New York – Of the countless tragic stories told in Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem, the official commemoration institute of the Holocaust, not one is about the Jewish rescuers of Jews. But today, the memory of one rabbi is being kept alive by the people he helped save.
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“The world has to know what this wonderful rabbi accomplished in his life,” said Bertha Schwartz who survived the Holocaust thanks to Rabbi Zalman Schneerson. She was speaking at a symposium at Carlebach Shul in New York on July 30, dedicated to exploring the topic of Jews saving Jews.
Rabbi Schneerson was one of the Jewish heroes of the Holocaust, and afterwards went unrecognized by the authorities, says Harriet Jackson, French historian and archivist formerly at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Schneerson died in 1980.
According to Jackson, Rabbi Schneerson and his family helped save the lives of hundreds of Jewish children during the Holocaust in France.
“Between 1940 to 1943, we were always on the run,” Ms. Schwartz is quoted as saying in an interview with Jackson. Schwartz, who was rescued by Rabbi Schneerson as a child, and now educates people about the Holocaust. She was nine years old when her father got arrested by the French police and her mother sent her and her younger sister, Malka, age six, away.
The girls were sent to report to a branch office of the American Joint Distribution Committee and meet their guardian, who was then arrested by the French police.
“My sister and I were terrified,” said Ms. Schwartz.
Two train stops before being transferred to the extermination camp, Rabbi Schneerson found out where they were and sent his “Yeshiva boys” to bring them to his home.
Bertha and her sister are the only two living survivors among many who were saved by Rabbi Schneerson.
No Honor at Yad Vashem
In contrast to Jews, non-Jewish rescuers of Jews receive greater gratitude and recognition at the iconic Yad Vashem. The official Web site contains a section dedicated to the subject.
Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, former director of the Department of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem says that the museum neglected the stories of the Jewish rescuers, and no program was devised to acknowledge their deeds. But he adds that this was not the only group that was not immediately recognized.
“Even with regard to gentile rescuers of Jews, an item written in the Yad Vashem law, it took many years before Yad Vashem began to deal with it, or rather, was forced to deal with this,” says Dr. Paldiel.
According to Yad Vashem, the element of risk for Jews helping Jews was different from that of bystanders getting personally involved.
“In what concerns Jews, this distinction cannot be made, since all Jews were destined for extermination and therefore were in mortal danger no matter what they did,” says Yad Vashem’s Web site. “Helping fellow Jews could have augmented that danger in a particular instance, but evading danger altogether was not an option.”
Dr. Paldiel is still trying to change the status of recognition for heroic Jews, but is also aware of the difficulties.
“From my 24 years of work at Yad Vashem, I realize how very hard it is to change anything at Yad Vashem, unless it’s an idea originating from a donor giving a gift which runs into the millions,” said Dr. Paldiel.
Dr. Paldiel believes that if the World Jewish Congress could launch a “Jewish Rescuers of Jews” program, it would act as a catalyst for Yad Vashem to do something similar.
For now, the history of Jews who rescued Jews is being kept alive by Schwartz, Dr. Paldiel, Jackson, and others
who the heck needs them . the aibishter knows the good that these yidden had done. they don’t need yad vashems worthless trophies
Too bad Yad Vashem has just allowed itself to turn into a moneymaker, but refuses to change spiritually to reflect the great contribution of this wonderful tzadik hador to all klal Yisrael.
I was at his levaya because my father a”h took me there, and I remember it well. May Rabbi Schneerson’s neshama rest in Gan Eden.
reichmans (paul, and especially their mother) were very instrumental in helping hungerian jews during the occupation. they lived in morocco and she even travelled to hungary during the war. read the book about the family.
Yad Vashem has always been run by very secular elements of Israeli society. These people have given almost no recognition to anything about frum society in pre-WW2 Europe. The main recognition has always been of gentiles who saved Jews. True these are definitely from the chasidei umos haolam who deserve recognition for what they did. But you’ll never see anything about frum yidden saving anybody. It’s against their principles.
Again another lubavitcher chossid helping yidden!!
Can someone telll us more about this Rabbi Schneerson? Was he related to the Rebbe? It seems he survived the war–what did he do afterwards?
Yad Vashem never mentions:
1)Fransisco Franco- he save 600000.00 yiden- because he was not “democratic”
2)Leitz Family (Leica camera)- who save 2000 yiden because they worked for Germany.
DOES THAT MAKE SENSE????
yad Vashem has never recognized the work of the Bergson Group
he was the rebbes fathers cousin ,and it was at his home in france that the rebbes mother stayed in , until 1947 when the rebbe came to pick her up and bring her to the united states
famous articles have been written about him, try the “kfar chabad magazine”
He has been well know among the Lubavitchers in France
I was at that symposium. It was on Tisha B’Av at the Carlebach Shul. Rabbi Schneerson’s daughter, Hadassah Carlebach (who married the late Rabbi Eli Chaim Carlebach, Reb Shlomo’s brother) spoke too.
