eProceeding ...

Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl Memorial Evening

An Evening in Honor of Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl,
one of the major Jewish rescuers during the Holocaust. 

Part of the evening will also be dedicated to honor other members of the Holocaust era Bratislava "Working Group", particularly Mrs. Gizi Fleischmann  

 

Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union Jerusalem World Center
22 Keren HaYessod Street, Jerusalem


December 3, 2003 6PM

Event organized by Larry Pfeffer
eMail: lpfeffer@actcom.co.il

Held under auspices of:

Root and Branch Association
eMail: rb@rb.org.il, Web site: www.rb.org.il

and

Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union Jerusalem World Center
eMail: tt@ou.org, Web site: www.ou.org

Presented in cooperation with:

Raoul Wallenberg Honorary Citizens Committee
eMail: ygrun@netvision.net.il

NOTE: additional information may be posted on this site after the memorial evening.

 

SURPRISINGLY THE HISTORY OF JEWISH SAVIORS DURING THE HOLOCAUST IS CLOUDED IN MUCH CONTROVERSY AND MANY PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS FEEL DISCOMFORT OPENLY DISCUSSING IT. THERE WAS A CONSIDERABLE ATTEMPT TO PRESENT VARIED PERSPECTIVES AND LET THE MEMORIAL EVENING AUDIENCE AND READERS OF THIS WEB SITE DETERMINE "HISTORICAL TRUTH" FOR THEMSELVES (IF THERE IS SUCH A THING AS HISTORICAL TRUTH).  ULTIMATELY "TRUTH" IS ONLY THE INDIVIDUAL'S WHO PERIODICALLY HAS SOME DOUBTS, AND SEEKS TRUTH, EVEN IF FINDING IT REQUIRES A STRUGGLE. PERHAPS "TRUTH" CAN ONLY BE HAD AT THE COST OF STRUGGLE. FAR TOO OFTEN "HAND ME DOWN TRUTHS" TURN OUT TO BE DOGMAS AND OUTRIGHT FALSEHOODS. IT IS A GROSS MISTAKE TO KEEP ASSUMING THAT THERE IS A "RIGHT WAY TO INTERPRET THE HOLOCAUST" OR THAT THERE IS AN ORGANIZATION WHICH IS THE SOLE PROCESSOR AND SUPPLIER OF SUCH TRUTH..

SPONSORS, SPEAKERS AND THEIR ORGANIZATIONS MAY NOT AGREE TO ALL THAT WAS SAID OR IS POSTED.



Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl

 Mrs. Gizi Fleischmann 

 

 

Summary

This evening was in memory of a great Jewish rescuer during the Shoah and his colleagues in the Bratislava "Working Group", who worked heroically, with great determination and success to save the doomed Jews of Slovakia, Hungary and the rest of Europe.

The memorial evening was held two days after Rabbi Weissmandl's death anniversary - Vav Kislev on the Hebrew calendar.

Rabbi Weissmandl was born in Debrecen, Hungary. During the Holocaust he was an important leader of rescue in Bratislava, together with Mrs. Gizi Fleischmann and others in the Working Group. He was apparently a genius in many fields, including rescue during the Shoah. He had an idea: that it is possible to bribe the Nazis and possibly stop the transports to the death camps. Based on his initiative in 1942 an offer was made by the Working Group to Wisliceny, the Nazi in charge of Slovakia, and the offer was accepted - fifty thousand dollars to stop the transports. The offer was accepted and the transports were stopped by the Nazis. Soon thereafter Wisliceny offered to stop all transports except from Germany and Poland for two million dollars, to be paid in installments. (This was called the "Europa Plan" and also the "Rabbis' Plan".) Why even the first down payment was not provided by the various Jewish and Zionist organizations is part of the tragedy of the Holocaust. To date we have not searched our collective soul to determine how we allowed this to happen.

Rabbi Weissmandl and Mrs. Gizi Fleischmann were key members of the Working Group, in which a small and dedicated group of Slovak Jews collaborated in harmony. Regretfully this was not the case in other parts of Europe, where even during our most tragic time political and religious infighting prevented unity. Many Jews owe their life and the lives of their descendents to members of the Working Group. Judaism teaches that he who saves the life of one person saves a whole world. This is exemplified by survivors who had children and grandchildren since the Holocaust.

Because of the dedication to rescuing Jews toward the end of Work War II Mrs. Gizi Fleischmann and Rabbi Weissmandl, with his family, were sent to Auschwitz with instructions to be killed upon arrival. Rabbi Weissmandl sawed thru the lock of the train and stayed alive by jumping off. Knowing his determination to rescue Jews, it is most likely that he escaped in order to be able to continue rescue work - which by that late stage was almost impossible. He never got over our collective tragedy and loss of his wife and children and died as a broken man in the United States. Witnesses said that cried each night. In his last years he wrote a book "Min ha Metzar" ("From the Straights"), in which he recorded his memories of the Shoah and the callous abandonment of Jews by our "blind fools" - leaders of major Jewish and Zionist organizations. Those who were close to Rabbi Weissmandl said that writing the book led to his death, since he re-lived the Holocaust. Min ha Metzar is still considered to be a "controversial book". Apparently it was banned in Israel, because it accused Zionist leadership of apathy. Rabbi Weissmandl's memory was and to some extent still is shunned by our Holocaust establishment because he was and is perceived as an anti-Zionist. It must be recalled that for a long time large segments of European Jews were either apathetic to Zionism or saw it as a dangerous form of assimilation and even forbidden by Jewish theology.  

