Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam - Holocaust Period

Holocaust Period

When World War II broke out, the Jews of Hungary and Romania were not immediately affected by the German offensive against Polish and Lithuanian Jewry. However, local anti-Semitism flourished. Following the Second Vienna Award of September 1940, Transylvania, previously given to Romania in the post World War I Trianon Treaty, was partitioned between Hungary and Romania. Northern Transylvania, including Kolosvar (in Hungarian; Cluj in Romanian and Klausenberg in German and Yiddish) was now part of Hungary, Germany's new Axis ally, rather than part of Romania. The strongly Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish communities of Transylvania such as Klausenberg and Satmar were now under the authority of the government in Budapest.

In 1941, a new law required all Jews living in Hungary to prove that their family had lived in and paid taxes in Hungary back to 1851. Suddenly thousands of Jews, including the Rebbe (who was born in Poland), were placed in jeopardy. The Rebbe, his wife and eleven children were arrested and brought to Budapest, where the family was separated. The Rebbe was jailed with a group of leaders who were eventually sent directly to Auschwitz. Thanks to the efforts of friends and supporters, the Rebbe was released and the family returned to Klausenberg.

Despite the danger, the Rebbe refused to leave his followers and made no effort to save himself from further searches. Instead, he threw himself into helping refugees from Nazi-occupied lands and tending to his followers. Between 1941 and 1944, the Rebbe never stopped studying Torah and praying for the Jewish people.

On March 19, 1944 the Germans invaded Hungary and Gestapo chief Adolf Eichmann immediately organized the round-up, ghettoization, and deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. The Klausenberg ghetto was established on May 1, 1944, and was liquidated via six transports to Auschwitz between late May and early June. Knowing that the Gestapo targeted community leaders first, the Rebbe hid in an open grave in a cemetery for several weeks. He then fled to the town of Banya, where he was conscripted into a forced-labor camp along with 5000 other Hungarian Jews. Though hunger was not a problem here—the barbed-wire enclosure had a back exit through which Jews could buy bread and milk from non-Jews—the Hungarian soldiers constantly badgered and searched inmates for their valuables. The Rebbe was forced to shave his beard, but he did not lose his composure or faith in God. He continued to conduct prayer services and even a Shabbat tisch.