Seven decades ago the center of world Jewry in Europe was in the midst of being destroyed. Mass murder by the Germans was the norm, targeted against Jews of all backgrounds and nationalities, who were executed on the streets and gassed in concentration camps.
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| The S.S. Serpa Pinto carried the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, and Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, of righteous memory, to safety in the United States in 1941. |
Miraculously, the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory, made it to the United States in March 1940, along with a few family members and several aides. From his new home in New York, the Sixth Rebbe tried in vain to procure documents and information to save those he knew were trapped back in Europe, but as they were Polish citizens and Poland would not grant them exit visas, the State Department refused to intervene on their behalf. In the conflagration of World War II, the Sixth Rebbe was unsuccessful even with his own daughter and son-in-law, , Rabbi Menachem and Shaina Horenstein, who lived in Otwock on the outskirts of Warsaw and perished in Treblinka.
But his middle daughter and her husband – the future Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, and Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, of righteous memory –were born in Russia and thus had a small chance of escape from France.
The future Rebbe and Rebbetzin arrived at Pier 8 in Staten Island, N.Y., on the 28th day of the Hebrew month Sivan, a date celebrated by Jewish communities around the world as heralding the educational revolution that the future Rebbe would lead.
Escaping With Pen in Hand
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| The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, in France (Photo: Agudas Chassidei Chabad Library) |
While his father-in-law did all he could to secure the future Rebbe and Rebbetzin's secure passage to America, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, who at the time was known by his acronym, the Ramash, faced a Paris in upheaval. The few months of quiet gave way to Germany's June 5, 1940 invasion of the 400-mile stretch of land between Abbeville and the Upper Rhine. By June 14, a swastika could be seen atop Eiffel Tower.
Two days before the occupation of Paris, the future Rebbe and Rebbetzin fled for Vichy. From there, they went to Nice and on to Marseille. From there they fled from France and on to Lisbon, Portugal, where they boarded the S.S. Serpa Pinto for the New World.
While fleeing, most passengers carried a suitcase or two, but the Ramash through all his travels and the turmoil took many cases of scholarly books and manuscripts written by Chabad-Lubavitch leaders, many of them passed down from each Rebbe to the next.
Amongst the items he brought were notes of the Ramash's many public talks on the weekly Torah portion and classes on the Talmud. Many of the teachings, which the future Rebbe would continue to commit to writing for the remainder of his life, comprised deep analytic interpretations of a specific source text that would then flow into the Kabbalistic and Chasidic lessons which he distilled so that everyone could apply those teachings to their daily lives.
By Dovid Zaklikowski 
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