The Story of the Friediker Rebbe's Rescue from the Nazis (Rabbis on the Run Series)

good evening heir of tove and welcome back to rabbi's on the run our amazing series following rabbis who were running from persecution oppression managed to contribute nevertheless to great scholarship the continuity of torah torah tradition torah learning and it's a great honor tonight to be able to talk about one of the great rabbis the sixth rebbe of chabad the frida kareba and the story of the rayats and how he was saved but first i want to thank our generous sponsors for this amazing program honey and lenny grundstein in memory of their fathers maurice greenstein and aaron tambor thank you so much for your generosity and sponsorship i don't know if they are here they're not here okay you'll tell them they were thanked and we're grateful it's the right thing to thank them even if they're not here we should have charged them more to not come but if they're uh you'll tell them anyway also tonight's uh learning all the learning in the show right now is dedicated they're forced speedy and a painless and a full recovery for two young members of our shul esto tila basariatsipora karmi ashai ben reza you should have a complete and a speedy rafu at schlema there's a fascinating topic we have tonight we're not going to do it justice none of the topics we cover do a justice i can only speak for myself the other rabbis are extraordinary but both because of the time allotment but more importantly because of my own inadequacy i'm not a scholar i'm not an academic nor do i have the time to research thoroughly but i did try to cull together as much information as possible to be able to communicate at least to be able to be somewhat literate on this issue on this topic which is a phenomenal story it's a more recent story the last time i spoke it was about the russia being washer and how he ran away in the middle ages from france and germany to spain there were no pictures there were no letters that other extent there's a lot of history but it's somewhat unrelatable it really is a long time ago this story in great contrast is relatable not that many all most of us were alive then but the friedrich rebbe is not an ancient figure but somebody who lived relatively in our time he lived 1880 to 1950 was the sixth rebbe of chabad also known as the friedrich of the friezaker and yiddish means the previous reba so we know there was a tradition within chabad that there would only be seven rebbes the seventh represents wholeness completion the rebbe known as today the rubber of menachem and schneerson was the rebel the last and final la babachireba so his father-in-law was known as the friedrich rebba the previous rabbi rav yosevich schneerson also known by his acronym is a hebrew acronym for his name now i want to give credit even before we begin to two wonderful works that really for the most part helped me prepare and try to cull again i highly recommend reading both of these works inside if you're curious i want to know more about this topic i highly recommend them one is a book by kai and miller called turning judaism outward it's a biography of the seventh rebbe of the rubber of banacamento schneerson uh several summers ago on the rebbe's twentieth year at site many biographies came out simultaneously about their ebba one by stein's alts that's all one by rabbi talushkin and one by hayan miller and they were all each in their own right added something kai and miller's i found arguably most compelling because it wasn't only filled with inspiring stories it is very scholarly it's very academic everything was researched everything is footnoted everything is sourced and it really is a wonderful work from the rebbe from his birth and the journeys of his life so there's a significant amount when the rebbe was in europe he was separated from his father-in-law he was in paris ultimately and we'll get to that part of the story but there's a lot in here about the story of the rescue of the rayats i highly recommend the essential authoritative work on this topic is written not by a laboratory but written by someone named brian mark rigg brian mark rigg his first book was called hitler's jewish soldiers we're going to touch on this tonight somewhat shocking if you're not familiar with it but there were about 150 000 soldiers in the german army which is not synonymous with being a nazi but the german army under the nazis 150 000 of them were at least half jewish or a quarter jewish had a component of being jewish he really researched that um and and became the authoritative scholarly work on it called hitler's jewish soldiers and the second book is called rescued from the raichu one of hitler's soldiers saved the la babachareba he's a fascinating individual the author himself grew up with a significant learning disability was almost denied an education because of it ultimately goes to uh cambridge oxford colombia i forgot which ivy league schools and at 21 years old he's brought up thinking he's christian at 21 years old he discovers he's jewish he goes to learn the ishida and you shall i am ultimately does not embrace the full total way of life a fascinating person himself the author of this book but this really for the first time he spent an enormous amount of time and researched 10 000 documents and 70 books and first-hand testimonials and the whole story we're about to share tonight he really documents and research if you want to know it and see it well it's in here much of it you'll appreciate parts of its conclusion chabad and those who are an extension of that community might not fully appreciate uh some of the conclusions he draws or his post script to the story but all of that is by way of introduction where we got a lot of our information from so ravioli was born in lubavitch the only son of the rebel ashab of the fifth rebbe of rashawn dove bershneersin he was appointed as his father's personal secretary already at the age of 15. you would expect nothing less for him to be precocious to be bright uh overachiever and already at 15 years of age he was so to say a personal secretary of his father what better training is there to become a rebbe than to be the personal secretary of your father who is the rabbi before you 1897 he gets married at the age of 17 he's a little old he got married at the ripe old age just joking of 17. he married his third cousin who was the granddaughter of the tamarted man in 1898 1898 he was appointed the head of the network of yeshiva the babbage had a network of yeshivas spread all over and he was the head of that network already also at a relatively young age 1915 fast forward after the community was uprooted in its home in la bavich labavich is chabad the altareb is of course monumental work magnum opus is based on that integration of the babch is the name of a city that's where it was founded after the bashamtv one of the tamid and we gave uh people of the book about him you could find it online if you want to know more about the altareba and the early parts of lubavitch so 1915 the communities uprooted from the babich as a result of world war one fast forward five more years 1920 the rebel ashab his nifter passes away and that is when the rayats that is when raviosavitzhak takes over and is appointed as the rebbe he's the last living remnant of the khabada bhavaj dynasty that is on the move and frankly is on decline that's not a statement or comment about lubavitch at the time 1950 1920 but rather it's a reflection of what's happening all around them the barbecues in russia and there was enormous upheaval the russian revolution of 1917 the anti-religious bolsheviks who were victorious and wanted to uproot all