– PART I –
1944. France was mostly under Nazi rule. Many Jews fled to more distant cities in France. Among them was a group of children who ran for their lives. This group consisted of French girls and boys, many of whom had been given over by their parents to French and Belgian citizens when they had to flee.
Heading the group was Rabbi Shneur Zalman Schneerson, a descendant of the Tzemach Tzedek and an outstanding Torah scholar, who was very involved in Jewish education. His assistant was Rabbi Aharon Mordechai Zilberstrom, a dynamic and talented bachur. He ran R’ Schneerson’s educational institutions and at this point in the war, he directed their escape.
It wasn’t only fear of the Germans that hovered over their heads, but also fear of the Milice, the French militia that collaborated with the Nazis. The Germans relied on the Milice to persecute Jews as well as the French underground. The French Milice collaborated with them less because of anti-Semitism and more because of personal benefit, which is why they were preferable over the Germans. The Germans, when they caught Jews, killed them on the spot or sent them to concentration camps, while the Milice loved money and bribes. The Milice knew that Jews were a way for them to get money, food and other benefits, and they were willing to be bribed.
These escape journeys extended over many months, from city to city, from village to town. In each location they found a hiding place where they stayed for a while until they found out about the approach of the murderers. Then they collected their things and continued on their way. Sometimes, they experienced open miracles. Here is one of them.
– PART II –
It was motzoei Shabbos when R’ Schneerson heard that the Nazis were approaching their hiding place which was in an abandoned castle in a small town called Demu, in the south-east of France.
That very night, they left their hiding place for other places that were hastily rented. The organizers rented apartments in areas that were five to ten kilometers away from one another. Each apartment served as a hiding place for a group of ten to twenty boys and girls. The goal was that if one group was caught, the others would survive.
R’ Schneerson and his wife lived in one house with their son and daughter and a cook who was also the house-mother. Together with them lived R’ Aharon Mordechai and his good friend R’ Dovid Moshe Lieberman.
The next day, Sunday afternoon, Rebbetzin Schneerson realized that due to their hasty departure, she had not taken enough clothing along for the rav. During the war, this wasn’t a minor matter; this was impossible to obtain even for money. She begged her husband to allow her to go back to the place they had left to get the clothes. At first, he refused but when she insisted, he finally allowed her though not before she promised to do so as fast as she could.
She had a key for the place they had lived in previously and she planned on entering quietly, taking what she wanted and immediately returning. The distance from their new hiding place to the castle was about four kilometers (a little over two miles).
She set out but did not return. Night fell and as the hours passed, R’ Schneerson grew more and more worried. Years later, R’ Aharon Mordechai related, “The rav was very restless. He suddenly said to me, ‘I am afraid something happened to her. Please go to the one who rented the previous place to us and ask him to go there with his horse and wagon as though on a routine check, to find out for us what happened. And if he can, to bring her back for she is tired.’”
R’ Zilberstrom did as he was told. He went to the landlord and told him what was going on. The landlord left in his wagon for the castle while R’ Zilberstrom waited in his house so he could get a report.
When the landlord got there, he found German guards around the building. He noticed them from a distance and he knew something dreadful had happened. Of course, he was apprehensive about approaching even though it was his property.
He was able to find out from the neighbors what happened. They told him that when the Milice found out about the Jews who ran away, they concluded they had what to hide which is why they lay an ambush around the house in the hopes that someone would come back to get something. Indeed, the rebbetzin arrived in the middle of the night and opened the door with her key. Immediately, the door was closed behind her and two policemen arrested her.
When R’ Aharon Mordechai heard this, he quickly returned to the new hiding place. This was about midnight and he had to tell R’ Schneerson the bad news.
Initially, he was overwrought and he began pacing back and forth in an agitated state but after a minute or two, he got hold of himself. R’ Zalman was a great baal mochin with deep understanding of Nigleh and Chassidus and he was able to control his fright. He looked at those present and immediately gave them orders to evacuate.
They wondered, to leave yet again? But he said, “This place has become dangerous to stay in for even another minute. The Milice arrested my wife to find out from her where we are living. They can torture her until she breaks and tells all, so we must leave immediately. If she is miraculously released, I rely on her wisdom to manage to unite with us in our new location.”