She was only a young teenager, 15-16 yrs old, and she spoke of her father and how she too was assigned roles to perform in saving these children.
Rabbi Schneerson and the Lubavitcher Rebbe were SECOND cousins.
(Hadassah Carlebach’s grandson, Rabbi Naftali Citron, is the rabbi of the Carlebach Shul.)
In Spain the Nazi organized the Condor legion a German Luftwaffe division which for the first time used the Stuka or dive bomber later used o Amsterdam and Warsaw. Don’t make a hero out of Franco and in 1948 a Spanish cardinal wanted to revive the Crusades against little state of Israel. You people see things in black and white
Yad Veshem needs a serious competitor, which will preserve and display all of the Holocaust true evidence, which Yad Vashem will never, ever, tell anyone.
For example, stories of the non-frum world’s role in the Holocaust, in Not Helping save lives because the Zionists (during the war) only wanted non-frum Yidden to be “saved” in Israel and all other similar stories which reflect badly on the non-frum and also reflect badly on gentiles such as the USA which was also guilty of the Nazi Murders, because the USA passively ignored what they knew of Yidden being Killed and they refused suggestions to bomb the Train Tracks which led to the concentration camps.
The USA and other “free word”, were not always such “Chassidey Umos Haolam”, when they all sat quietly (perhaps happily) while Yidden were Killed and did Nothing to stop it, (pretending not to know), not until Germany attacked them too.
Dear Eyal,
Thank you so much for writing an important article. Do you know if anyone carries the paper in Riverdale or the Upper West Side near Columbia? I’d be happy to purchase some copies of the issue.
I’d like to point out some errors none of which, fortunately, detract from the substance of your article.
I’d like to point out a few errors that do not compromise the integrity and value of the article.
1. The photograph of Rabbi Schneerson is courtesy ofHadassa Carlebach (not the OSE organization in France).
2. Bertha Schwarz and her sisters are not the sole survivors of Rabbi Zalman Schneerson’s rescue efforts during the Holocaust. There are many others who are still alive. For example, Rabbi David Lieberman, who is Chief Rabbi of Anvers, Belgium, was rescued by Rabbi Schneerson as was Rabbi Aaron Silberstrom, who currently lives in Jerusalem.
Zalman Schneerson was the one that was in charge of being matir Agunos in France after the war…
For those of you who are convinced Yad Vashem is somehow ignoring the frum narrative, you should try actually VISITING sometime. Despite someone’s claim that it is a “money maker” it’s free for anyone to visit. I went just before Tish B’Av and my guide pointed out MANY places that had important documents from Frum Jews or about Frum Jews. One section had a tish alongside a Rabbi’s last Parsha before he was taken to the camps. There are many religious articles present from the times, there are videos with frum Jews talking about their experiances, what else do you want? Yad Vashem is not JUST for frum people so frum people are not all they talk about, but they DO talk about them.
And of course they have no special zone for frum Jews saving Jews (there is no special zone for non-fum Jews either). Jews are expected to take care of each other. They have a section from the non-Jews who saved Jews because most of the non-Jews couldn’t have cared less that the shoah was happening in their backyards.
Superb job, Harriet! Thank you for the informative details concerning the rescue efforts of this Rabbi Schneerson and his daughter, Hadassah Carlebach. I definitely look forward to reading your book!
In know way am I trying to minimize what Rabbi Zalman Schneerson Z’LV did however, the truth is that every day there was millions of unselfish acts by religious or none religious Jews, who put their own life on the line to help a brother in need, sometime with sharing a scraps of food, or help provide shoes, or a blanket to keep warm, or these capos who know that mothers with children will be send to the left i.e. gas chambers, and In the selection line pulled away children from their mothers and hand them over to old woman. There are millions of survival stories out there. Each person who survived could tell thousands of reason and little anecdotes how he survived with help from Hashem and others.
2 points
1. Rabbi Zalman Schneerson B”H saved many people with literal Meisras Nefesh, among them my grandparents who he hid during the war. We can’t thank him enough. He also saved my greay aunt who is now a prominent Rebbetzin in Williamsburg. Mrs. Jackson, thanks a lot for writing a book about him, we look forward to reading it.
2. I was recently in Yad Vashem and there are videos of Frume Yidden speaking about their expereinces and their life. There is also information about Reb Michoel Ber Weismandel who had literal mesiras nefesh and saved many Yidden
Eli B
he was not a Kopuster eynikel. His zeide was not a Rebbe, the only son of the Tsemach Tzedek not to become a Rebbe. Reb Zalman was a first cousin of the Rebbe’s father, Rav Levi Yitzchok zt”l.
BS”D
The grandchildren of Reb Zalman Schneerson a”h are working on a book about him. If you had connections with him or were saved or helped by him during or after the war, please contact Sterna Citron at [email protected]