of religious life there was a negative impact not only on khabar but on the whole was on the decline there were winds of change that were blistering throughout russia and throughout eastern europe winds of modernity and the many adherents of hasidus were lost they gave up their hasidis and they became proponents they subscribed to the haskala socialism nationalism secular zionism and so on so there are ashab's only son the rayats took over and contrary to the cynics of the time who were ready to declare the end of hasidis or labavich in particular was struggling against that backdrop because it was so heavily based in russia contrary to the predictions of the cynics of the rib of the rayats proved to be a very powerful and effective leader and really changed lubavitch from being on the decline to being on the rise he had a tremendous attention to detail a tremendous vision tremendous memory he had a tremendous great power to write he was a prolific writer not only of torah navally of torah thoughts but capturing his youth his childhood capturing the customs of khabab the culture of khabad he recorded his memories of hasidic life for posterity 1922 two years after he becomes the rebbe the rayats formed the committee of rabbis to implement the funds that he had raised from all over the world because he had this vision not only of trying to preserve what was and to stop and stem the decline but to actually turn it around to expand to proliferate to have the movement grow so he created this community of rabbis uh to help rabona muhammad to help rabbis educators and ritual slaughterers and by 1925 so 1922 he had his vision of this umbrella rabbinic training organization and in only five years five years later his executive offices were in contact helping and supporting 700 communities 700 communities that he had helped place for abandon and you see the vision the attention to detail the execution you can already see precursor to his son-in-law to the rebbe who creates an army and a network all over the world that dwarfs the 700 at the time but this was against very hostile backdrop and remember the cynics who predicted the continued decline and ultimately even predicted the demise the rayats is fabrens you know particularly a gathering where friends connect they gather have total conversation but just also enjoy the company of what it means to be together to sing to uplift their soul his fabregas were warm and they were intimate unlike what we think of the previous rebels the the most recent fabregans which were essentially long mamarum and sikhos they were um brilliant lengthy hours-long deliveries of of torah ideas the rayatsas fabrenians were had a dialogue he would take questions and he would respond or he would direct a particular message to a particular hasid they were much more personal much more intimate much more directed he exuded a tremendous love and he was not shy to share affection with his hasidim he told stories a little bit of a backdrop of who he was when he took over in the fasidas he was leading in fact the uh the seventh rabbit of manchementoshners would recall the inspirational and heroic qualities of his father-in-law and here i'm going to read you a translation of what the rebbe said about his father loved about the friday he said i trust you know of his total dedication to the preservation and indeed dissemination of the torah way even under the most ruthless anti-religious totalitarian regime logically was not the slightest chance he could possibly succeed especially after all other religious leaders had been silenced or eliminated so the rabbi of mendoza created a networking army of chabad rebellion he sent all over america let's say this was a free country religious freedom very welcoming very warm the rayats began to create and spread his network and the rebels describing his father-in-law against all odds against all logic and an anti-religious totalitarian regime his work was not confined to the community as you know to all sections of jewry including what you call quote unquote the other camp now i don't know if that means misnogged him i don't know if that means secular jews the other camp i don't know what he refers to supporting materially and spiritually rabbis yeshiva's religious institutions also of the other camp and with the same selflessness and peril to his personal safety as he worked for the hasidic community this he did from the profound conviction that there are no two camps in the jewish people jewish people is one people united by one torah under one god he's talking about them he's talking about those who were opposed to hasidis that the rayats did not the friday rabbit did not retreat to only care about so to say his own but was devoted cared and took care of all those around him 1924 again russia's increasingly hostile environment anti-relation anti-religious environment increasingly unsafe environment the secret ceremony in moscow in 1924 the riots identified and chose and met with eight of his most talented graduates of the baba shiva and quote we took a solemn oath that whatever would transpire we're willing to pursue this mission down to our very last drop of blood these eight students took upon their shoulders the responsibility that no matter what would happen no matter what persecution they would continue to spread the teachings the torah of the light of qasidas and they found yeshivas they founded yeshivas the soviets were closing them down and they were opening up new ones against a tremendous and a dangerous threat these eight tamids made that promise in that secret meeting 1924 they would do it 1924 there was a relocation of chabad it had moved from lubavitch and now it relocates to petersburg 1924 after the near arrest and the subsequent expulsion of the rayats from rustov it was a watershed moment now see them know that you know peterburg before and after is not only a demarcation to reference in time the rayats long before him the altar rebbe is demarcated by two periods of his life or two geographical locations of his life and here his descendant um the sixth rebbe has a similar distinction before petersburg pattenberg 1924 shabbat courts was located in small remote towns these were smaller towns and after 1924 they migrated they moved to major cities riga atwak which is near warsaw which we'll talk about and ultimately today crown heights new york a metropolis a bustling city one of the largest cities in the entire world and reflecting on this in 1952 seventh rubber ramen ahmed schneerson said about his father-in-law he said the rebels that preceded him they presided over they were shepherd rebels they provided over small towns villages they presided over the flock of hasidim in the small town but the rayats became the first metropolis rebel he was the rebbe of the khasidus that had migrated and moved and that needed to adapt to the big city to a metropolis a whole different way of thinking of living and trained those who see them empowered and inspired them how to live within this city his approach was a centralized leadership as we talked about this network of yeshivas a network of communities it was a powerful powerful force until ultimately he was arrested and forced to leave the country and the soviets were increasing they were escalating their persecution by the month almost every jewish leader had left russia by this point by this time it was simply unsafe they were targeted and it came to a head on purim 1927 in a fabregan in leningrad and here we have a description from the memoirs of altos who was present at this fabrega in and he writes the following the rebbe spoke openly sharply and intensely he wept his face flushed with emotion