Officials Were Impressed with the Young Rabbi Who Seemed

Book Holocaust Hero: In his book Holocaust Hero: Solomon much by sheer dint of his personality. He Solomon Schonfeld Schonfeld, Dr. Kranzler offers a fascinating preferred to work as a one-man commit- By David Kranzler portrait of one of the most remarkable tee. He was outspoken and sometimes heroes of the Holocaust, a young British unpopular because of his single-minded rabbi who rescued thousands of Jews dur- views on rescue and Judaism, but his per- ing the tragic years from 1938 to 1948. sonal charm and diplomacy enabled him Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld, a graduate of to be impressively effective. the Nitra Yeshiva in Slovakia, was no At the tender age of twenty-two, doubt inspired to get involved in rescue Rabbi Schonfeld succeeded his father as work by his former rosh yeshivah, Rabbi rabbi of a small Orthodox congregation Michoel Ber Weissmandl, who ultimately and as principal of England’s first Jewish became known as “the genius of rescue.” day school. Just six years later, in 1938, when Jewish cries for help came from Nazi-dominated Germany and Austria, he Officials were impressed jumped into the fray as an outstanding with the young rabbi who rescuer. seemed committed to sav- In the fall of 1938, following Ktav Publishing House Kristallnacht, Julius Steinfeld, a commu- New Jersey, 2004 ing lives with no thought nal leader in Austria, called Rabbi 289 pages to his own comfort or ego. Schonfeld, pleading with him to assemble Reviewed by Pinchas Stolper a children’s transport to England for Vienna’s Orthodox Jewish youth. Rabbi The subject of Orthodox rescue Rabbi Schonfeld brought to Schonfeld met with Yaakov Rosenheim efforts during the Holocaust has long England over four thousand children, as and Harry Goodman, president and secre- been neglected, distorted and denigrated. well as rabbis, teachers, ritual slaughterers tary of World Agudath Israel respectively, Dr. David Kranzler, an accomplished and other religious functionaries. He but even before they could decide on a researcher, historian and writer has, placed his charges in kosher homes and strategy, he boarded a train to Vienna. through ten chilling books, revealed the provided the youth with a Jewish educa- Rabbi Schonfeld helped Steinfeld organize heroic and creative efforts of Orthodox tion. In addition, Rabbi Schonfeld tried, a kindertransport of close to 300 young- individuals and organizations that played albeit unsuccessfully, to persuade the sters, providing the British government a critical role in one of the most horrific British government to bomb Auschwitz. with his personal guarantee in order to sagas of modern Jewish history. Most This fascinating biography, with a focus secure their entry. revealing of all was the ideological struggle on his rescue efforts, includes stories illus- Even before the kindertransport, between the secular Jewish establishment trating his struggles with the assimilation- Rabbi Schonfeld brought 1,200 German and the Orthodox activists over whether ist Anglo-Jewish leadership, as well as rabbis, shochetim, teachers and other saving lives at all costs is the highest priori- forty vignettes by individuals he rescued. Jewish communal workers and their fami- ty. In all of Dr. Kranzler’s books, based on Who was this rabbi—this one-man, lies to England, over the objections of carefully documented evidence, the reader large-scale rescue machine? What impelled many in the established English Jewish is tortured by the question, How many of him to risk his peace of mind, his community. Rabbi Schonfeld worked the six million would have survived had health—and, at times, his life—in order closely with Chief Rabbi Joseph P. Hertz, the Orthodox forces carried the day? to ceaselessly pursue the Divine com- who allowed him to use the newly estab- mandment of hatzalat nefashot, the physi- lished rescue organization, the Chief Rabbi Stolper, founding director of NCSY cal and spiritual rescue of his fellow Jews? Rabbi’s Religious Emergency Council (National Conference of Synagogue Youth), A formidable young man with a (CRREC), as a convenient and effective is a former executive vice president of the quick mind and limitless energy, Rabbi lever. The chief rabbi’s name opened Orthodox Union. Schonfeld was able to accomplish so many doors and helped dampen the inter- Summer 5765/2005 JEWISH ACTION 87 nal opposition to his rescue efforts. was able to deal with villagers who had the Jewish Communists in power, wanted Moreover, the chief rabbi was in a posi- never seen Jews before, persuading them Polish Jews to remain there to help create tion to say to government officials that he, to host Orthodox children and make a “new Poland.” Armed with several hun- and not the Jewish agencies, should be the them feel at home. dred cartons of cigarettes—the most valu- one to properly determine how many rab- To foster a Jewish atmosphere, able post-war currency available—the bis and teachers were needed in Britain. Rabbi Schonfeld set