In recent years some of us, Jews, are finally and very cautiously courageous enough to admit that Zionist and Jewish  leaders of war-time American Jewry sabotaged rescue. Part of this recent accusation is perhaps motivated by the desire to shift responsibility away from war-time leadership in pre-state Israel, the "Yishuv" in Palestine. We will know that we are finally learning something important from the Holocaust once we have the integrity to also face the gross callousness and betrayal of Europe's Jews by the Yishuv's ruling leaders and establishment. It is hoped that soon we will find that courage. We as a nation have a lot to be proud of - we rebuilt ourselves from two millennia of persecution, dispersal and from the ashes. Israel is a vibrant state whose achievements in so many fields are exemplary by any standard. We owe it to ourselves to  face also our blemishes and finally learn some important  lessons from our tragic history during the Holocaust. Times are again dangerous for Jews all around the world. Antisemitism is, unfortunately, gaining in strength. It is unlikely that we will be able to effectively counteract it if we are unwilling to face the true history of the Holocaust and learn to avoid past mistakes. 

In recent decades we established many Holocaust museums and successfully lobbied world-wide for inclusion of a Holocaust module in curricula. Regretfully, we keep finding pretext to hide from this history or marginalize major Jewish rescuers and also high-level Jewish and Zionist war criminals who sabotaged rescue which took a huge toll. This is part of the meta-history of the Holocaust. As long as we tolerate active manipulation of Holocaust history by our "official" Holocaust institutes we betray the memory of our relatives and people murdered by the Nazis, Fascists and antisemites - who are all too prevalent in today's Europe. Vast sums and much intellectual capital is invested in "Holocaust studies" and "Holocaust history". If we don't see fit to honor those few great Jews who did so much to save us, and identify those few Jewish war criminals who were our "leaders" in the free world and who sabotaged rescue then we learned little of value from the Holocaust. This is yet another major tragedy for us Jews and for humanity as a whole. 

The crematoria stopped smoking almost sixty years ago. It is hoped that the December 3 memorial evening was an important historic event and a catalyst to finally give recognition in Israel and world-wide for the great Jewish rescuers during the Shoah - including members of the "Working Group", Peter Bergson’s (Hillel Kook) team in the USA, Recha and Itzchak Sternbruch and also George Mantello (Mandel) in Switzerland, Rabbi Solomon Schoenfeld in England and others. This event is a wake-up call to the State of Israel, Yad Vashem and other Holocaust institutions world-wide, to Jewish and Zionist organizations and communities, and people world-wide. 

Our great non-Jewish and Jewish "El Salvadors" (Rescuers, Saviors) are important role models for youth. It  is a permanent stain on the character of the Jewish people and the State of Israel that we adamantly refuse to give due recognition to the amazing and important deeds of major Jewish rescuers.

 

For additional details about Rabbi Weissmandl, Mrs. Gizi Fleischmann, the Bratislava "Working Group" and other major Jewish rescuers during the Shoah see "Books and Other References" below and 
Our Maverick El Salvadors, a note by Larry Pfeffer

Petition

Recognize Major Jewish Holocaust Era Rescuers

So far Israel, the Holocaust Museums and Jewish community world-wide failed to recognize major Jewish Holocaust era rescuers, our El  Salvadors (Saviors, Rescuers). We petition Israeli and Jewish organizations world-wide to correct this wrong.

IF YOU SUPPORT THIS PETITION THEN KINDLY SIGN IT ON THE  FOLLOWING WEB SITE AND ADVISE BY EMAIL TO YOUR  CONTACTS WHO MAY BE SUPPORTIVE.

   View and sign petition

(http://www.petitionpetition.com/cgi/petition.cgi?id=6131)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

Event Program



Studio Greenfield
 Rechov HaOren 5, Ein Kerem, Jerusalem 95744

www.greenfieldstudio.com
info@greenfieldstudio.com

 

Certificates and Testimonial Letters

 

Certificate Presented by WIZO Honoring Mrs. Gizi Fleischmann

 

Letter from Office of President Katzav

Text of Some Talks

Max Grunberg

Prof. Yeshayahu Jellineck, pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Dr. Becky Kook

Shulamit Yaish

Some Key Writings by Rabbi Weissmandl

"Min Ha Metzar" (From the Straights)

"Torat Chemed"

