(Continued from last week)
Against the expectations of Captain Shtaier, it was in the Hungarian areas through which he passed, and not in the German occupied territories that his scheme of “transporting prisoners” was in great danger of being discovered.
In the Hungarian border town of Uzhok, Hungarian policemen sought to interrogate the “Russian prisoners” because they doubted the statements that Captain Shtaier made about them. At the insistence of Captain Shtaier, the squad commandant told the officers to leave the prisoners’ alone and let them pass. However Captain Shtaier was still worried. He feared that the policemen would be able to convince the commandant that their suspicions were justified, and that the latter would then alarm the next military checkpost. So he told his driver to get off the road into an adjacent potato field and changed the license plate of the vehicle.
Sometimes they escaped discovery by an apparently miraculous intervention. On one such occasion an army unit blocked the way and refused to let the vehicle continue until they were satisfied with the credentials. All of a sudden, an elderly Hungarian officer rode up and after perusing the documents, signaled them through. Captain Shtaier later admitted that he had no idea who this officer was.
Realizing the danger that the Hungarian military presented to them, Captain Shtaier would ask the Belzer Rebbe to pray whenever they approached a checkpoint.
The first major Hungarian town they reached was Ungvar. WHen they arrived there, Captain Shteir declared that he was unable to continued. “It is too hazardous.” he said. Had I known what was involved in this smuggling trip, I wouldn’t have done it for all the money in the world.” HE added that there were many religious Jews in Ungvar and the Rebbe should feel quite comfortable with them.
The Rebbe disagreed and argued with Captain Shtaier. Eventually they reached a compromise. Since it was only a few hours before Sabbath, they would stay in Ungvar over the Sabbath and decide afterwards what to do.
Zundel Berger, a follower of Belz, hosted the Rebbe and his brother over the Sabbath. The news of the Rebbe’s arrival spread, and on Friday night many Hassidim flocked to Zundel Berger’s home to participate in the prayers and to attend the Rebbe’s Tisch.
On Motzaei Shabbat the Rebbe told the Hassidim about the miracles that had accompanied his escape. Captain Shteier who heard some of the stories interjected, “I am amazed Rabbis, that you left out the greatest wonder of them all. The car was covered with a supernatural cloud. All the way from Boehnia to the Hungarian border, no one could see us.”
Captain Shteier, the Rebbe, and his companions then discussed their next move. By that time, the Rebbe’s supporters in the Rescue Committee in Budapest had succeeded hiring a Red Cross ambulance to bring the Rebbe to Budapest. The Rebbe preferred however to complete the journey in Captain Shtaier’s car and insisted that the captain accompany him all the way to Budapest. Captain Shtaier reluctantly agreed. Captain Shteier and his group left Ungvarer on Sunday morning and arrived that evening in Budapest.
Soon after, their arrival in the Hungarian capital, the Rebbe and his brother, the Rav of Bilgorai, were hospitalized for checkups.
The Jewish Press, Friday, Oct. 28, 2005
On Friday, the 23rd of Iyar (1943), the Rebbe moved into the large suburban house of Reb Moshe Weingarten, the local Shochet in Neu-Pest. The rescue committee hoped that a suburb of Budapest would be a safer location than Budapest’s center of town. Contrary to their efforts, however, the whereabouts of the Rebbe soon leaked out leading to friction with the police.
On Shavuot (Wednesday and Thursday, the 9th and tenth of June, 1943) close to 1000 followers of Belz from throughout Hungary assembled at the Rebbe’s residence in Neu -Pest. The Rebbe was pleased to welcome so many Hasidim and he led the prayers and the festive meals.
Once large numbers of Hasidim had arrived in Neu-Pest, antagonistic police officers began arresting them, demanding to see their release papers from the forced labor battalions. The local police commander, accompanied by some officers, came to Weingarten’s residence and asked to see the Rebbe in order to examine his citizenship papers. When the Rebbe could not produce such documents, the commander ordered him to come along to police headquarters. But when the Rebbe was about to leave the house, the commander had a change of heart and permitted him to return to his room. The policemen left Weingarten’s house after they had been assured that the Rebbe’s application for citizenship would be processed soon.
Because the police were harassing his followers, the Rebbe changed places of residence in Neu-Pest several times and also sought to restrict access to his prayer s services and Tisch, though to little avail.
