A photograph showing the holy Rebbe of Belz, Rabbi Aharon Rokeach, taking leave of his Hassidim during his escape from the Nazis’, 1940s. From the series of photographs published in the Nazi ‘De Stiermer’
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The Belzer Rebbe’s departure from Hungary took place during the Holocaust in early 1944. Belzer Rebbe Rabbi Aharon Rokach, leader of the Belz Hasidism, succeeded in escaping with his brother, Rabbi Mordechai Rokach, from Nazi-occupied Poland to Hungary. After they stayed there for about eight months, the two left in Tevet 1944. About two months after their departure, the Nazis occupied Hungary and two months later the extermination of Hungarian Jews began in Auschwitz. The fourth Rebbe of Belz, Rabbi Aharon Rokach, one of the most famous rebbes and leaders of Polish Jewry between the two world wars. He inherited his father, the Admor Yissachar Dov of Belz, in 1926 under the leadership of the Belz Hasidism, one of the great Hassidic courts of his time, and his younger brother Rabbi Mordechai Rokeach, who served as rabbi in Bilgoraj, joined the wanderings of the Admor during his stay in Primishlan, And was the ‘right hand’ of the Admor
Belz was occupied by the Germans about two weeks after the war began. However, under the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement, Belz belonged to the Russian region and was therefore transferred to the Russians. The Rebbe’s followers saw a danger to his life precisely from the atheist communist regime. As a result, the Rebbe fled with his brothers to towns in the vicinity of Belz, which were controlled by the Germans. They lived in the town of Sokal, where he served as Admor, uncle and father-in-law of Rabbi Aharon, Rabbi Shmuel Rokach, until Shavuot of 1940 – mid June 1940, and in the town of Premishlany until the weeks of june-1941. During his journey and wandering from place to place, the Rebbe’s picture was published in the German newspaper ‘Der Sturmer’ and the Nazis searched for him.The Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer, edited by Julius Streicher, regularly published photographs of Jews in a stereotypical manner, focusing his anti-Semitism on the Jewish figure throughout history In a ridiculous way. The newspaper used its own media, combining texts, photographs, and illustrations, and with the use of anonymous Jewish figures, and also figures of Jewish leaders, rabbis and rebbes. Thus, for example, in the newspaper issue published in July 1937, a photograph of the Admor ‘imreyEmet’ of Gur was published under the title “A typical Jew from the East” and the antisemitic caption accompanying the photograph: “The Talmudic Jews came to Marienbad. They come here as the incarnation of the unclean conscience and the mean incarnation. That’s why they do not like being photographed. They seem to be terrified of it. The old Jew in the middle is the head of the Jews and the ruler of the dome. He is an ancient ritual killer and well versed in the Talmud. He comes here in Jewish traditional garb – a black round felt hat, a thick beard and wigs, a black kapote, a silver-handled walking stick, white socks and black shoes”. Also The photograph of the Belzer Rebbe as “The leader of the Jews ” Published in ‘De Sturmer’ by the same photography agency [H.Lampayer]. we know about A few photographs published by the Nazis showing the Admor leaning on the window of the train, looking at the audience of his congregation and And Separated from them. Before us one of the original photographs from that event, One of those separations. ( see “Flashes of Memory, Photograph during the Holocaust 2018, Yad Vashem, pp. 56-65, See also enclosed material).
After the German invasion of Eastern Poland (Operation Barbarossa, June 1941), the Nazis burned the synagogue in Premishlany on July 8, a fire in which the Rebbe’s son and a large part of his family perished. The Rebbe’s followers managed to smuggle him and his brother to the Krakow area. The Rebbe spent seven months under a false identity in the ghetto of Vishnitsa until the mass deportations to the extermination camps began in the summer of 1942. The Rebbe and his brothers were sent to Krakow itself, where they remained in hiding for about five months. Despite the hiding place, the Rebbe’s home in Krakow became a pilgrimage place for Hasidim. With the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto, the Rebbe and his brothers were transferred to the Bochnia Ghetto in September 1942. The Bochnia ghetto served as a labor camp and was a hiding place for other Admorim, where the Rebbe and his brothers were tailors, and the Rebbe hid under the name Aharon Singer. In 1943, the Rebbe was rescued from the Bochnia Ghetto, near Cracow, in return for a large sum of money, together with his brother Rabbi Mordechai Rokach of Bilgoraj. In light of the growing danger to the Rebbe’s life, he and his brothers were transferred to Budapest in a complicated operation in the car of a Polish officer who also served in the Hungarian Security Service (May 1943). On the fifteenth of Iyar that year he arrived in Hungary and settled in Budapest for eight months until the 24th of Tevet 1944. Immediately upon his arrival in Budapest, the rabbi was charged with house arrest. The Rebbe’s home served as a place of pilgrimage for refugees and Hasidim from Poland and Hungary, and the Rebbe took care of rescue activities for those remaining in Poland (which the Rebbe called “the killing valley”), and turned to relatives in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States To do everything in their power, in order to enable his immigration to Israel. During his six months in Hungary, there was intense activity and correspondence between representatives of Hasidism and the welfare of the Rebbe and the Zionist Organization in order to obtain a “certificate” for the Rebbe in order to rescue him from Europe. Belz Hasidism was one of the greatest Hasidiyot between the two wars, but was not a member of Agudath Israel, representing Haredi Judaism in the Zionist Organization, and the Rebbe himself was a supporter of Zionism. The extensive lobbying was successful, and the Jewish Agency gave its final approval for the issuance of certificates to the Rebbe and his brothers in September 1943, certificates approved by the British in December. When he learned that the Gestapo was following him and demanding that the Hungarian government hand him back to the Nazi authorities, he quickly left Hungary.The sermon his brother delivered on behalf of the Admor before the departure of the two, led to a controversy over his departure, claiming that it created the impression that there was no danger of remaining in Hungary.(On March 19, the Nazis invaded Hungary, and on May 15, the transports from Hungary to Auschwitz, which numbered some 5,000 people, began every day, and by July 1945 half a million Hungarian Jews had been exterminated.) On January 17, 1944, the Rebbe and his brothers separated from their followers and left for Palestine via Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Istanbul and Beirut; On February 3 they arrived in Palestine.
The Rebbe’s arrival in Eretz Yisrael marked the beginning of the revival of Belz Hassidism, and the Rebbe and his brothers laid the foundations for the rebirth of Hasidism, which became one of the most important Hasidic sects in the Land of Israel.
Very good condition. “Attached is material about Nazi propaganda used in photographs of Admorim in the Nazi De Sturmer. Photo: 13.5×9 cm.
Very fine condition. Attached is material about the Nazi propaganda used in the photographs of Admorim in the Nazi Newspaper ‘De Sturmer’.