and his voice was an anger we had never heard before in the midst of the perpsuda the rabbit suddenly stood up calling out i told you to write harshly last year but you didn't listen and this is why there has been so much suffering all year after shabbos you'll write a letter to all the cities and villages with these words we possess the rebbe and he left us his son to guide us and the son has instructed us to write in his name that anyone handing his child over to the school of the viestivia mispronouncing that but that was the russian system will be severely punished by heaven will you write this remember well what i say to you he repeated the words again and again pounding on his chest the hasidim were alarmed the rebels opened defiance of the russians one of the senior hasidim cried out rabbi we cannot stand to hear such words we need a rebel of flesh and blood we were actually aware of the spies in our midst as they had been at every hasidic gathering since our arrival in leningrad the russians communists even before had the equivalent of the kgb trailing their targets long before so the hasidim knew that that purim there were spies for the russian oppressors so the fact that the rebels so vehemently adamantly vociferously unapologetically with no nuance was defiantly opposing them he was putting his life at risk we begged the rabbit to stop but he faced them directly and he cried he turned to the spies in the room knowing who they were and he said may their names be blotted out yamaha i know they're here i'm not afraid of them we gazed at the agents and their faces flushed with anger deepened our concerns for the rebels welfare that's fascinating the rest of the story he writes in his memoir the rayat's his mother was called to intervene rabbits sarah rayatsa's mother was still alive and was there not in the room so the hasidim you know when people want to get me to behave they call my mother and they say when you know what the board with the executive board the president when all hope is lost my wife my kids you get the rabbi's mother involved now you're going to get your way so they called the rebbe's mother sarah and to beg to stop him from incriminating himself further his life was literally at risk what he was doing and the rayats respectfully begged her to go back to her room he started to cry and seeing this she began to sob and everybody in the room not much of a purim suda everybody about in the room um erupted in tears and he regained his composer composure in the rayat tried to control his mother and nothing happened to him at that particular gathering but it was sort of a turning point because his defiance ultimately came back he wasn't arrested but three months later he was finally detained the russians had their eye on him they accused him legitimately or falsely of violating several of their rules about hosting religious institutions in schools and teaching torah and his undercover activities were well known he was under surveillance and therefore they came to get him but right before they came to get him his soon-to-be son-in-law who was not yet married to his daughter the seventh rebbe um describes having come in to see his father-in-law knowing his father-in-law was about to embark on an important trip and that the likelihood is that he would get arrested and may even be sentenced to death on this important journey he expected to go into his father-in-law study to free the garbage study and find him saying to him shaking crying planning worried instead he found him incredibly incredibly calm incredibly calm and he didn't understand it so he asked his father-in-law the rayats explained that he had learned this from his grandfather this is not directly related to our story we're not even up to our story but i think the background is fascinating but there's also something to learn from this i was really wowed from this he learned from this grandfather marash in art that's called success in time i'm sure there's a yiddish description of it i don't know what it is but success in time essentially the ability to be fully immersed in the here and now to be so fully present in whatever's happening that you don't have anxiety or worry or fear that you don't have trauma or stress or negative memory that you're not living with any other emotion than what you're experiencing in that moment focusing on the task at hand living to the exclusion of all of the concerns and all of the worries and all of the to do and all of the plans the capacity to be in the moment they're outside of the example of the rajba banderas the great rish of the rajba who gave three torah classes a day and answered complex questions and he would manage to take a leisurely stroll every day and when the rashford was asked how do you have such a peace of mind it's a manuka how are you silly so fully present you go for a walk every day when there are a million things you have to do and he talked about the ability to compartmentalize and to be hyper focused on what you're doing and so the rebel related that he learned this and heard about this from his fair from the frida kahraba from his father-in-law this capacity called success in time to be fully immersed fully present in whatever you are experiencing in that moment 15th of june which corresponded with the 15th of sivan that year was a tuesday night the rebel rayats had just finished five hours of private audiences with his hasidim he needed guidance advice and brahos and the gpu which is the state political directorate the intelligence service and the secret police of the russian soviet federative socialist republic otherwise known by their convenient acronym the gpu after these five hours of yakidas that he was meeting hasidim privately they burst into his home and they arrested him now knowing knowing that he could be arrested at any time in fact there's actually a description a testimonial of how it happened where they said we're looking for steers and he said let's stop the whole charade you know who i am i know who you are basically take me away if that's what you're here to do kind of called them out and there are several episodes in his life where he was defiant where he was maybe it's courage you could argue it was very risky but where he refused to bend or cower to the authorities be they the russians or later the germans and the nazis and he faced them this was one example of it he knew that he was at risk he was being followed so he did not keep his documentation of the network of yeshivas and chokham and rabbanum of learning everything that was against all the russian laws he did not keep it at his house he kept it at the home of his secretary of heim lieberman however he knew that right after he was being arrested the likelihood was the next stop for the gpu was going to be this relievement so what happened was he uh dispatched the rebbe schneerson the seventh rebbe again not yet married to his daughter but already engaged and he made a beeline to ryan lieberman's home where they destroyed all the evidence got rid of all the documentation before the gpu were able to get to rev lieberman's home both the rayats and lieberman were arrested that night they were taken to the spalerno prison where the rebbe was sentenced to death because of his activities against the russian government now the rebel was a very prominent individual there were 150 the baby has them in america already at the time let alone the hundreds of thousands of in russia predominantly in russia but also expanding to other places as well he was well known so there was a worldwide storm of outrage and pressure was put to bear immediately from western governments and even it's hard to imagine