up an organization rabbi chartered a boat in Gdansk and Rabbi Schonfeld proved to be a called the National Council for Religious escorted 150 Jewish boys and girls aboard. charismatic figure, developing an excellent Education (NCRE), which was responsi- Because Rabbi Schonfeld was as relationship with some British ministries, ble for establishing and elevating Jewish concerned with the Jews’ spiritual as well where officials were impressed with the life in evacuation centers and other com- as their physical well being, soon after the young rabbi who seemed committed to munities. He raised funds and supplied war he created synagogue-ambulances, saving lives with no thought to his own those communities with teachers—rabbis also known as mobile synagogues. The comfort or ego. Remarkably, ministries and functionaries he had rescued from the appearance of these large trucks provided that proved impervious to the pleas of hell of Europe. He supplied his charges a much-needed psychological lift to the other Jewish relief organizations could not with prayer books, matzot, etrogim and Jewish DPs (displaced persons). Rabbi ignore Rabbi Schonfeld. other religious articles. Schonfeld and his assistant, Marcus Rabbi Schonfeld’s creative streak In 1940, when some 15,000 male Retter, gave the refugees a friendly wel- was manifest in all of his endeavors and German refugees were placed by Britain in come and kosher food, which many had frequently enabled him to fulfill his objec- several crude internment camps following not tasted in years. tives, regardless of the circumstances. His the fall of France and the threat of a A spiritual leader, founder of a net- offbeat approach often brought him into German invasion, Rabbi Schonfeld made work of Orthodox day schools and a conflict with the assimilationist Anglo- a number of official visits to the camps to humanitarian activist par excellence, Jewish establishment, which hated making improve the facilities and provide the Rabbi Schonfeld was a most original phe- waves—fearing it would create anti- Orthodox refugees with kosher food. He nomenon in modern Anglo-Jewry. Totally Semitism. The secular Jewish community was even successful in securing the release committed to Torah Judaism, he felt preferred, for example, to place the Jewish of 1,000 internees on various grounds. secure within the religious Jewish world refugee children in non-Jewish homes, During 1942 and 1943, he won and in the British secular world; he regardless of the consequences. more than 1,000 visas to Mauritius for worked independent of any political or Rabbi Schonfeld’s objective, howev- imperiled Jews. Although the Jews never religious group, and enlisted the help of er, was to keep Orthodox children togeth- actually went to this island off Madagas- those who had very different views from er in Orthodox homes or kosher hostels. car, the papers were recognized by the his own in order to carry out his rescue He brought older youth to England to Nazis as a form of protection, and this missions. Chacham Dr. Solomon Gaon study in yeshivot and had them participate enabled many to escape to Eretz Yisrael described him as a “savior of the bodies in Orthodox youth groups such as Chevra and other havens. and souls of thousands of Jewish people.” ben Zakkai and Zeirei (Agudah). He In 1943, even as World War II Despite the large-scale planning and established Yeshiva Ohr Yisroel for youths raged, Rabbi Schonfeld collected thou- myriad administrative details he coordi- aged sixteen to eighteen, who were ineligi- sands of cans of kosher food in prepara- nated, he found time for little personal ble for the kindertransports, and reestab- tion for post-war distribution to survivors. touches that “his” children—now parents lished Rabbi Moshe Schneider’s Frankfurt In launching such a successful food drive, and grandparents living in many parts of yeshivah in London for additional refugee he overcame the fears of some Jews who the world—remember with gratitude. By students. Rabbi Schonfeld’s methods pre- felt that collecting food when the country word and deed, he convinced his charges, served the children’s Jewishness, and even- had instituted rationing would make them young and old, that they were worthy of tually many of them became teachers and unpopular with their fellow Britons. love and concern, and that no matter leaders in the Jewish community. After the war, Rabbi Schonfeld what they suffered at the hands of the Just before the Blitz, during the brought out hundreds of hidden Jewish Nazis, it was worth their while to perse- mass evacuation from London, tens of children from Communist Poland, vere physically and spiritually as proud thousands of British children had to be Czechoslovakia and elsewhere. Six feet Jews. moved to the countryside. Rabbi Schon- tall, athletic and handsome, Rabbi Holocaust Hero is an extraordinary feld met the challenge by creating a Jewish Schonfeld appeared like an angel to the story of tragedy, triumph and wonder.

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