The Real Story of the Escape of the Mir Yeshiva to Shanghai

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

He was the driving force behind getting the visas that saved the entire Mir Yeshiva as well as so many others from the Nazi beasts that roamed Europe, and veritably destroyed European Jewry.

Rav Aharon Kotler zt”l, was also a recipient of one of these visas, but he was able to avoid Shanghai and travelled to America from Japan.

One of the heroic people who took part in this amazing story of Hashgacha pratis was Reb Moshe Zupnik (1918-2010) zt”l.  He was niftar approximately 13 and a half years ago.  This is his story:

Rav Avrohom Menachem Zupnik, Reb Moshe’s father, was a Boyaner chassid and a businessman in Germany. He had three sons who all went from Germany to Lithuania and or Poland to study Torah.  They were what can be called “Auslanders” and the Yeshivos accommodated them greatly.

In 1933, Reb Moshe left home at the age of 15 to study with Rav Elchonon Wasserman hy”d  in Yeshiva Ohel Torah in Baranovitch. It was located in the second republic of Poland – newly independent from Russia.  Originally, the yeshiva was established in 1906, by the Alter of Novardok, Rav Yosef Yoizel Horowitz zt”l but after the disarray of World War One it was left without a Rosh Yeshiva.  The Chofetz Chaim instructed his talmid, Rav Elchonon Wasserman zt”l, to become its Rosh Yeshiva.

Reb Moshe carried with him a letter of recommendation from a talmid chochom in Frankfurt, Rav Ben Tzion Greenfus zt”l. The letter stated, “I am sending you a bochur from Germany to learn in your yeshiva. Place him in proper lodging, amongst good bochurim, and please look after him.”

Rav Elchonon personally went outside, crossed the street and made sure to personally find him suitable lodging. Reb Moshe’s einekel stated he Reb Moshe even  remembered how Rav Elchonon even climbed up a plank of wood for him.

Reb Moshe always considered Rav Elchonon to be his rebbi. A picture of Rav Elchonon was always prominently displayed in the Zupnik dining room.

Reb Moshe zt”l recalled that at the chanukas habayis of the yeshiva’s new dining room, Rav Elchonon, beaming, gave a piece of cake and a drink to each bochur, and said with warmth, “Ersht ah mezonos, un noch dem a shehakol” (first a mezonos and then a shehakol).

In early 1936, Reb Moshe went on to learn in the Mirrer Yeshiva. He heard Mussar from Rav Yeruchem Levovitz and after his passing on the 18^th of Sivan 5696 (June 8^th, 1936) became very close to Rav Chatzkel Levenstein zt”l , the new Mashgiach. He also heard shiurim from Rav Laizer Yudel, the Mir Rosh Yeshiva and son of the Alter of Slabodka.  These shiurim were written up later by his grandson in-law, Rav Nachum Partzovitz zt”l, in a two-volume sefer entitled, “Divrei Eliezer.”  Reb Moshe  had a very close relationship with the mashgiach, Rav Chatzkel first in Mir and then in Shanghai.

Rav Chatzkel had a daughter, Yocheved, who required medical attention and Reb Moshe’s fluency in German, helped significantly with the doctors. Through this involvement, he became a ben bayis by Rav Chatzkel and even had the privilege of being his guest for the Pesach sedorim in Shanghai.

In 1938, five years after the rise of Hitler yimach shmo, a 20 year old Reb Moshe returned from the Mir to help his parents and sister in Germany.

Then on October 27^th, 1938 all Jewish Polish citizens, were thrown out of Germany with few possessions and were now in Poland in dire need of sustenance. The German Foreign Ministry had handed over the whole affair to the Gestapo, who started forcibly deporting Polish Jews over the Polish border.  In all, approximately 17,000 people were expelled in this way. The Polish authorities refused to accept them, and so most of them had to live for many long weeks in no man’s land, or the Polish border area.  This was the event that precipitated Hershel Grynspan’s shooting of a German Diplomat – which “inspired” the events of Krystalnacht on Nov. 9^th, 1938.

Finally, the Polish authorities also permitted the arrival of the family members of Jews expelled at the end of October 1938. Fortunately, a mechutan of the Zupnik family agreed to support the family if Reb Moshe would go around selling his goods.  Reb Moshe then found himself in Eastern Poland, separated from his family when Germany invaded at the start of World War II, On September 1, 1939.

On August 23^rd, 1939 Russia and Germany had a secret protocol of their ten year non-aggression pact – wherein Russia would immediately invade the eastern part of Poland after the German invasion.  Poland was to be split between the two countries.

Shortly after this, Reb Moshe “chanced” upon Rav Leizer Yudel Finkel, who told him that since he was stuck on the Russian side of Poland and was unable to help his parents, he should return to Mir to learn in the meantime.  It was all, of course, part of Hashem’s plan.

In 1939, after Sukkos, Ray Chaim Ozer Grodzensky zt”l requested that all yeshivaleit come to the Vilna vicinity to take advantage of Vilna’s new independent status. Unbeknownst to all, this new status was part of a secret Russian plan, but the Mirrer Yeshiva took advantage of this and relocated to a small town in Vilna Province called Kehdan.