this today from the international red cross who argued that these were false charges and he was not deserving of the death penalty and violated a capital crime and they advocated for the freedom release news arrived to germany and the chief rabbi of germany at the time never know who it was it's a seminary in his name rabbi hildesheimer and very prominent reform rabbi in germany at the time known as rabbi leo beck also lobbied the government of russia for the freedom to grab his safety and for his release political pressure came and it came strong england france scandinavia rafkook from merit israel first chief rabbi of palestine it was palestine not israel yet but rafcook put pressure as well not only from these countries other prominent jews it was a supreme court justice who a university is now named for him supreme court justice louis brandeis approached the government officials he too joined the campaign that the frida kahraba the head of la bash the sixth rebbe should not be put to death he should be released ultimately president calvin coolidge petitioned himself his counterpart and the death sentence was was called off in fact the rebel friday described that he later actually with his own eyes saw the file and he saw his the command for his execution he saw it crossed out can imagine what that means to see a russian document with the uh command for your execution and he saw it crossed out but ultimately he was still found guilty although was not meant to be put to death july 30 was informed that his sentence would be reduced to three years but he'd be three years in castroma he could go home for six hours get his affairs in order and would have to report back by 8 p.m and he would be sent off for this three-year sentence in uh k-o-s-t-r-o-m-a some kostroma pronounced but he went there he reported he went and just eight days after his arrival which coincided with his 47th birthday he was informed that in fact he was totally free the sentence had been commuted because the political pressure continued so not only had they spared his life but in fact the three year sentence had even been commuted he was free that shabbos he benched gomel with his hasidim but his freedom was somewhat limited now after his release went to israel palestine at the time he went to go visit the holy graves of tsadikim local yeshivas and torah centers he met with the great rabbis and the leaders of the jewish community yeshuv inherits israel he was there in august for august 7th to the 22nd 1929 and he left israel just before the arab massacre of chevron we know on august 24th 70 jews were murdered in cold blood a massacre why because they we were occupiers of their land it was 1929 we didn't occupy one inch of land they were massacring us then having nothing to do with occupying and still today but we will leave that aside that is not our topic for tonight he also went from israel on a trip to palestine at the time he went to the united states he visited this is not remember this was not he didn't take a private plane no rabbit today they arranged a private plane a limousine service you know to be a rabbit today he went from new york philadelphia baltimore detroit boston and chicago july 10th he met president herbert hoover at the white house uh he was the republican earlier as the republican presidential candidate hoover as we mentioned was one of the people who had lobbied for his release when he was arrested by the russians while he was in america on this tour who numbered not few begged the rabbit to stay it was unsafe to return what had happened in in russia uh in the babich lenogram where where he was moving but he said that uh he had to go back and the reason he wanted to go back and there's an irony is america was an irreligious place where even the rabbis shaved their beards because america was an irreligious place and we know at the time there were many you predicted that you could not be a firm jew there was no future to torah way of life to orthodox living in america even the rabbis shaved their beards so he left the united states to return to regalatlia on july 1930. now the russians when he came back had not given up they continued to target him to follow him and to imprison him and it became clear was very dangerous for him to continue his underground activities he had flirted with danger once he was lucky to have had the backing and the pressure international pressure that secured his release but it continued to be increasingly dangerous activists began to look for exit visas for the rayats and his family to immigrate to be able to have a safe and secure future rabbi mordechai dubin representative of the latvian parliament prevailed on the soviets to allow the rayats to leave it wasn't so simple you didn't only need a visa to enter but you needed permission to exit so he prevailed with his latvian connections on the soviets to allow the rayats to leave he was told he could leave but he would have to leave his family and his library now the riots had accumulated had amassed a library of 40 000 books manuscripts this farm that went back to the 17th century to the 1600s original manuscripts he had an incredibly valuable and mystically valuable and there was a mystical connection that he had and chabad had to this collection of swarms so he was told he could leave but he couldn't take his family or his library and he refused both if he couldn't leave with both he wasn't going the pressure continued september 28th full permission was granted on thursday the 20th of october which was is the day after simcastora the rayats and his family left russia with his possessions and library they filled four full railway carriages with their books and the possessions did not travel lightly last night late at night one of my daughters went to new york to start college finally in person not on zoom so i had the luggage scale and i was busy with her luggage and one pound a little more three more ounces you could put in four wagon uh railway carriages of safari that's overweight but they did they arrived in riga just in time for shabbos so the rebbe was out of his normal habitat environment so his future son-in-law seventh rabbit banana schneerson served as his temporary secretary in 1927. when we talk about a secretary this is not somebody not to diminish or minimize anyone who does make coffee or do filing it's very important work and valuable work but that's not what we mean by a rebel secretary the other secretary is not doing clerical work per se but they're their right hand they're the intermediary they're the shamish they're the they're the gatekeeper they're the communicator they're the spokesperson they're doing a lot more so the chief of staff in in many ways so the seventh rabbit was this uh temporary secretary and in fact in in miller's book you see the rebbe had such a close connection to his father-in-law from those years of being on the run persecuted and being really he's close confidant when there wasn't a big network and a big huts or a big a big group of hasidim very very special and mostly in a moment also he really took care of him medically the health failed and his future son-in-law's son-in-law is really the one who helped take care of him um the rayat convened a meeting he's now in riga latvia he's outside of russia very very concerned of what's happening to the jews of russia so he convenes a meeting of many of the prominent esteemed rabbis of the time in order to address this issue so who are these rabbis there's the chief rabbi of riga of menachem mendozak with hildesheimer the rugged trevor gone who right after that meeting announced he would no longer be attending any more meetings he just wanted to