From the day he arrived in Budapest, the Rebbe had been thinking of ways to help the Jews in Poland. He spoke with refugees, inquiring how they had escaped and whether there was any chance of saving others. He asked the Rescue Committee to finance a trip by Captain Shtaier to the Przemyslany Ghetto where many members of his family were confined. Captain Shtaier first refused to undertake another trip, but then agreed to do so for a large sum a money after a forceful personal appeal by the Rebbe. On his trip Captain Shtaier found that the Przemyslany Ghetto existed only in a limited form as most Jews had already been deported. He was unable to enter the area or make contact with the few who still remained there.
Some time later Captain Shtaier was sent to Lemberg and Przemyslany. He brought news of the recent murder of two grandsons of the Rebbe, Shlomo and Pinchas Frankel, sons of the Rebbe’s son -in-law, Rabbi Shemuel Frankel as well as letters from leading Przyslany non-Jews describing the awful annihilation of the Rebbe’s family and close followers.
(to be continued)
The Jewish Press, Friday, November 4, 2005
(Continued from last week)
The book provides a list of the members of the Rebbe’s family who were murdered in Przemyslany and elsewhere accompanied by the following note: “Strikingly similar to his unusual reaction to the brutal murder of his beloved son Reb Moshe’le in the Przemyslany pogrom (July 1941), once again the Belzer Rebbe declined to observe mourning or utter even a mention for individuals, focusing rather on the greater calamity.”
As mentioned earlier, the Rebbe changed residences to evade harassment by the police. Unfortunately some of these new places of residence were not large enough to accommodate the Hasidim who flocked to the Rebbe’s prayer services and Tischen. Discussing the situation with his leading followers, the Rebbe suggested that more suitable premises might be found in one of the smaller communities outside Budapest. There were, indeed a number of communities outside Budapest that were eager to serve as host to the Rebbe.
When it became known that the Rebbe intended to leave Budapest, the local community leaders made frantic efforts to find suitable premises for him in the capital and to legalize his status. They found a spacious four story building in the center of the Jewish district. The Rebbe accepted the offer and appointed Reb Moshe David Hollander to supervise the alterations that were needed to prepare the building which had once served as a school, for the upcoming Rosh Hashana services.
The community leaders also sought to influence the authorities to order the police and immigration officials to leave the Rebbe alone.
Rosh Hashana 5704 proved to be a high point in the lives of Hungary’s Belz Hasidim. The Belz prayer services and Tischen were maintained in the new Budapest headquarters without any deviation from tradition. As was his custom, the Rebbe led the Rosh Hashana Mussaf prayers. The Bilgoraj Rav prepared to lead the Shaharit prayers with the help of instructions from the Rebbe on various Nusah details.
After Havdala the Belzer Rebbe summoned Reb Moshe Krunstein for a meeting which would arouse much speculation. The Rebbe informed him that he had made up his mind to leave for Eretz Yisroel. Several days later when Rabbi Avraham Benjamin Sofer, the Rav of Pressburg took leave of the Rebbe as he was passing through Budapest on his way to the Holy Land, the Rebbe confided to him: “We too intend to go to Eretz Yisrael.”
Around two months before the Belzer Rebbe first voiced his desire to settle in the Land of Israel, his devoted Hasidim in Eretz Yisrael, England and other countries had asked the Jewish Agency to allocate immigration certificates to the Rebbe and his brother. By Rosh Hashana 5704 they were close to achieving their goal.
The leader of the Belz Hasidim in this endeavor was Dov B. Ortner of Tel Aviv. He was in constant touch with Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog, who was of great help to him and with the Jewish Agency.
There were also new developments in other areas.
The Gestapo never gave up its search for the Belzer Rebbe. In August 1943, it submitted to the Budapest Police Foreign Persons’ Division (KEOKH) a complained against Captain Shtaier, stating that he was a smuggler of Jews and (other) suspicious elements.” The letter also contained an official request for the immediate extradition of the Belzer Rebbe who was now residing in Budapest.
Fortunately, the head of the division, Alexander Von Simonpla, happened to be away from Budapest and the letter was handed to the Police Commander, Dr. Ferdinand Batizflavy. The latter was a great friend of the Jews. He misfiled the letter and did not report its arrival to his superiors or to Von Simonpla.
The next German demand arrived in mid-September. This time they pressed also for the extradition of the Rav of Bilgoraj. Dr Batizfalvy now handed over both letters to the division head. To his surprise and relief, Von Simonpla agreed to drag out the matter as long as possible in order to give the two rabbis a chance to escape.
