The Storms of the Time through the Eyes of the Press
Elul 22, 5707 – 80 years ago
By: Yaakov Rosenfeld, Ganzach Kiddush Hashem
On the eve of Rosh Hashanah 5706 (1945), exactly eighty years ago, the newspaper editors did not have to be particularly creative to find something to spread on the front pages and in the news columns. It was a new era, and every day brought news.
These were the days of the end of the war, the days of Japan’s surrender and the drawing of the borders of a scorched and bloody Europe. The great nations were hurrying to unite in order to prevent such atrocities in the future, and the Jewish People were busy searching.
Survivors looked for relatives, survivors looked for a place to rest, survivors looked for a kind word and a listening ear, survivors looked for a synagogue for Rosh Hashanah and a kosher shofar to fulfill their religious obligation.
And in the Jewish newspapers of the time, lines upon lines, dense, small and black. Each line – a name, and behind each name – a torn and seething Jewish heart.
Alone, completely alone in the world, the survivors stood on the eve of Rosh Hashanah and did everything they could to find a kindred spirit, even just one, a kindred spirit from all the brothers and sisters, from all the uncles and aunts and their sons and daughters, who had all disappeared, gone, to the altar.
A new world, big, stormy, and… empty. No one today can imagine this feeling of emptiness. A kind of black hole of longing, feelings alternating between longing and yearning for everything that was lost, and inner death; a gloomy despair that only faith can heal. And it did heal, because rivers of faith washed over the displaced persons’ camps, only in this way were they able to rise, lift their heads out of the pit of sorrow and start all over again.
On the eve of Rosh Hashanah 5706, a Rosh Hashanah of longing and endless searching, it is difficult to read these old newspapers. Ganzach Kiddush Hashem preserves them beautifully; they stand there, in binders and plastic covers, holding together turbulent emotions, deep abysses; from where did they arise? What did they start with?
The Yiddish newspapers in the United States bring the stories in black letters, in Galician Yiddish mixed with English words from the New World, and between each piece of news, dense squares: The great committees established in America are collecting money for the thousands of orphans who are scattered throughout Europe! Redemption of a soul! Charity will save from death! And the Jews of America are opening their hearts and giving. How fascinating to delve into the depths of that period.
Here are some interesting news from “Der Tag,” exactly eighty years ago, during the days of Selichot prayers (the days immediately preceding Rosh Hashana), the eve of Rosh Hashana 5706.
America and the Allies decided: There will be no more wars!
Hundreds of yeshiva heads, rebbes, rabbis and chassidim accompanied the Rebbe of Chernobyl, Rabbi Baruch Bentzion Twersky, to his resting place (brother of the Rebbe, Rabbi Zusha of Chernobyl-Bnei Brak, previously a Rebbe in the city of Uman. Y.R.)
Joseph Stalin promises to provide a solution to the “Jewish Question.” At a meeting with the editors of Jewish newspapers, Dr. Summerstein (a Polish Jewish leader. Y.R.) asked Stalin: Does he know what the Germans did to Polish Jewry? Yes! Stalin replied, and we will avenge it! (Whether Stalin’s actions in the years after the Holocaust matched his words, history will judge. Y.R.)
The King of Saudi Arabia (Faisal bin Abd al-Aziz bin Abd al-Rahman, who was assassinated in 1975 by his nephew after attempting to implement Western reforms in his kingdom. Y.R.), urgently seeks to resolve the problem of the Land of Israel:
“The solution to the Palestinian problem [i.e. British Mandate Palestine] has been neglected for too long, I hope steps have been taken to end the matter.”
300 Jewish orphans were sent to Switzerland for recuperation due to being medically in need. They were evacuated from displaced persons camps in France. We call for participation in a fundraiser to save orphaned children. Suggested amount: Two million dollars.
And the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva, the veteran institution in Jerusalem, with Torah studies and kitchens for thousands of students, is appealing to American Jews: Give a thanksgiving offering! You, the parents of American soldiers, promised that if your children returned safely from the war, you would make a generous donation to our holy institution. Now, thank G-d, the matter has proven itself, and the children are returning home. Our call is addressed to you, thousands of Jews in the United States and Canada: It is time to fulfill your promise! (There is an office in New York for donations. Happy New Year!)
A holy yeshiva, the first in Poland after the liberation, has been established in the city of Lodz. This is what the newspaper solemnly announces. We do not know which yeshiva the newspaper is talking about. We know of a yeshiva founded by the genius Rabbi Chanoch Henich Piotrkowski in Lodz, immediately after the Holocaust. Is this yeshiva the one being referred to? The newspaper describes the purpose of the yeshiva as providing leaders and rabbis for the Jewish communities that were being reestablished throughout Poland.
This goal was not achieved, and Jewish communities were not established throughout Poland. This vast region, which had been a haven for the Torah and the worship of G-d for a thousand years, the largest and most magnificent Jewish community in the world, was destroyed to the ground, and its remnants found other resting places throughout the wider world.
This article also tells about a large synagogue that opened in Upper Silesia, a place where many Jews from all over Poland had recently settled. In other places, synagogues opened: Krakow, Warsaw (Praga), Tarnow, and more.
These places were preparing vigorously for the High Holy Days. Many Jews would pray there in the following days, G-d willing.
A large community kitchen has opened in Lodz for Jews who want kosher food. The prices will be cheap.
Torah Scrolls Found in Police Attic
A moving story: Torah scrolls were found in the attic of a police building in a German city. After a search, silver treasures were also found: the Torah crowns and the handles of the Torah scrolls, which were also hidden in the police building in this city. Who is behind this rare story?
The newspaper says: M.D. Harris, a Jewish lieutenant in the British army, says in his letter to the Jewish Chronicle: In the ancient town of Xanten, founded in the 13th century, there was a synagogue founded in 1750. In this town, in 1933, five Jewish families lived, two of whom lived in the courtyard of the synagogue until November 10, 1938, when SS groups arrested them and threw them into the city prison. At that time, the (SS) headquarters ordered the local police to destroy the synagogue.
The police chief, whose name was Lieutenant Gris, evaded carrying out the mission, but six hooligans from the local SS group carried out the order and destroyed the synagogue.
The next day, Lieutenant Gris, along with Mary Jansen, a 20-year-old police telephone operator (in the past, there were “telephone exchanges” in large offices, such as military headquarters and police stations, and the telephone operators would receive calls using the technological methods of those days. Y.R.) went to search among the ruins of the synagogue for what could still be saved. They found six Torah scrolls and silver “ornaments to beautify the mitzvah,” such as crowns and handles. The girl took the Torah scrolls and hid them under her private wardrobe, inside the police building! Later, she hid the silver items in an attic inside the police building…
(I will, G-d willing, write the rest of this story and a little historical background on the town and its destruction in a separate article in two weeks. Y.R.).
List of surviving Jews currently in Warsaw, and their addresses. The list, which includes surnames beginning with the Hebrew/Yiddish letter pay, also indicates the residential address “until 1939.”
