Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum in 2002

Translated By P. Samuels

The following poignant article is a translation of a clipping I recently received. It is an original clipping from the Morgen Journal (Jewish Journal), which was a popular Yiddish newspaper in the post-WWII era. It is dated March 27, 1950, and the byline is Moshe Elbaum. I was not successful in tracing this writer, and my conjecture is that it is a pen name. In any case, the story is definitely true. I feel that it is imperative for everyone to read this, and to marvel at the strength of character that these rabbis had.

 

The Noteworthy Mesirus Nefesh That Rabbis Showed In The Nazi Extermination Camps:
The Rescued Treasure

Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum in 2002
Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum in 2002

The following is a story of the recent past. It is still fresh in our memories and ought not to be forgotten ever.

This is one of the proofs that during the great catastrophe, while Jews were being burned in the Nazi death camps, there were many Jews who did not give up. Until their final breath, these Jews posed a revolt against the enemy–some a physical revolt and many a spiritual insurgence.

We want to tell you one story of a spiritual revolt. Sitting at my side is Rabbi Avrohom Mayer Israel, the last spiritual leader of the Hungarian town of Huniad in Kloisenburg. He is a handsome man, and he looks the part of the Torah scholar that he is. Looking at this rabbi, speaking with him, one can barely recognize that he had endured the nightmare of the inferno of the camps: Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Rahmsdorf and Theresienstadt. Here is the story as told to us by the “newly born” rabbi with the gentle eyes.

In May and June of 1944, the Nazis began liquidating the remaining Hungarian Jews who still lived in the locked ghettos. These Jews knew that they were the last remaining Jews. They knew about the death camps, about the ovens and crematoriums. But they also knew that Hitler’s end was near and that the Nazis were close to defeat. Therefore, with their last bit of strength, they kept to their group, and specifically tried to live and outlive the enemy.

A physical revolt was, unfortunately, out of the question. The Jews were too weak and exhausted. But they wanted at least to mount a spiritual rebellion. When the Nazis were chasing the Jews into the deportation train cars, there were orders that no one may take any papers along. Despite this ban, rabbis and scholars ripped out pages of sefarim (holy books) and tied them around their bodies.

Now the tragic days of June 1944 began. Like lambs to the slaughter, the last remaining Jews from the ghettos of the Hungarian cities were chased into the wagons that would lead them to Auschwitz. This was supposed to be their “last journey.”

During this “last journey,” twenty-two rabbis and scholars banded together and decided to found a “yeshiva.” Their “bookcase” was the pages of Gemara and other Torah tomes they had been ripped out of. The twenty-two rabbis agreed that whenever and wherever possible, they will gather and learn and discuss Torah topics.

After arriving in Auschwitz, they took out the holy pages from under their clothing. After grueling work, after being chased all over the camp, after gathering the dead bodies of their brothers, the yeshiva of twenty-two sat down to learn.

The Nazi sword kept on cutting their ranks. Twenty-two soon became eighteen; the eighteen soon were fifteen. But the ones still left continued to run the camp yeshiva, in the shadow of death.

The rabbis, while learning, came up with new commentaries and explanations on what they were studying. These new interpretations came from the learned minds like sparks of wisdom. Rabbi Avrohom Mayer Israel of Huniad, decided that these brilliant words of Torah should not be lost. He gathered bits and pieces of paper, and began transcribing whatever they had learned and discussed. It was not easy to get a pencil and paper. For a few days’ worth of bread ration (which meant being really hungry those days), a Ukrainian guard sold them a pencil. They tore pieces of paper off the sacks of cement which were used to build bunkers. On this thick paper, the Torah words were transcribed,

 

The Torah Writings
Go Along With The Rabbis To Buchenwald

Soon, there were orders to evacuate the Auschwitz camp. The Red Army was getting closer, and the Nazis were suffering defeats .Once again the Jews were chased and once again it was forbidden to take anything along with them. But the rabbis and scholars of the camp yeshiva once again saved their “library”–the pages of Gemara.

The Jews were driven from Auschwitz to Buchenwald. Once again the backbreaking work began, once again the torture and whipping–once again the rabbis and religious Jews began learning and discussing Torah topics in their free moments, and Rabbi Israel wrote everything down.

