“The Righteous Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk Saved Me from Death in Plaszow”
In honour of Adar 21, the yahrzeit (anniversary of death) of the righteous Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk z”l
By: Yaakov Rosenfeld, Ganzach Kiddush Hashem
I am Yosef Scheller, from Krakow.
Upon the outbreak of the war, I was a young bar mitzvah aged boy.
Like many residents of Krakow, and especially young skilled workers, I arrived in 1942 at the infamous Plaszow camp, under the command of the murderer, Amon Goeth, may his name be blotted out.
A view of the Plaszow camp next to Krakow, Poland
One day, I fell seriously ill and and I was sent, due to the right connections, to the hospital in Krakow.
This was in winter 5703 (1943). At the same time, many bunkers, in which Jews were hiding, were discovered in Krakow and its surroundings. All the thousands of Jews were gathered on the hill, where they awaited their death.
After a few days of hospitalization, the German murderer, the SS man Gross, may his name be blotted out, appeared in the hospital. He ordered everyone in the hospital to be rounded up on the hill, along with the thousands of Jews caught in the bunkers.
The mass grave – a huge and deep hole dug for this purpose, stood ready to receive all the thousands of dead, and I no longer expected anything, only death.
And how could I be better than the thousands of people around me?
The cries of babies and infants broke my heart, and a suffocating feeling of impending death was in the air.
We were ordered to undress, and we stood together in groups of five.
Gunshots rang out all around and I awaited my fate. Suddenly I opened my eyes and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the pile of clothes that was standing next to me. It was cold that night, and I, without thinking much, separated from my “group”. I lay down in the pile of clothes. The Jew who was standing next to me was amazed at my daring and scolded me, but I thought to myself, what will happen to me, will they shoot me? After all, I’m going to die anyway.
Jews moving coffins with remains of Jews in them from the Plaszow camp to the Jewish cemetery in Krakow
I warmed myself up between the clothes and suddenly I dozed off, and saw a red-haired man with a red beard standing over me, shaking me and telling me: “Run away from here! Run away quickly! Get out of here before it’s too late.”
I woke up and didn’t think for a moment to run away, it would be a complete act of suicide, and endless gun barrels would have been aimed at us from all sides, especially for this purpose… I said to myself: this is the product of my imagination.
And again I fell asleep, and again the man with the shaggy red beard stood over me and scolded me:
“Why are you lingering?” he asked me. “Did I not tell you to run away from here!?”
I woke up and fell asleep again, and then he came to me and said: “This will not help you at all, I will get you out of here with my own hands. I will pull you by the hairs of your head.”
And then I heard gunshots.
The shots were now aimed at my group of five. My friends who remained there fell into the mass grave, and I – was alive…
I put on a shirt, pants, and a hat from the pile, and started walking; it became clear to me moment by moment: the red-headed man was undoubtedly Rabbi Elimelech of Lizensk, as I had prostrated myself at his grave before the war and wept and begged for my life there.
After all, it is accepted from generation to generation that Rabbi Elimelech was red-headed with a shaggy red beard, and it was clear to me then, without any doubt, that he himself stood over me three times and saved my life.
The old ohel (mausoleum) on the grave of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk
I walked confidently back to the camp, and amazingly, none of the armed Germans and Ukrainians noticed me or stopped me. It was as if they were all blind.
I arrived at the barracks, and after a long time, the aforementioned evil man, Gross, may his name be blotted out, the one who knew me and ordered to send me to death, entered.
He looked at me in shock; he could not believe that I was alive. Out of his stupor, he shouted: “an angel!”
Since then, the evil Gross watched over me and made sure to improve my conditions with clearly unusual things. In the end, through G-d’s mercy, I was redeemed and had the privilege of immigrating to Israel.
(Testimony that was collected on Av 25, 5750/1990, Jerusalem, and appears in “Zachor,” file 12)
