General Eisenhower, The Klausenberger Rebbe, & my Grandfather - The Way to Memorialize the Holocaust

this Tower class is brought to you by torahanytime.com great efforts and energies have been invested in creating today's Memorial event we thank all of the organizers of the event I made today's division to the Nationalist of all the Kardashian Ford the very first Yom Kippur after the war they had just finished Chris I'll tell you in a DP cam called felderfing which was a gathering of many of the broken shells those who had survived the terrible catastrophe and who are groping to put the shattered pieces of their lives back together again they had just finished kriya Satora on Yom Kippur and on that day General Eisenhower the supreme commander of the Allied Forces and later the 34th president of the United States came to visit a few days earlier they had been told that General Eisenhower was coming and when the general would come there would need to be a representative of the camp to greet him someone who could speak to him maybe there would be a few speeches the representative would have to give their message someone who could describe their feelings to vent the storm inside their souls a dispute arose in the camp who should be appointed for this task the same retire on the camp said the camp who could represent us like the closenberger river the one who although he himself lost his wife and 11 children he was the one who went from each broken hashama to the next breathing life into the Embers to reignite the spark of yiddishkite and they said who can better represent us who can better give over our feelings only the kleisenberger rabba the father of all the orphans the father of the assignment and the camp only he could represent us and then the more Progressive ones the enlightened ones even who unfortunately had forsaken Torah and Mitzvahs they said him we've long forgotten about that type we don't want to bring that back again it's an embarrassment to us we want to have someone who knows how to speak to the president the man of today not a man of the past someone we don't have to be ashamed of and there was a big argument many of the people insisted no only the rabbit could speak for us and they prevailed but there was a compromise the others insisted okay we'll have a few speakers the rebel will speak first but he could speak only on three conditions number one he cannot mention the name of God he can't get any Musser and he has to speak very briefly because we want to speak after him we want to send some of our own representatives to speak and so Eisenhower came and they set up a big platform a stage and they sat him at a table and the Clinton the claisenberg the rebel walks up to the podium to greet him as he's walking up he took a Talus he wraps himself in the palace and he made the bracha foreign so he manages to say the name of Hashem then he greets the general he thanked him he said we will forever be grateful to you for the part that you played in saving Our Lives The Last Remnant of a people persecuted hounded who are totally innocent of any crime we thank you and we will forever be indebted to you and then the rabbit turns to the people and he began to encourage them and he said my dear brothers and sisters we must never forget that we are the am Hashem we must never forget that we have a purpose we have a talk list in this world to proclaim the greatness of the rebinders from wherever we go and if the rebinderslam saw fit to save our lives and we survived we have to realize we have to understand it was for a purpose because we have a mission to fulfill in this world and as he began to talk he was tugging at the heartstrings of all of those Broken Eyes and the people began to cry many said they hadn't cried since they were in the camps the Wellsprings of Tears had long dried up and the thousands of people who are listening to the kleisenberg were crying rivers of Tears were flowing through the crowd Eisenhower was shaken to the Core he was visibly and profoundly moved and all the others who had prepared speeches says said we can't speak anymore there's nothing left to say and Eisenhower turns to the closest Burger Anna and he says holy rabbi what is it that I can do for you what can I do for your people and the closenberger rebel looks at him who knows what in the world the Rev is going to ask for the rabbit says general today's Yom Kippur they're four days left until sukis please General can you bring us dollar meaning can you bring us the rule of an asterisk that's all we ask for that is all we need Eisenhower cannot believe his ears on that day he dispatched a plane to travel to Italy to bring them back dalarmina to give over a message to give over the feelings of Claudia Israel they're suffering and the Triumph of their survival to give it over to Eisenhower we needed someone at least as great as the closenberger Reba how great do we have to be to give over the message to our children and grandchildren to Future generations to give over in the proper way the agony of Destruction and the glory of our continuous survival how great must we be to accomplish such a Monumental task to give over such a message a recent Gallup poll revealed the following American Jews were asked what do you believe most defines the meaning of being Jewish amazingly the answer that topped the list at 73 percent was remembering the Holocaust while on the one hand this response is quite hardening this means that the American Jewish Community realizes instinctively the importance of remembering the Holocaust but upon further analysis this is a statistic that should be a dagger in our hearts this is a devastating statistic because only 19 percent of American jewry Define being Jewish as observing Jewish law which puts into very sharp Focus that the concept of Holocaust Memorial is profoundly misunderstood and there's a fundamental lack of awareness what it is that we need to memorialize what lessons we need to give over what lessons we need to emphasize and focus on for our next Generation because while 73 