Eventually, there was a whole pack of the thick cement papers on which the commentaries were written. It was dangerous to keep it in the barracks because there were constant surprise inspections, day and night, and if any written papers were found in someone’s possession, he would be shot on the spot.

One of the rabbis, Rabbi Meyer Yosef Rubin, zt’l, from Mihullpulver, who “worked” at gathering the dead bodies, hid the papers in the death barracks, and every day he added a new package, which he hid among the bodies.

Meanwhile, the Germans were being pursued even deeper into their animal dens, in their “fatherland.” The Allied forces were also nearing Buchenwald. The Nazis decided that the leftover Hungarian Jews should be sent to Theresienstadt where there still was a part of the so-called “model ghetto.” In great peril, the remaining rabbis once again took the written papers, in order to save the words of Torah as a remembrance of the camp yeshiva, where rabbis and scholars, in the darkest hours and the shadow of death, learned, studied and came up with novel commentaries.

 

Death In The Hours
Of Liberation

The same continued in Theresienstadt. The rabbis learned, and Rabbi Israel wrote down every word, every nuance of wisdom and debate. Then came the liberation, with the arrival of the Soviet army. At the same time, a terrible typhoid epidemic erupted in the Theresienstadt ghetto. The angel of death was cutting off lives right and left. That which the crematorium was not successful in destroying fell to typhoid.

The ruling army decided to burn the beds, bed linen, and clothing of anyone who was hospitalized with typhoid. Rabbi Israel, the writer of the Torah thoughts, was also afflicted with the dreaded disease, and he was to be admitted to the hospital. Under his straw mattress, he had hidden the treasure trove of written papers. With the last bit of strength that he could muster, he crept off his bed, took the papers, and climbed up to an attic where he hid the precious treasure. He then went to the hospital where, fortunately, he recovered.

 

The Treasure Is Brought
To America

At long last, the day arrived when Rabbi Israel left Theresienstadt. He wandered from place to place until he finally came to the shores of America. In his luggage he had the rescued treasure, the written Torah thoughts from the twenty-two rabbis and scholars from the “yeshiva in the shadow of death.”

Of the twenty-two rabbis who formed an alliance on the way to Auschwitz, only three survived: Rabbi Avrohom Meyer Israel of Huniad, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, rabbi and leader of the city Sighet–both of whom are now in New York–and Rabbi Dovid Gross of Tobb, now in Jerusalem.

(Note from translator: In 1979, Rabbi Teitelbaum succeeded his uncle, the saintly Reb Yoel Teitelbaum, zt’l, Satmar Rebbe, who left no offspring. From then until his demise in 2006, he was known as the Satmar Rebbe.)

The following are among those who were killed al Kiddush Hashem: Rabbi Peretz Stein from Droshger, Rabbi Nuta Weiss from Trebeshin, Rabbi Yehoshua Gintz from Aptus, Rabbi Nachman Kahana from Bistra, Rabbi Gavriel Gestetner from Shteinmanger, Rabbi Ezriel Gestetner from Pupa, Rabbi Yosef Meyer Rubin from Mihullpulver (who hid the papers among the corpses), Rabbi Avrohom Eliezer Ekstein from Hedias, Rabbi Shlomo Kenig from Yokka, Rabbi Moshe Levi from Tobb. May Hashem avenge their blood. (Unfortunately, Rabbi Israel forgot the names of the rest of the twenty-two scholars of the concentration camp yeshiva.)

Now Rabbi Israel is preparing the gathered Torah thoughts and commentaries from the twenty-two rabbis, for publication in a sefer which will soon be printed. He is calling this opus Oros Me’ofel (Lights from the Darkness). This unusual book will surely be found in the library of everyone who appreciates the value of a Jewish sefer.

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1 COMMENT

  1. By: Moshe Brown (originally Braun). Moshe Levi, my father’s brother grew up in Bonyhad, “oiberland” He married and lived in Tobb. He was one of the group. He died nearing Terezienstadt, at the end of the forced march. I have a photo of him with the other Browns. I would like to share this with the author and other information. 917+873-1742.

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