They quickly packed their few belongings and left late at night. The group that had lived in the house for such a short period of time: the rav, his daughter Hadassah, his son Sholom Ber, Dovid Moshe Lieberman, Aharon Mordechai and the cook, left. They took all that they could carry aside from the rav’s tallis and tefillin which he held himself.
It was a particularly dark night. For obvious reasons, they did not take the paved road in fear of a passing German patrol that would notice them. They found a side road among the mountain paths. It was unpaved and winding and somewhat dangerous.
Since it was impossible to find a gentile at night to rent them a new house, R’ Schneerson decided to go to one of the houses he had rented for another group. The house was relatively near and was called “the middle one” since the twelve to fourteen year olds lived there who weren’t little children but weren’t adult bachurim either. About eighteen youth lived there with Rabbi Boruch Rubinsky in charge. He was a dynamic young Frenchman who had become connected to Chabad, was very devoted and knew how to learn well. He ran the house in an organized way, and that was where they headed. Since there was no telephone anywhere, they could not announce their unexpected arrival.
The path wound through a mountainous area; on one side was the town they had just left and on the other side was the town they wanted to get to. After two hours of superhuman effort, they began to see the first roofs of the houses.
At a certain point, toward morning as the first faint glimmers of dawn began to show in the sky, R’ Schneerson felt that he no longer had any strength. He sat down on a ledge on the mountain and said he could not go on any further. The others knew that R’ Schneerson suffered since his childhood from pains in his leg for one leg was shorter than the other. His limp was apparent when he walked. This pain was exacerbated by walking on the mountain paths in the dark.
Despite his condition, it was hard for them to accede to his request and stop, since their lives depended on reaching their destination.
R’ Zalman, who realized the seriousness of the situation, ordered the group to proceed but R’ Dovid Moshe said they were not moving without him. “We are leaving no one behind,” they decided, and remained with him until he recovered. Disobedience was something exceedingly rare.
The small group stayed in place quietly, waiting for the rav to muster his strength. He did not like their independent stance, and began berating them, “You uncouth youths who do not obey your elders’ orders! When I give an order, you must obey me! I am one and you are many and saving many lives takes precedence over saving one life. You are placing all of yourselves in great danger because of me!”
At that point in the early dawn hours it was already possible to hear the crows of the roosters and the barking of dogs. They had to carefully descend the steep mountain and reach the hideout. It was still three or four in the morning and it was dark. In the distance could be heard the hum of motors of two cars driving down the road that was only a ten minute walk from where they were.
R’ Schneerson continued to plead with the group, “You can already hear the milk and bread trucks. In another half an hour or so, it will be daylight and they will discover us all and catch us. I am telling you for the last time to go down and hide and what will be with me, will be.”
They tried to lift him to help him walk but were unsuccessful. R’ Zalman begged them tearfully, “You see that from heaven they want me to remain here.” Despite the logic to what he said and the danger hovering over them all, they did not budge.
About an hour later, it was light enough for them to be able to see ahead. R’ Zalman, who had rested, stood up and the little group walked on.
R’ Zilberstrom emotionally told the following:
“When we arrived, we were surprised to see the door wide open and find the house empty. R’ Zalman began walking around the rooms and when he reached the room that served as a shul he froze. He saw that the paroches on the aron kodesh was torn. It was a paroches made of ordinary paper painted blue and it was ripped in two.
“We were all silent. Then we heard R’ Zalman say, ‘When you flee from murderers you do not rip the paroches on the aron kodesh.’ After a brief silence he said, ‘I am afraid they took them.’
“We all went outside where two peasant women looked at us in astonishment. One of them said to us, ‘What are you doing here again? They will take you too! A short time ago, they took all the children!’ That is when we realized that someone had informed on us and the Germans had taken the children and that the two cars that we heard earlier had not been bringing milk and bread but belonged to the Gestapo.
“We instantly realized that thanks to R’ Zalman’s limp, we had all been saved. We knew that he suffered pain in his legs for over forty years in order to save our lives! If he had continued walking, we would have fallen into the hands of the Germans.”
– PART III –
“It was the night of 28 Adar 5704. The date is impossible to forget. To memorialize our salvation, some fasted on this date. Others learned all day and others made various resolutions.”
R’ Zilberstrom did not specify, but in one of his diary entries that he wrote years later, he noted, “For many years, this was a fast day for me.” ■