lots to do with the geography... The geography of Bukovina is what - you might say - made Bukovina into what it became, a place of Haskoloh and the abandonment of traditional Judaism en masse. Bukovina was not always that way, it boasted many great Tzaddikim and Rabbonim just a short time earlier, but the time period of post-WW1 was what destroyed it, much like in Poland, Lithuania and Russia.

Then there's the personality issue. The Sereter Rebbe was a gutter Yid who built Torah and made - or at least kept - hundreds of families into Shomrei Shabbos and Chassidishe Yidden. This was the case in Eretz Yisroel after WW2, and I'm sure he had done that in Bukovina, despite the fact that he didn't have all the mosdos that he ultimately built in Haifa. There was a nucleus in Seret that stayed frum despite all the hardships. Such a personality, with such Zchus Avos, has a very strong leg to stand on, no matter how revolutionary the idea that he proposes; (unless, of course, you're a Lubavitcher Rebbe...) So if the Sereter Rebbe wants to start a trade school and teach Bocherim how to earn a living, then so be it.But it's not just about the Sereter Rebbe. In Seret there was no Rosh Yeshiva who decided that he was the רשכבה"ג and that all must heed his words, like there was in Bnei Beraq. Heck, there wasn't even one in Vilna, Mir or Slabodka for that matter. All those Roshei Yeshiva, may they rest in peace, were concerned about their own talmidim and their own problems! So had Dr. Lander done this in Europe chances are that there would be little or no opposition to his school, not that the opposition accomplished much anyway. The place is packed with Chassidishe and Yeshivishe yungeleit and girls, and Lakewood even set one up in a nearby town... So there you have my 2 cents.

The Sereter Rebbe (r) at a simcha, possibly pre-WW2

But in the end it didn't matter much. Even if you had a parnosoh you were rounded up and sent to Transnistria and may have died on one of the Death Trains. Or if you were so lucky, you survived the trains but died later in some death camp... All Jews shared the same fate, no matter your level of observance, and no matter if you stayed away from Torah im Derech Eretz. The Bukoviner and Bessaraber Yidden may have borne the brunt of it all; their culture was totally wiped out, even more so than the Polish and Litvish. At least with the P&Ls the Hungarians rekindled that culture to the best of their abilities (where Litvishe are concerned) and some remnants of Poylishe Judentum remained, mostly from pre-war aliyah. But with the Bessaraber and Bukoviner it's GONE! Well, there was a quasi-renewal after the fall of the Soviet Union, when you could once again hear from an old man how he "iz illemoo'el gegunnen koyfen mutzes in peysikh," and how "er hut ul ding voos er durf..." So was the will of Hashem.

I hope the point was made.