learn none of this asconus none of this uh jewish communal leadership work no i don't blame him at all the rugged shower he did not have uh ahead for that and um and at this time his son-in-law took leave of him and went to berlin where he went to go study at the university of berlin and ultimately earned a degree questionable completed the degree engineering but went to go study there's a whole discussion in miller's book about this as well because chabad historically had been opposed to secular studies certainly opposed attending university or college so how did that conversation go that his son-in-law said we're in riga we're settled i took care of you for a bit i'm heading to university university of berlin where his contemporaries there by the way were salvation and and rafner of salvation and rafner after returning from his trip to israel the united states 1920 1930 the rebbe had felt exhausted something was wrong he felt something was wrong he had been forced to spend the summer months at healing spas in marinban czechoslovakia he needed to be in those times people went towards spas and um they called the underground hot springs and there were certain communities that were vacation spots and resort spots we think of them today as vacation resort spots then they were really healing spots they were therapeutic and medicinal people who needed to uh to be healed rosh hashanah that year he noticed that his speech had slowed he struggled to be able to produce a loud voice and he mumbled january of 1933 he went to berlin for treatment and there he was diagnosed with ms multiple sclerosis and the prognosis was bad and his health began to decline from them it's an important part of the story i know so far we're a long way in and we haven't gotten to our story yet but the background is important and it's important to know this because it means the rest of the frida kahraba's run being on the run he was wheelchair-bound he someone with multiple sclerosis is facing agonizing pain difficult immobility and the rayats that was running for his life with also facing and balancing this illness his health gradually declined the end of 1933 he relocated his court now they moved from riga latvia and they moved to warsaw poland by the winter of 1935 at only age 54 years old now the reb of the riots was having difficulty walking or talking he relocated his court again from warsaw to a resort town about 15 miles just southeast of warsaw called atwak and the man yeshiva moved with him you know it's a big deal i tried to picture this today it doesn't transfer to a community you know if a rabbi who's part of a community says i believe we should move to whatever other community they say take care maybe if you're lucky we'll make a dinner we'll uh dedicate a safety torah we'll do something nice we'll try to remember you in those days a rebbe moved everybody picked up and moved everybody picked up and moved the yeshiva the curl and the everybody picked up and moved and he did not move a few times we've already seen the baby had moved from within russia several places to rigalatvia to warsaw to atwak and they all moved with him the next few years included a lot of trips that he took for medical assistance vienna paris other places for treatment the reb at the time smoked many packs a day which is not a criticism of the rebbe nobody no contemporaries knew then what we know now but in retrospect certainly was not helping his health or his situation his condition continued to decline he couldn't walk he mumbled when he spoke there's actually a story which we won't get into of actually having met freud is a whole story part of the past all of our story now really begins our story now really begins the heroic rescue and the absolutely unpredictable rescue of the rebel begins in september 1939 because september 1st 1939 1.5 million german troops moved across the border into poland poland at the time had 3.3 million jews and by 1945 that 3.3 million was down to a couple hundred thousand at most half of those killed came from poland and uh it was an enormous percentage of world jewry and that move that september 1939 changed the jewish people forever when the germans took 1.5 million german troops across that border into poland and the lives of the 3.3 million jews who lived there of course most were lost and forever changed barbaric acts had been done in front of the vermont commanders some of whom saw it and protested we don't have time and i'm not qualified but it's important here to be accurate with the history um in fact you huda gebber who has a wonderful podcast about jewish history sound bites it's wonderful we've become friendly he's wonderful i highly encourage you to listen to them they're fantastic his name is yuna gebber jewish history sound bites when he actually spoke about a very um scaled down version of this story he spent a lot of the time as someone who's led countless trips to poland and to that area and is well read and somewhat of an expert on holocaust studies he's bothered by how some who tell this story inaccurately use words inappropriately to be a german soldier did not necessarily mean that you were a nazi to be a member of the of the secret service of the germans was not the same thing as being ss to be a so when people casually tell the story they talk about how ss guard saved the rebel rayats or the nazis saved him himself and he spent significant time if you listen to you to gebber's short version of this really getting to the accurate description of who the terms and what they had done so you know we have this image we who are not as well-read or comprehensively sophisticated understanding the holocaust that sort of you know hitler came to power and he was this demagogue and the germans were all nazis who got behind him and then the holocaust happened and they killed six million people that's that's a sort of um oversimplified to say the least version of the story but it's not so simple because there were lifelong germans german officers and members of the german army who had served in world war one and the like who subscribed to hitler's nationalism who believed that germany should recover some of the territory it had lost in world war one and so on but did not believe and subscribe and vehemently rejected and even acted against hitler's barbaric acts hitler's inhumane targeting the final solution of the jews and of of others so there were military legions um who and there were high-ranking officials who while part of them proudly continued to serve in the german army under the democratically elected nazi government but who this component of the nazi agenda of hitler's agenda they did not entirely entirely believe it and among those first of all if you look at the book what i handed out i failed to show you these pictures if you're watching online then you don't get the booklet i'm sorry i'll post it later uh with the uh with the uh recording um here's the picture in july 1930 of the rebel rayats with president hoover when he met with him when he came to that trip in america amazing picture there his health had not yet failed and he was on that trip to israel to palestine in america that is july 1930 rayats with president hoover the next page um we'll get to the letter asking for help but turn to the third page and there on the top is admiral is admiral wilhelm canaris who's the head of the where the german military secret service that is a very high ranking position in the german army and there is a picture of him he's wearing a german uniform again the german army is the army of the nazi uh government of of hitler and he while again a proud german fighting for the german nationalism he believed