the latter refused
.
“Kasztner did not save me, God did,” said the Rebbe of Satmar
.
The Rebbe of Satmar was on Kasztner’s train! Again, Atara wanted to run to Mila, but Mila would get angry if Atara suggested the Rebbe was linked to a Zionist venture. She needed more information. She read on.
The paper retold the judge’s verdict: Kasztner
sold his soul to the devil
when he sacrificed the mass of Hungarian Jews for a chosen few.
One editorial noted that Kasztner’s negotiations mirrored the stance of many Jewish leaders who agreed to the Nazi distinction between elite Jews and the masses—an agreement especially problematic in Hungary, where Jewish leaders knew where the cattle cars were headed; in April ’44, two escapees from Auschwitz, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, had informed Hungarian leaders, in detail, about the crematoria.
Atara stopped reading. Had the Rebbe of Szatmár been informed? Had he warned his community before fleeing? She scanned the tight print for
Joel Teitelbaum, Szatmár, Satmar, Satmarer Rebbe
.…
A first contingent, 388 elect Jews out of 18,000 in the ghetto of Cluj (Kolozvár), in Transylvania.…
Kolozvár, Mila’s hometown.
If the Rebbe was part of the Kolozvár contingent, then Mila’s mother could have seen him.
Boarding the ferry to Calais, Atara spent her last coins on a magazine.
The contingent from Cluj arrived in Budapest on June 10, 1944, and was placed in a guarded, privileged camp in the courtyard of the Wechselmann Institute for the Deaf, on Columbus Street
.
June 10, 1944, was a Sabbath day. The Rebbe of the Satmar Hasidim, Joel Teitelbaum, would not carry his prayer shawl and phylacteries from the train station to Columbus Street.…
The Rebbe was on the contingent that left Kolozvár.
Atara rose. She wanted to apologize for doubting the story Mila had needed her so much to believe, about Mila’s mother running to the Rebbe.…
On a bench in the ferry’s passenger cabin, Mila was reading
Lives of Our Holy Rebbes
. She looked up when Atara called her name, and frowned when she saw the stack of newspapers in Atara’s hands. Just then, the loudspeaker sputtered that passengers should gather their belongings and prepare for customs. Out the large cabin windows, Atara saw the deckhandsalready mooring the ferry to the dock. She would have to wait until they had gone through customs before speaking to Mila.
Holding their stateless papers instead of passports, the girls walked up to the customs officer. Atara’s heart fluttered as it had at previous border crossings, but other thoughts distracted her, thoughts of how much it would mean to Mila, that the circumstances of a special train, the circumstances of her mother’s death, could be validated. She also thought of how this new information might affect her relationship with Mila. Perhaps, once Mila learned that the Rebbe owed his life to a Zionist venture, to the very Zionist who negotiated with Eichmann, Mila might understand some of Atara’s doubts, might begin to question the Rebbe’s infallibility.
On the journey from Calais to Paris, in the intimacy of a compartment they had to themselves, Atara sat next to Mila and took her hand. She showed Mila the photograph of the open boxcars. She apologized for not believing Mila’s version of her mother’s death.
Mila stared at the photograph.
“It was a special train,” Atara explained, “that’s why the doors were open. It was a train of
prominenten
and the Rebbe was on it and the first contingent left from Kolozvár—”
“Kolozvár?” Mila’s voice trembled when she uttered the name of her hometown. “But the Rebbe lived in Szatmár, not Kolozvár.”
Atara told Mila what she had read about the Rebbe’s escape: the Rebbe had fled Szatmár in secret, in the middle of the night, but was caught before reaching Romania and wasplaced in the Kolozvár ghetto, where he heard of the Zionist train for
prominenten
.
“The Rebbe would never deal
.
“Kasztner did not save me, God did,” said the Rebbe of Satmar
.
The Rebbe of Satmar was on Kasztner’s train! Again, Atara wanted to run to Mila, but Mila would get angry if Atara suggested the Rebbe was linked to a Zionist venture. She needed more information. She read on.
The paper retold the judge’s verdict: Kasztner
sold his soul to the devil
when he sacrificed the mass of Hungarian Jews for a chosen few.
One editorial noted that Kasztner’s negotiations mirrored the stance of many Jewish leaders who agreed to the Nazi distinction between elite Jews and the masses—an agreement especially problematic in Hungary, where Jewish leaders knew where the cattle cars were headed; in April ’44, two escapees from Auschwitz, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, had informed Hungarian leaders, in detail, about the crematoria.
Atara stopped reading. Had the Rebbe of Szatmár been informed? Had he warned his community before fleeing? She scanned the tight print for
Joel Teitelbaum, Szatmár, Satmar, Satmarer Rebbe
.…
A first contingent, 388 elect Jews out of 18,000 in the ghetto of Cluj (Kolozvár), in Transylvania.…
Kolozvár, Mila’s hometown.
If the Rebbe was part of the Kolozvár contingent, then Mila’s mother could have seen him.
Boarding the ferry to Calais, Atara spent her last coins on a magazine.
The contingent from Cluj arrived in Budapest on June 10, 1944, and was placed in a guarded, privileged camp in the courtyard of the Wechselmann Institute for the Deaf, on Columbus Street
.
June 10, 1944, was a Sabbath day. The Rebbe of the Satmar Hasidim, Joel Teitelbaum, would not carry his prayer shawl and phylacteries from the train station to Columbus Street.…
The Rebbe was on the contingent that left Kolozvár.
Atara rose. She wanted to apologize for doubting the story Mila had needed her so much to believe, about Mila’s mother running to the Rebbe.…
On a bench in the ferry’s passenger cabin, Mila was reading
Lives of Our Holy Rebbes
. She looked up when Atara called her name, and frowned when she saw the stack of newspapers in Atara’s hands. Just then, the loudspeaker sputtered that passengers should gather their belongings and prepare for customs. Out the large cabin windows, Atara saw the deckhandsalready mooring the ferry to the dock. She would have to wait until they had gone through customs before speaking to Mila.
Holding their stateless papers instead of passports, the girls walked up to the customs officer. Atara’s heart fluttered as it had at previous border crossings, but other thoughts distracted her, thoughts of how much it would mean to Mila, that the circumstances of a special train, the circumstances of her mother’s death, could be validated. She also thought of how this new information might affect her relationship with Mila. Perhaps, once Mila learned that the Rebbe owed his life to a Zionist venture, to the very Zionist who negotiated with Eichmann, Mila might understand some of Atara’s doubts, might begin to question the Rebbe’s infallibility.
On the journey from Calais to Paris, in the intimacy of a compartment they had to themselves, Atara sat next to Mila and took her hand. She showed Mila the photograph of the open boxcars. She apologized for not believing Mila’s version of her mother’s death.
Mila stared at the photograph.
“It was a special train,” Atara explained, “that’s why the doors were open. It was a train of
prominenten
and the Rebbe was on it and the first contingent left from Kolozvár—”
“Kolozvár?” Mila’s voice trembled when she uttered the name of her hometown. “But the Rebbe lived in Szatmár, not Kolozvár.”
Atara told Mila what she had read about the Rebbe’s escape: the Rebbe had fled Szatmár in secret, in the middle of the night, but was caught before reaching Romania and wasplaced in the Kolozvár ghetto, where he heard of the Zionist train for
prominenten
.
“The Rebbe would never deal
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