On Sunday, September 10, the Rebbe was officially notified that he had to present himself at the Budapest Police Foreign Persons’ Division on Wednesday, Oct, 13. Two of the Rebbe’s followers rushed to see Mr. Kraus, a communal leader who had connections to top officials and asked him to come to the assistance of the Rebbe. Mr. Kraus called upon Von Simonpla, who summoned Dr. Batzfalvy and told him: “Take charge of this file. We must deny that this suspect is the Wonder Rabbi of Belz. “He should be in Palestine, certainly not in Germany.
The Rebbe’s visit to the police was postponed to after Sukkot. Greeting the Rebbe and those who accompanied him, Dr. Batizfalvy asked a few questions, which Mr. Kraus answered on the Rebbe’s behalf. The Rebbe then signed the official papers that were handed to him.
(To be continued)
The Jewish Press, Friday, Nov. 11, 2005
In his talk with Mr. M. Kraus, Von Simonpla had remarked that “the flood of disciples coming to the Belzer Rebbe ought to stop; it arouses the suspicion and ire of the government and the German agents. Better still if he stayed at a private house and kept his whereabouts a secret.”
In conformity with this advice, modifications were made before Sukkot regarding the Belzer Rebbe’s arrangements. The Shabbos Tisch was held privately at home and efforts were made to limit the number of those coming to watch or participate.
On Erev Sukkot three Etrogim arrived by mail from Switzerland. THe Shamashim decided to keep one for the Rebbe and to send the other two to Bupaest’s Central Synagogue for the use of the local community. The Rebbe, however, did not like this arrangement. “What about the Jews in the provinces?” he asked. He ordered two Etrogim to be dispatched quickly to the nearest large Kehillot outside Budapest. As for the Jews of Budapest, they would take their turn with the Rebbe’s Etrog. Braving the unwelcome attention this was bound to attract from the authorities, thousands of Budapest’s Jews line up to recite the blessings over the Rebbe’s Etrog.
Early in November, two weeks after Sukkot, the Rebbe was informed of the tragic death of his youngest brother, Rabbi Shalom, the Rav of Apta (Opatov). Rabbi Shalom had been staying in Stryh. In the winter of 1943 he made an arrangement with two Polish smugglers to help him escape to Hungary, but they abandoned him in a forest near the border. He sent urgent letters via Polish peasants to the Jews of Munkacs, asking them to come to his aid. When two Jewish smugglers sent by the Munkacs community arrived, he had already expired from the intense cold.
It was also early in November that Dov Berish Ortner was informed by the Jewish Agency that immigration certificates had been allocated to the Rebbe and his companions and had been confirmed by the British government.
As the new of the Rebbe’s impending departure spread, there were many who did not want him to leave. A delegation of Belz Hasidim urged the Rebbe to remain in Budapest. “You are safe here, they argued, “for the tide has turned in favor of Russia, whose superior forces are at the Hungarian border.” There were also countless individual petitioners who begged the Rebbe not to abandon them. “The presence of the Tzaddik will surely protect us from all evil. We have tried to provide everything that was need. What does the Rebbe lack here? they wept.
The Rav of Bigorai spoke up in defense of the Rebbe. He said that the situation of the Jews of Hungary was very precarious. It would be only a matter of time before the Hungarians succumbed to German pressure. “If you want to commit collective suicide, that’s your affair. But why prevent our Great Manhig from escaping the Germans’ bloody clutches? Can’t you see that we are sitting on a rumbling volcano? Hungarian independence is nothing but an illusion. The Nazis are right behind the scenes and they will do whatever they like, whenever they like.”
He also declared, “the Belzer Rebbe is not leaving for his own sake. He has to go for the future of Belz.”
The speech of the Bilgoraj Rav won the day. The Rebbe was forever grateful to him. He was to write later: “My brother, the Bilgoraj Rebbe fought a great battle and won in the Zekhut of our holy father ZT”L. It was due to him that I merited to come to Eretz Yisroel.”
The Rebbe would not leave Budapest before settling some urgent matters. The Hungarian authorities had arrested a number of Jewish activists who had been involved in smuggling Jews from German occupied territories into Hungary. The Rebbe declared that he would not leave before these activists were released. “Some of them had a hand in my escape. How can we abandon them,” he said.
When followers of the Rebbe tried to contact the authorities with regard to these activists, they learned that they had been dealt with very harshly. They had been found guilty and condemned for corruption, conspiracy, deception and forgery and had been transferred to a notorious prison from which no prisoner ever came out alive.
(To be continued)
The Jewish Press, Friday, Nov. 18, 2005