that these atrocities that hitler was doing they in fact brought shame to the german people and they should stop and they should be removed and hitler was more concerned with winning poland of the jews than really representing or fighting for for germany thursday the 19th of september 1939. germany is now in poland and they make their way to atwak the students of tom de caita on that date it's thursday night the 19th of september 1939 and the talmidam of the tomcat of atwak had gathered for a fabregan and when morning broke all of a sudden they heard bombs the germans had invaded poland they had made their way to warsaw and to this town 15 miles southeast of warsaw a bomb in fact struck the rebbe's house but nobody was injured and there are countless stories maybe maybe literate maybe no what's the word i'm looking for no come on we have a room of smart people here what's the room sometimes a story that's embellished made up but embellished no no apocryphal thanks mom apocryphal there you go thanks ma otherwise i was going to wake you all three in the morning when the word came to me so you're lucky you should all thank my mother whether it's apocryphal or literal but there are several stories of the rebel rayats during that time where bombs fell in areas he was and he was uninjured most of the stories include actually that everyone else was killed one time a building he was in right after he walked out was hit by a bomb everyone in it was killed another a courtyard that threw the rebbe across the courtyard and he had a concussion but he survives and everyone else in the courtyard was killed again whether documented literal apocryphal it doesn't matter but there are several stories of the miraculous uh way that the rebels survived against all odds and he should not have so that thursday night 19th of september 1939 these bachram of tomcat are having a fabregan when they hear the bombs of the nazis and they strike if you saw jacobson who was a fourth generation shohit who had a alibabacher who had immigrated to new york and while he was yet in russia had begged the rayats to move years earlier he was already now in america so he was he now began to try to get the rebbe out as the germans had invaded poland and the rebbe barely survived with his life from a bombing of the city he was in from america where he had moved earlier having begged the rebbe to come with and then now he barely spoke english he had no network no staff no infrastructure but he had something which is almost unstoppable i've seen this in our community and among my friends when you have a lubacher who has a will and a tenacity and a resilience and is bent on getting something done it doesn't matter if they speak the language if they're articulate or eloquent if they're persuasive or if they have resources they're going to find a way to get it done and this sheikh this fourth generation who had come to new york earlier from there decided he was going to get it done and so that's this remarkable story begins so when the germans had invaded poland they begged the rabbit to leave and he said he wouldn't he said hitler has to leave not me again we've seen the defiance of the rayat several times let hitler leave i'm not going anywhere uh that quickly changed as the threat escalated and the danger increased and the bombing and and the writing was on the wall of what was happening what was going to happen so what happened is the following on this trip in 1930 the reba had met we saw that picture hoover brandeis senator wagner so the bombachers in america decided to contact the very people that the rebbe had begun a relationship with to now go advocate on his behalf for a rescue plan they agreed and it went up the chain of command and it went up to the secretary of state who ultimately got the approval of roosevelt and a few days later a telegram went from the american embassy in berlin find the rebbe and rescue him it's extraordinary because of those relationships on that trip years earlier the americans who remember were not yet in the war decided to use their diplomatic connections and to apply diplomatic pressure and therefore roosevelt himself backed it and the telegram went to the american embassy in berlin to find the rebbe and to rescue him the this was the united states state department was involved many jewish leaders were lobbying and uh and it and it got there now just picture this for a moment you're in the american embassy in berlin and you're supposed to go find the rebbe and rescue him how do you do that what's the plan so through the the efforts ultimately he was granted diplomatic immunity the rebbe and he was given safe passage but they had to find him they had to get him so the plan was how to do it how to do it meaning the germans themselves gave him immunity and agreed that he could leave but you have to go find him and get him out so how'd they do it so they established contact with the head of the german secret service this admiral willem canaris whose picture you see here on the top of page three and he agreed to help now why did he agree to help shocking right he's got a nazi a german uniform and he's the head of the german secret service and he agrees to go find a khasid shahreb and to get him out to get him out of poland he agreed why because he had disagreed with the nazi approach in fact so defiant was he again proud of german nationalism but against what hitler was doing with genocide a final solution barbaric acts so he in fact hired jews and the opportunity to save a jew for him was not an inconvenience or something that went against him it was actually a perfect opportunity america was not yet at war and it's the head of the secret service he also calculated that it would be good to have good will between the countries so the american embassy in berlin has asked for this favor to go find this jew and get him out then again america was not yet in the war perhaps it would be helpful to have those diplomatic ties that diplomatic connection so he went to get one of his most trusted soldiers major ernst black bottom of page 3 is a picture of him those are his military id papers you look he looks disfigured a little bit deformed and there's a reason why 1914 the outbreak of world war one he'd volunteered for world war one at the age of 16. you talk about a proud german talk about somebody who wanted to go fight for the german people german pride he was only 16 years old the outbreak of world war one and ernest bloch decided to volunteer he was engaged in world war one in hand-to-hand combat and the bayonet if you're queasy don't listen the bayonet went up under his chin through his face up out his skull divided his face in half he was left for dead in the battlefield with a bayonet going through dividing his face and when a bulldozer came to move all the bodies into a ditch they heard a scream one person screamed out and it was ernst bloch he had not yet died he was rescued he underwent 20 surgeries in four months and when his face healed as much as it would he went right back to the battlefield three more years of service and entrance to officer he suffered eight more injuries by the time now he's being recruited by willem canarist by the head of the secret service he has earned already the equivalent of nine purple hearts two bronze stars two silver stars this is a decorated decorated soldier glutton for punishment an individual who almost died several times and he's still faithfully serving the german army 1924 he got a doctorate in economics 1933 he rejoins the army of the third reich and in 1935 canaris hires him to be the head of espionage division of the unfair now the problem is the problem is in world war one