percent of American Jewelry values Holocaust Memorial is approximately the same percentage as the intermarriage rate in this country and I want you to know the Nazis were well aware of this spiritual Holocaust that was taking place in the United States of America my grandfather would say that when the Nazis would beat him you know what they would say to him they would say the Jewish people have no hope we Germans we're gonna wipe out the Jews of Europe the Arabs will take care of the Jews in Palestine and the Jews of America the Jews of America will take care of themselves to deliver the message in the proper way to understand the purpose of Holocaust Memorial we require true Torah greatness to know what to emphasize and how to articulate it something that I am completely Unworthy of but I stand before you to borrow the analogy of the I stand before you know like a who stands on the shoulders of a giant I am not sharing with you this afternoon my own thoughts and perspectives but I would like to share with you the experiences and the perspectives of a giant a giant of spirit Majestic personality a great Sadiq someone who is very close and dear to me my grandfather haramortica Lee gladstein Hashem my grandson has been a rub in Pittsburgh since 1951 and is a survivor of all the infamous camps radham Auschwitz Dachau and in 1945 when the American Army and the Russian army was approaching the Germans had to make a very important decision they could either Focus their resources at the war fund to try to win the war they could dedicate all of their energies and efforts to exterminate whatever whatever Jews were still left in Europe they chose the latter so they should they rounded up all the Jews that were still left in the camps my grandfather included and they packed them like animals onto cattle cars without food or drink where this train was headed to the Terrell mountains where they would have to be dig their own Graves and they would be shot I happened to chance upon a book that describes what the conditions were like on these cattle cars and perhaps more importantly this book contained a historical gem that I don't think anyone and even my family was aware of the name of the book is called a brush with death written by an artist in the death camps Morris wissigrad he writes the following there were more than 100 men stuffed into our car it was so crowded no one could sit the doors were shut immediately after the car was full it took about three hours before the train started to move finally the train began to move but then it stopped again at the gedanski terminal here it stood for about an hour and a half the heat was unbearable we started to scream Through the Windows begging for water the ukrainians guarding us brought us water only in exchange for valuables after receiving their many guards simply splashed the water into the faces of the victims cursing and laughing sadistically people had to perform bodily functions right in the car gradually the stench became unbearable I can no longer react to anything around me I lost all sense of fear death was imminent there was one Rabbi on the car Rabbi Mordechai Glaston about midnight Rabbi gladstein called out Jews it is time for us to save we all joined him in reciting the prayers somehow Rabbi glanstein and his brother survived the war and settled in the United States with the help of the almighty the American Army discovered the plan of the Germans and under the direction of U.S Air Force and the Brigadier General Henning Linden the American Army bombed the railroad tracks and thwarted the plan of these rashan my grandfather said over many times that when the SS officers realized their end was near they quickly exchanged uniforms with the Jewish inmates but when the American Army landed they were not duped by this scheme the Jewish prisoners were skeletons they were walking cadavers and the German officers were fat and robust the American General Henning Linden hand in my grandfather his pistol rabbi here take the gun take revenge against the enemy to which my grandfather responded Revenge I leave Revenge to the replenish dilemma it's been five years since I've been able to look into my gamara I was in minerals now I am reunited with my gemara this is my freedom I leave Revenge the revanish upon liberation my grandfather was appointed pointed head religious Department of the of the joint The Joint distribution committee because aside from being a rabbi in a great time he was a talmud of nakam Zamba benakum Zamba he had smiha from the rava the rava varsha of but he had also studied English in Poland and but he was given a Jeep by the American Army he was given an army uniform and in his capacity as the head of the religious Department Of The Joint distribution committee he acted as the liaison between the Army and the sheriffleta when General Eisenhower visit to throw the thing my grandfather was the one who served as Eisenhower's translator for the survivors and as the survivors translator to Eisenhower and when Eisenhower consented to ship the dollar meaning into felderfing those dollied mean him arrived at the desk of my grandfather and I am very proud to say he was the Heavenly messenger who personally distributed hundreds of dollar medium to the survivors that very first circus and what I'm telling you is not only documented in writing I have the original photographs of my grandfather Distributing the download meaning in preparation of the survivor's very first circus [Applause] attention tanoia the whole world was destroyed mankind perished the animals the fish the birds they're all gone then he comes out of the table and what's the very first thing he does he plants a Vineyard says Rashi in the name of hazal also asks foreign was criticized that the very first thing that he planted was a Vineyard he should have planted something else first what else should I have planted what's wrong with planting a Vineyard sees a world decimated he's mourning for the world he has to console himself what does it say in Michigan you give wine to the