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22 Sivan 5765 - June 29, 2005 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
A Firsthand Account of HaRav Wolbe's Hatzoloh Activities

To the Editor:

I am referring to your issue of l0 Sivan page l4, a section entitled, "First Hatzoloh Work" in the article about HaRav Wolbe zt"l.

In the summer of 1938 the Polish Government got jittery about the close-to-l00 foreign students in Mir. It was a time of threatening moves by Hitler. To forestall any dire consequences for the talmidim the Rosh Hayeshiva Reb Eliezer Yehuda Finkel appointed Rabbi Avrohom Kalmanovitz to intervene with the Polish Government to straighten matters out and he sent me to represent the student body along with him. We had audiences with the Jewish Seym Deputates, the Jewish section of the Polish Parliament, among them Leibel Muentz and Senator Trockenheim. The matter was settled and there were no more difficulties for the foreign students including the 40 who had German passports.

We had hoped that the problem was settled at that time. Then, all of a sudden, Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe received a letter from the Polish government to leave the country within thirty days. Nobody could understand why he was singled out because he was just one of the bnei Torah and not involved in anything else. So the only way we understood it was that obviously Hashem Yisborach had a special task for him, a special assignment.

He could not return at this time to Germany to his parents in Berlin because the German consulate in Warsaw had advised all those with German passports that their return to Germany was "undesirable," so it was figured out that the only way of rescue for him was through Latvia to Stockholm in Sweden. Therefore Reb Wolbe became the ambassador for the Yeshiva and was the Vaad Hatzala branch in Sweden for the bnei Torah and others in need.

In the coming years he saved hundreds of nefashos and especially at the crucial time of escape he was in constant contact with the Yeshiva who had at that time reached Lithuania. Some bochurim had not managed to receive the proper visas and turned to him and he was able to provide by telegraphic confirmations various visas and documents. He also developed a bastion of Yiddishkeit in Stockholm for the Jews there.

At the time of preparing for the rescue route to Shanghai, Reb Shlomo Wolbe had already been three years in Stockholm. It was Moshe Zupnik, one of our chaverim who now lives in Brooklyn, NY, with his committee who arranged for the Curacao and Japanese exit visas. None of the bnei Torah was forced to stand in line to receive those documents from the Consulate.

I hope this corrects your previous comments about the rescue efforts of Shlomo Wolbe.

P.S. We would like to bring to your attention that the name of the Mirrer Mashgiach is Levovitz and the name of Boruch Ber of Kamenitz is Leibowitz. Please correct it in the future.

Rabbi Yoseph Fabian

Cleveland, Ohio

 

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