NAT LEWIN’S MOTHER A”H SAVES THE DAY

We now digress to a brief biography of “Jan Zwartendijk” a Dutch businessman and diplomat in Lithuania.  who helped Jews escape from Europe by issuing fake travel permits to Curacao, at that time a colony of the Netherlands .

Born in Rotterdam in 1896, Jan Zwartendijk was a businessman who in 1939 became director of Philips radio & light bulb plants in Kovno, Lithuania.

In 1940, the USSR occupied Lithuania, and Germany invaded the Netherlands. Dutch leaders fled to London where like Poland before them, they established the Dutch government in exile. Jan, known to be highly intelligent, responsible and not a Nazi sympathizer, was installed as acting consul to Lithuania, a part-time position he filled concurrently to his work running the Philips plant.

In the sheer turmoil of the Soviet persecution of the Jewish community, Dr. Isaac Lewin, (father of constitutional lawyer Nat Lewin and grandfather of Alyssa Lewin a prominent and respected lawyer) approached Jan to get a visa to the Dutch West Indies.

Like many Jews, he was desperate to get out of Europe, where there was no haven from persecution. Jan’s superior, Dutch Ambassador to Latvia LPJ de Decker, had provided one to the doctor’s wife, Pessla Lewin. Jan asked de Decker for permission, and de Decker told him that Curacao did not actually require a visa.  They just needed  a permit containing a statement from the Dutch consul that “an entrance visa is not required for the admission of aliens to Curacao.”

Zwartendijk promptly issued a permit to Dr. Lewin. The Lewins did not have any way to reach Curacao, and Jan connected them with another diplomat, Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese ambassador to Lithuania. Sugihara stamped the Lewins’ permits with the words “TRANSIT VISA”, which enabled them to travel through Japan.

Zvulun Warhaftig, the son of a talmid of Rav Chaim Volozhin, in touch with Mrs. Lewin, approached Rav Laizer Yudel Finkel who was in Keidan teaching his Talmidim and told him in demanding words that he and his entire Yeshiva should escape.  He told Rav Leizer Yudel that the Dutch diplomat in Kovno could help Jews leave the country. Soon hundreds of Jews were descending on Jan’s office. Over the next two weeks, Jan issued over 2000 travel permits to Curacao. He knew that if the authorities found out, he could be killed without even a trial.  The danger did not deter him.

Zwartendijk coordinated with Sugihara, who issued the same amount of Japanese transit visas. In all, the fake permits created by Jan enabled 2,345 Jews to leave Lithuania and find safe haven in Asia and other safe places. Ironically, none of the “Curacao Jews” actually went to Curacao.

Only two weeks after Jan Zwartendijk started issuing Curacao visas, the operation was shut down by the Soviets and Jan had to leave Lithuania. He returned to Holland, at that time occupied by Nazi Germany, and continued working as an executive at Philips. Jan never spoke about his wartime heroism, and he died in 1976.

Many of the Jews saved by Jan Zwartendijk never learned their rescuer’s name; they knew him only as “Mr. Philips Radio.” After decades of searching, they finally identified Jan as their savior, and in 1997 Jan was posthumously honored as Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem.

In Kovno, Reb Leizer Portnoy met a bochur from Telzhe named Nosson Gutwirth, who was a Dutch citizen. When Nosson wanted to escape to Holland, he was told by the Dutch consulate that he would be unable to go there, since the Nazis controlled most of Western Europe by now. Instead, he was told to go to the Caribbean island of Curacao, which was a Dutch colony. One did not require a visa to enter, but permission from the governor was still required. Nosson, remarkably, had gotten the Dutch consulate to inscribe into his passport the words “no visa to Curacao necessary.”

Upon hearing this, Reb Leib Malin, the future Rosh Yeshiva of Beis HaTalmud, sent five bochurim, among them Reb Moshe, to do the same for everyone in the yeshiva. Reb Moshe related that he heard the consulate staff laughing and saying, “We can’t even get out of here ourselves and they think that they will get out,” but they gave it to them nonetheless.

Ray Leib decided to send Reb Moshe, whom he believed was well suited, to apply for visas there. Due to the war conditions, only one bochur, Rav Binyomin Zeilberger zt”l (1921-2005) , a fellow “Auslander from Germany and also a future Rosh Yeshiva of Beis HaTalmud, had a presentable suit. Reb Moshe borrowed it.

After failing to gain entry on the first day, he went back with Yaakov Ederman, who spoke Polish, and got in by bribing the Polish doorman. As per standard procedure, he approached the secretary, a German national by the name of Wolfgang Gudze. Reb Moshe requested 300 transit visas to get to Curacao. Gudze replied, bemusedly, “The consul has issued visas to some individuals, but will never consent to issue for an entire community, especially here in Russia. You can’t make it out. It’s impossible.”