downtrodden himself over the depressed situation of the world what's wrong with what Nayak did foreign he sees the world destroyed he sees utter Devastation kazal are teaching us what our mission is in the aftermath of tragedy kazal are teaching us then Noah should not have afforded himself the luxury of sipping wine comforting himself feeling sorry for himself it's not a time to soak in misery of the past because all are teaching us Now's the Time to roll up your sleeves pick yourself off the floor dust yourself off and build for the future there's no time to wallow in self-pity sipping your wine there's a world to rebuild don't plant a Vineyard plant grain for bread for the future noyak has criticized for his attitude don't soak in tragedy build for the future let this serve as an important model to us and how we react and recover in the generations after the Holocaust yes it's important it's vital to remember to memorialize but we don't allow ourselves to become completely absorbed in memorialization we don't wallow in self-pity the focus is we roll up our sleeves and they invest our efforts in building for the future what did my grandfather do after the Holocaust he didn't feel sorry for himself he would say he felt a tremendous tremendous Supernatural spiritual energy that the rebunction was investing in him to help rebuild the Jewish people and my grandfather invested every fiber of his being to help strengthen and rebuild the sheriff's haplata in his capacity as the head of the religious Department of the joint and through his connections with General Eisenhower he had all types of tashmi Shay mitzvah tashmi kadusha shipped to the DP camps he distributed sitzis talesim har dollar minimum there were no sperm in the camps my grandfather published very first saw him in the DP camps of ital the Evan schlam of the Wilmer grind and they were published in the American army green green covers I have a letter from one of their abundant in Europe Goldman who is the average of knifefest vassarburg thanking my grandfather for all of his efforts restoring Jewish life in the camps to the survivors rather Goldman writes about my grandfather after much effort sweat and toil he was successful in building mcflies could you imagine such a thing building a mikvana DP camp lease yeshivas my grandfather built yes after witnessing the greatest disaster that ever happened to our people my grandfather could have easily folded his hands despair and planted the proverbial Vineyard sipping the wine of consolation but that's not how a Jew reacts to tragedy a Jew gets off the floor dusts himself off rolls up his sleeves built for the future and what my grandfather considered his most rewarding and sacred task was he was able to use his capacity to help the survivors find relatives either in the United States or Canada or Arizona and if someone was able to locate a relative then he was able to secure a papers passport Visa and they were able to move there and rebuild their lives until recently we weren't fully aware of the extent of my grandfather's activities in the joint and when we learned about it we asked Sadie how many families how many people did you have did you help rebuild their lives after the war grandfather didn't want to say my grandmother who was also a survivor also a very remarkable story my grandmother said thousands thousands of families and only two days ago well I Was preparing this address found in an old issue of Art that one of the great individuals who my grandfather was able to find contacts for and help relocate was none other than the klezenberger Reba my grandfather writes what is the proper way to memorialize the Holocaust how do we show respect and honor to the nishamas of the kadoshima my grandfather wrote we have to follow the path of Rubio manzakai who while mourning for the imminent destruction of the Bayside mcdosh which he predicted he clandestinely snuck out of you shall I am to meet the spazian and to secure the future of the Jewish people by asking for yavneva for asking for the security of the Yeshiva ice there this is how we survivors rights my grandfather honor the memory of the condition by dedicating ourselves to building the mikadashi mahat the yeshivas the bate that is the only way to memorialize The Souls of the Kardashian but when discussing the years of horror and Gloom the years of suffering and pain the most important message to give over men this mysterious so many years and had from its voice I heard this when I was a child but I can confirmed this story more recently in a book The Iron furnace by George topaz about how my grandfather and the forced labor camps would secretly make daily minimum and I quote to you from the iron furnace page 99. While most of us were interested mainly in food we had with us a young Rabbi named Mordechai Gladstone who every morning with a friendly manner looked for the tense man so that the required Minion or Quorum could pray together with his brother present always managed personally as a rabbi of a shul were at times it's a struggle to put together the daily minion it's my grandfather's mysterious methosh it's my inspiration to appreciate this of course it is to gather yet and together for a minion throughout all the years was together with his brother Hanoi Uncle all of the camps and they were Meister nathash to perform as many Mitzvahs as possible in one particular camp in a death camp is under the direction of the most brutal lager fuhrer a Russia by the name of ficus my grandfather and his brother were successful in smuggling in a pair of filling every morning they would awaken at the crack of dawn to put on these filling at the threat of death first my grandfather and then his brother if any of the SS officers would have seen them especially psychus they would have been shot instantly one morning my grandfather put on the fill in the shellyad and then the show Rush he takes off the thrilling he gives them to Uncle haynock Uncle heinos puts on this villain he puts on this feeling show yard he then puts on that's Fila show right Justin's