HEHALUTZ letter to Slovak Jewish Leaders, from Min Ha Metzar  

Short Articles, Essays and Reviews

Brief biography on Orthodox Union Web site

Brief Biography on VERAfilm Web Site (Czech producers of documentary video "Among Blind Fools")

Our Maverick El Salvadors, note by Larry Pfeffer

 

Books and Other References

There are a number of books on Jewish rescuers, and the deplorable track record of the free world modern Jewish leadership and leaders of the Socialist-Zionist establishment. Useful reference books include:

  1. Dr. Abraham Fuchs, The Unheeded Cry

  2. Ben Hecht, Perfidy

  3. Prof. David Kranzler, Thy Brother’s Blood

  4. Prof. David Kranzler, The Man who Stopped the Trains to Auschwitz: George Mantello, El Salvador’s and Switzerland’s finest hour

  5. Prof. David Kranzler, Holocaust Hero:  Solomon Schonfeld - The Untold Story of an Extraordinary British Rabbi who Rescued 4000 during the Holocaust

  6. David Morrison, Heroes, Antiheroes and the Holocaust - American Jewry and Historical Choice

  7. Tom Segev, The Seventh Million

  8. Rabbi Moshe Shoenfeld, The Holocaust Victims Accuse

  9. VERAfilm, Among Blind Fools (Video documentary by Petr Bok and Martin Smok, Prague, in three parts, each 55 minutes)

  10. Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, Min HaMetzar (From the Straights), Hebrew

  11. David Wyman and Rafael Medoff, A Race Against Death – Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust

NOTE: Perfidy and Min HaMetzar were apparently once banned in Israel.

 

Also

 

  1. Prof. Yehuda Bauer, Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations 1933-1944

  2. Gila Fatran, Struggle for Surviving? The Leadership of Slovakian Jews in the Holocaust 1938-1944 (Haim Mavak al Hisardut - Hebrew)

  3. Oscar Neumann, In the Shadow of Death (Be'Tzel HaMavet - Hebrew)

  4. Hannah Jablonka, et el, Leadership in Time of Distress - the Working Group in Bratislava 1942-1944 (Manhigut be et Metzucka - in Hebrew)

There are many more books on the Bratislava Working Group and major Jewish Rescuers

Other members of the Bratislava "Working Group" and some closely affiliated people

Other members of the Bratislava "Working Group" - text and photos from Web site of Czech producers Mr. Petr Bok and Mr. Martin Smok, whose documentary, "Among Blind Fools", about Rabbi Weissmandl and the Working Group is still not well known. Their Prague company is VERAfilm, Web site www.verafilm.cz

 
Rabbi Ármin Frieder, a religious Zionist, escaped from a deportation train at the very end of the war. He passed away in Bratislava in 1946, after a banal gall-bladder operation
Willy Furst, the treasurer of the Working Group, was caught in the autumn of 1944, after leaving his bunker to help other Jews. Nothing is known about his subsequent fate
Tibor Kovács, who never wanted to be Jewish, survived the war in the underground. He remained in Slovakia. In 1952, during the Communist trials with so-called "Zionist Conspiracy Center", he committed suicide

Oskar Neumann, a Slovak Zionist leader, saw the end of the war in Theresienstadt. He then moved to Israel, to build a new homeland

Andrej Steiner, the architect of Slovak labor camps and was the Working Group’s main contact to SS hauptsturmführer Wisliceny. Has saved by peasants in the Carpathian mountains after the uprising against the Nazis. He is the last living member of the Working Group (living in the USA)

 

There were a number of Jews affiliated with the "Working Group", including

 
Emanuel Frieder, after the liberation a Jewish functionary, involved in the Bricha movement from Hungary. Arrested in 1949, emigrated to Israel upon release
Juraj Révész, during WWII also cooperated with Rudolf Kasztner and the International Red Cross. After the liberation was director of the JOINT in Slovakia. Arrested in 1949 and after release escaped to Israel
Shlomo Stern, a currency dealer, provided $50,000 to bribe Wisliceny to stop the transports from Slovakia

and 

Julius Natali, a dedicated non-Jew, who selflessly helped Jews in Bratislava at great personal risk

 

 

Rabbi Weissmandl's most important Jewish "virtual colleagues"

Rabbi Weissmandl's most important Jewish "virtual colleagues", our major Jewish rescuers, were:

and others like them. Their memory is as precious to us as the memory of wonderful, self-sacrificing, amazingly talented non-Jewish diplomats like:

and other diplomats. For much more detailed list see: International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation

Photos of Speakers

Aryeh Gallin

 

Dr. Becky Kook

Juraj Siváček

Larry Pfeffer

Max Grunberg

Mina Fenton

Dr. Moshe Katz

Naftali Lavi

Shulamit Yaish

Yakov Fuchs

Yakov Werker

Prof. Yeshayahu Jellineck

Yitzchak Greenfield

 


NOTE: additional information may be posted on this site after the memorial evening


Jan 10, 2004