he was able to serve with no problem but ernst black has a problem he's half jewish he's half jewish so at the time you can get an application there was a whole group of individuals like this called the michelins michelin soldiers were partly jewish i alluded to earlier there were sixty thousand half jews and ninety thousand quarter jewish soldiers in the german army in world war ii in his book again he that's his first book but even this he documents all of this and brings all of the the sources for it and he calculated this is astonishing because it's almost impossible to imagine this you have people who are partly jewish maybe they even were raised jewish or thought they were jewish they thought the dominant part of who they were was jewish who served in the jewish in the german army that was persecuting and performing a genocide against their own people of the 150 000 partly jewish soldiers in the german army each on average lost seven immediate relatives in the holocaust of the 150 partly jewish german soldiers in the holocaust on average they lost seven immediate jewish relatives in the in the army so what do you do so michelin soldiers had an option they could apply for an exemption from the nazis that would enable them to live essentially to erase or censor the jewish part of who they were so ernst black is a blonde good german he looks like an aryan part of the superior race whoopi goldberg and uh bentan bent on exterminating the jewish race and hitler himself signs in fact again it's in the book hitler himself signs the exemption that ernst black is able to participate as a german army officer even though he's of jewish descent not only is major ernst black this decorated german army officer put in command of the group the group we're going to go find the frida kahraba the rayats who is now hiding in warsaw included sergeant claus shank a half jew and private johannes hamburger a quarter jew so the three german officers a major a sergeant and a private who are going to go find the rebbe and release him are all part jews they're assigned they're assigned canaris picks black why because he's intelligent he's professional he speaks german and three other foreign languages and he's the one who's going to be able to go and find him he calls him into his office he sends him to warsaw he says go find the biggest rabbi in the world here's what he looks like he's got a big furry hat a long beard go and rescue him so can you imagine ernst blach in his uniform with his swastika starts and shows up in warsaw and says i'm looking for the rebel i'm here to rescue him can you imagine what thinks you're here to rescue him what are you crazy you think we're about to hand over a rebbe he goes door-to-door asking orthodox jews where the rabbi is how could it be it's ineffective they're not getting anywhere because what khasit is going to hand over the rebbe to somebody who's a decorated german soldier still wearing a german uniform so canara sends info to washington and he says we're we're having this problem so washington decides to contact lobovich in crown heights who contacts laboratory and riga latvia who contacts the laboratories in warsaw and say it's legit someone find the rebbe this has the approval he's uh he has the ability to leave so you can imagine ernst black who's got swastikas and scars and the formed face for having served in the jewish army is asking everyone hey where's the rebbe and finally because they intervened in this in this way they are they're able to find him so ernst black and this other um half jew sergeant claus schenck and private johannes hamburger they take the rabbit rubber refuses to go alone all the diplomatic efforts had gained immunity for the rebbe rats but he says i'm not going i want an entourage of 20. my family members my closest hasid and my disciples and my library i'm not going without it so they pack up and they start heading out from warsaw how do you get out from poland 1939 the germans have invaded how do you get out so they keep getting stopped at ss places and black has a problem because as a decorated german officer he has a right to the first class train first class compartment in the train but he's going to go into the first class compartment if he doesn't go to the first class compartment it's very obvious something's off because why would he be traveling and coach if he takes these twenty hasidam in their entourage with him into the first class he's gonna have a problem turns out ernst blach was not only a heroic decorated soldier he was a phenomenal actor and several points through this story he's able to um first of all when he first packs the reba up to leave when he's putting them into the car to take them he screams at them you dirty jews get in here what's taking you so long he puts on this facade the charade so there's anybody on looking any ss guard any other people watching who would doubt why is he taking all these jews he already uh makes it look like he's taking them um to be uh hostile to them at each of these ss check box he check blocks he goes through a a similar charade and ultimately he's able to with his acting skills get them into the first class cabin on the train a station that was just outside of warsaw they go to berlin they go to berlin instead of directly to the lithuanian border which is where they want to go latvian diplomats give them travel papers when the rebbe crosses into lithuania finally now he's safe he's greeted in auriga by hundreds of hasidim they're singing they're dancing he has his books with him his library the 40 000 his entourage of of 20. the details of exactly each of these encounters and the ss checkpoints where ernst bloch has to is there's one of the checkpoints he describes this in the book one of the checkpoints an ss guard says here something doesn't add up and he sees ernst black's id and he says there's nothing that you're you're connected to the secret service why do you have an entourage of 20 visibly orthodox jews of hasidic jews something doesn't add up i need to make a phone call so ernst black tells him and he starts to list off all these names canaris and other very high ranking names he says i know them personally and if you don't let me through this moment i have orders to take these jews to have them get killed if you don't let me through immediately i'm going to call and he starts to rattle off the highest most recognizable names of whom he does have a real relationship so the lowly ess guard at the checkpoint who correctly sees that something's wrong but gets afraid and figures he'd rather let them through and make the mistake then in fact be wrong and pay the price if a higher up is called and that's one example where ernst blach who risked his life because it wasn't a simple uh a simple rescue mission but was really committed to to this mission gets them through that in other places they go through berlin to the border of lithuania uh into riga latvia the rebels prominent individuals pushing his case while he's in riga latvia so he gets a visa but he had to remain in riga for a few more weeks and and he barely he barely got out in time because a few weeks after he left he likely would have been killed the nazis invaded norway denmark there were two ships rabbi gets out on a ship the two ships that left before the rebbe each got hit by a torpedo and everyone had died the two ships after the rebbe each got hit by a torpedo and everyone died and again the rebbe is able to uh to get out when everyone else died and there are other many other examples of the miraculous nature that he was able to escape from mines in the sea that he shouldn't have been able to get out and so on um 1941 the elected