Ficus barges in he sees the villain he picks up his gun to shoot but then he looks at this feeling shall rise perched on the head of this sadik oh look of fear and dread overcomes the Nazi he puts down the gun and he runs away in awe I heard the story not only from my grandfather when I was a child I heard it from an eyewitness my grandfather says this is a fulfillment of the gemara embracas Mara says on the Posse Hashem and all the nations of the world will see that the name of God is upon you and they will fear you says the gemara ailot Phil and Shabba rice this refers to the filling of the head my grandfather said it was an open miracle over pesach I met a yid ah said who happened to tell me that his father who was in the camps once mentioned to him that there was one pair of fill in and one end of the camp and on the other end of the camp there was a certain rub who whenever possible would crawl secretly on his stomach something like a half a mile to the bunker with the filling he would stick his arm into a hole in the wall and the guy on the other side would quickly wrap the filling on he would then stick his head into a hole and the guy on the other side would put on his head and this man said that his father told him that this rub crawl to those filling like a man crawling to drink water who's about to dehydrate you know who this rub was from this neighborhood who my grandfather was together with after the war I have a picture of the two of them together with a few other individuals they started a good as Israel in Europe right after the war in this day and age we're challenged with the kids at risk or not even the disenchanted youth they say they don't feel it there's no simple solution but if only we could better communicate this message of mysterious what a yid would do for a minion with the minion you didn't were my son nephes for a pair of filling an opportunity to put on a pair of fill in was the greatest treasure imaginable above all that's it share with you one last story a chilling story a story my grandfather records again in the shadat yeah my grandfather writes from rods and we were transported to Dachau the valley of weeping of the Germans killings every day total humiliation in the eyes of the Germans who derived the greatest pleasure and Joy from our presentations my dear brother haynak and I were kicked and chased to the crematoriums at the doorstep of the base hasrifa the house of burning we're tens of thousands were choking from the most shocking convulsions my brother says my throat is so parched I will die of thirst even before I get inside I would like to ask for some water and I responded my dear brother it is better without water so that death will remove will relieve us of our misery sooner we were inches we were moments from the albums but a Heavenly Miracle occurred standing at the threshold of death an SS officer appeared he grabbed us both and barked in a commanding voice you are capable of work and he dragged us away this Godly wonder will remain in our Memories Forever after the Holocaust was over my grandfather was interviewed by the secular media and as recorded in a book entitled after the Holocaust my grandfather was asked rabbi after being an eyewitness to the brutality of the Germans after seeing with your own eyes the devastation of your people the mass murderer of your brothers and sisters did you at any point lose faith in your God blue States with faith and the promises of the Torah my grandfather responded did I lose faith yes I lost faith I lost faith in mankind I lost faith in humanity how could human beings become animals and barbarians How could a civilized society like Germany shed their conscience how could the USA and President Roosevelt and other Democratic countries look the other way stick their head in the sand and ignore what was happening to the Jews in Europe so did I lose faith yes I lost faith in man but never even for a moment that I was faith in my god did I lose faith in the Torah my faith in God only became stronger a Jew never loses faith who can fathom the deep-seated ammuna Tahira The Soaring faith of these Giants of spirits there are no words that can even begin to capture the Towering on bending faiths of these yiddin and so we try our utmost to relay to our children to our families the amuna that a Jew never loses Faith a Jew never gives up hope in any situation uh yet is never we just celebrated yet and as joyous of an occasion that there was the reality was four-fifths of Cloudy Israel didn't make it only one-fifth survived Israel what was it about that one-fifth that they survived were they really better than the 80 percent they couldn't have been better malachim said about them they were idolaters they had fallen to the 49th level of Tama had they remained the moment longer they would have fallen to the point of no return they were arrow in the area empty amid slice they weren't better than the 80 percent says then it sinned listen to a native the only thing they had going for them was that the 80 percent foreign it was only the slim minority who made it Adam it's Ryan as unworthy as they were their hearts were still aflame with the belief that the replenished is going to take them out when pesach was over spoke to my grandfather said zaidi and he told me the same thing Betty says every year was beautiful but now I'm just waiting for the Nissan now anyone could say these words but my grandfather says it in a way where you know that he feels that it's an absolute reality like you would be ordering something from Amazon and it's coming either Monday or Tuesday and on Monday you're waiting knowing 50 50 and they come today that's how my grandfather waits for the Google a year who saw the greatest Devastation that ever happened to our people emerged with Ironclad amuna Cruces absolute faith in the coming of the ultimate Redemption and this is the message we give over to our children until that great day comes may it come speedily in our times we ask the reborn you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com