officials who had saved him saved his books and there's a sort of a postscript to the story that's horrifically said is that the rebbe was able to get himself out but couldn't get other people out though he could get books out that was the way it was at the time we all know what was happening in america where they closed down immigration and terrible chapter in america's history of real anti-semitic morgantown others who had closed down shut down immigration but it was a time where books could come in but people and lives couldn't by mid-december all the arrangements for the escape of the rebels family were agreed upon they had the funds they were um they were collected and uh and he was able to come um yeah rico when did they come from riga so with the escalating war it was clear they couldn't stay in riga either that it was going to be next on the list in early february visas to america were finally received but they couldn't leave for another month because there ever had fallen and broke his hand and the rebbe's mother who was 80 at the time had emergency hernia surgery so they couldn't leave yet they eventually crossed the baltic sea in a small 18-seater airplane and they go to stockholm and which was just three months before the russian invasion of latvia from stockholm they took a train to gothenburg they joined passengers on the ss droughtening home which departed to new york march 19th 1940 the rebbe the rayat arrives to a large crowd of hasidim in new york 1940 the rats is living in the greystone hotel in manhattan's upper west side he spent pesach that year in lakewood he was offered to move the chabad court to lakewood that would have been an interesting irony lakewood yeshiva and khabad's headquarters in lakewood he decided it was two on the outskirts he focused and studied where to go in the new york area he liked brooklyn and he decided on the upper middle class town the city the area of crown heights now just a side script to this and will end who came with him and who didn't there was an entourage of 20 which included several family members and included several hasidim but didn't include everybody his son-in-law and daughter the seventh rabbit the rebba were in paris at the time they were waiting for visas they had been separated they had been studying in berlin they had been separated he was in paris waiting for visas there was a huge bottleneck of refugees looking to depart from lisbon and all the portuguese visas had been suspended they weren't being issued so it looked like he was going to be stuck they were going to be stuck in paris and the situation in paris and france was getting worse may 24th a telegram was received that portuguese visas have been granted so now they had the visas to be able to go what they were missing was tickets on a transatlantic passage you could have the visa but if you don't have a ticket on the boat on the ship then you are in trouble and they were running out of time incredibly running out of time june 11th mordechai district the shritzkies used to be members of our now they live in boca grove his parents grandparents mordechai bistritsky was a boyani who had married a babbage girl at a ceremony the masada condition for that marriage was the rebel ashab himself and so he went to go see the rayatsa in new york the shritsky's in-laws had purchased tickets for the following day on what would be one of the last ships out but they were stuck in spain and they were unable to get visas to be available to be on the ship so bistritsky offered to transfer the tickets to the schniersons to the rebel and rabbitson and they did so the rebbe had gotten the visa but he didn't have the tickets and only because of pistritsky's initiative and generosity to transfer the tickets that his in-laws couldn't use anyway did they get out that's the miracle of how the rebbe and the republican got to america tragically the shritzki's in-laws never got out of spain ultimately they died and they were killed in auschwitz the rayats got several of his hasidim but probably the biggest personal tragedy of his life was the failed rescue of his own daughter shayna and her husband menek hornstein he couldn't get him out of poland despite all of his efforts in diplomatic uh maneuvering and ultimately they were murdered in treblinka so that is the story of the rebel of the rayatsa's rescue on page four you have a picture on the top of march 1940 waiting to step onto the shores of america he's on the boat on the ship it's a picture of him on the ship underneath it is a letter from the rebbe the secretary of state thanking the secretary of state for the diplomatic efforts that were done on his behalf to help rescue him and to help find him and to coordinate his safe passage and to help get him and to help get him out of the last two pages i wanted to learn with you although it's late maybe you'll learn it on your own but this was a speech on the first day of balak tafrish paisayan this was a speech that the rebel rayats had given it was sent by the russians to exile and while boarding the train remember we talked about that he was not going to be put to death but he had to spend three years in the camp ultimately it was commuted after eight days so on the train to go report and surrender in the russian prison where he was supposed to be sentenced for three years this was the speech that he gave from the train to the crowd and you see it says that beyonce got up on the train taran says before it departed base birkha preda when he was taking leave puna alakali turned to the audience he turned to the audience who had escorted him there and viomer and he said the following it's in the yiddish which but for your sake i would read it in the hebrew on the bottom just joking it's from my sake the hebrew on the bottom and it tells us the story no samantha's feelings and it's the rep is fiery defiant confident filled with the message to the hasidim while he's on the train about to go to his three-year term sensed by the russians for his illegal activity what happened to canaris and ernst blach it's a very sad part of the story it's one of the last chapters in the book he calls it the fate of the rescuers what was the fate of the rescuers so ernest bloch went back to work after he found the rebbe got him through these ss checkpoints got him to rigalatvia he went back to work in the secret service of the germans he eventually also this story is not nearly as well known either he was involved in rescuing the gerard and getting him to palestine so he he's there's actually controversy over whether yad vashem has recognized these two canaris and ernst blach as a righteous gentile for rescuing the the reb of the rayats and here the gyarareba and then he died in battle one week before the war ended ernst black canaris ultimately because he's a proud german head of the secret service but defiant to hitler's plan of the final solution is arrested he sent to a concentration camp his nose was cut off and one week before the war ended he was hanged and killed so you have these individuals who were responsible for saving the reb of the rayats through that saving the rebbe of mendesh near sin and the khabar hasidis that we enjoy and benefit from and are inspired by around the world today would not have happened without without all of them without all of them so it's a happy story for the rebb of the rayats not completely happy as he failed to be able to get his own daughter out and his children died were killed were murdered in treblinka and it's a sad postscript that the very people who had rescued him were unable to survive the story the war themselves thank you very very much have a wonderful evening [Applause]