Not taking no for an answer, Reb Moshe asked to see the consul himself, Chiune Sugihara. After his unusual request was granted, he repeated his request to Sugihara, stating that he was a representative of the Mirrer Yeshiva. Sugihara was astonished by his request. He wanted to know why he should grant them these visas without knowing if they would really leave Japan for Curacao and how. “It’s wartime,” he said. “How will you get money and ships?”

Reb Moshe would later recount that he dared to say the things he said only because he was youthful and spontaneous. He replied, “We have an office in the United States run by Rabbi Kalmanowitz, and he assured us money and ships when we get to Japan. So, don’t worry about it. We just want to go through Japan.”   Sugihara looked at Reb Moshe and said, “Show me proof.”

At a loss, Reb Moshe said to him, “We are rabbinical students, enemies of the Russian government.      We don’t believe in communism. Because of this, everything we do is done in secrecy and all communication with Rabbi Kalmanowitz is in codes and therefore useless proof. Rest assured, we will leave Japan within two weeks.”

LUCKY STRIKES CIGARETTES

With tremendous siyata diShmaya, the consul agreed to the request. However, he only agreed for the visa to explicitly state that it’s for the purpose of traveling to Curacao. He therefore needed a second stamp stating this.

It took a few days to make the new rubber stamp. In the meantime, people started lining up in front of the consulate. Upon Reb Moshe’s return to the consulate, he heard the consul’s secretary, Lithuanian-born German and Hitler admirer, Wolfgang Gudze, complaining about the enormous workload from the three hundred passports, and by now, the many more at the door. At that point, Reb Moshe approached Gudze and said, “You know what? I will help you.” Gudze, taken aback, conferred with Sugihara and said, “He wants to help me!” Sugihara looked at Reb Moshe, then told Gudze, “Let him help you.”

That’s how Reb Moshe came to sit in the consulate every day for the next two weeks, processing these visas together with this German.

Here we had a young Mir Yeshiva student who was allowed to join the consular staff, together with a German, without them having any prior knowledge about him, basically for the task of saving Jewish lives. Over two thousand Yidden came to bring their passports to Reb Moshe to stamp and process, and they actually passed them to him through the window. Among these were many chashuvim, including the Amshinover Rebbe and many yeshiva bochurim from numerous yeshivos besides the Mir.

Reb Moshe related that the German told him that he was a Nazi who was loyal to “the Fuehrer” and agreed with his philosophy of world domination. The one thing that he disagreed with him about, he said, was the Jews. He once had a Jewish acquaintance and the Jews in her neighborhood in Kovno had made a good impression on him, especially the Orthodox Jews. Every day during those two weeks, for good will, Reb Moshe brought a pack of cigarettes to Wolfgang Gudze.  (This author believes that it is likely that the cigarettes were Lucky Strikes and not Marlboro.)

With pressure from the Russians, this last remaining consulate closed its doors after those fateful two weeks during which they were still stamping visas. Parting from this secretary, Reb Moshe asked, “How can I thank you?” The secretary replied, “You don’t have to thank me, but I do want to say this: The world is a “rad” a wheel. Today Hitler’s on top, tomorrow he might be down. Don’t forget what I did for you” After that, Gudze said that he was going to Germany to fight for the Fatherland. Reb Moshe looked for him after the war, but could not find him.

During those two weeks, the Russians threw the Mirrer Yeshiva out of Kehdan and split it up into four different towns. When Reb Moshe returned with the visas, not everyone was so happy about it. There was much opposition to these provocations. It was preferred to mollify the Russians and stay alive. The sentiment of the olam was, categorically, that this was a radical plan. Prominent people even let Reb Moshe know that they felt that the trouble they were facing from the Russians was a direct result of his visas.

Faced with such strong opposition, Reb Moshe, totally flustered, ran to the mashgiach, Rav Chatzkel.

“What should I do? Should I stop what I’m doing?” he asked.  Rav Chatzkel said that since his daughter was sick and it would be very hard for him to travel. He, therefore, has negios and cannot pasken.

He then came upon two of his friends, Rav Simcha Scheps (1908-1998) and Rav Henach Fishman. After explaining his predicament, Rav Simcha grabbed him by the arm and said, “Ven mefanked un a zach endeked men. (One should finish what he began.)  Reb Moshe continued his precious work.

There were forty bochurim who didn’t take the visas, so Reb Moshe held onto them at great personal risk. Years later, a grandson of Reb Moshe, who was close to Rav Shmuel Berernbaum, was told by Rav Shmuel that he had special hakoras hatov to his grandfather. It turned out that Rav Shmuel, along with Rav Shmuel Brudny and Rav Nochum Partzovitz, was amongst those 40 bochurim. In fact, one night, Reb Moshe got a tip that the NKVD might be raiding. A friend of his said to him, “Are you crazy? Do you know what can happen to you if you get caught with forty passports?” Reb Moshe refused to listen and convinced his friend, Rav Feivel Hollander, to take the passports for a week.

One amazing episode was first revealed after Reb Moshe’s passing. Rav Shaya Shimanowitz, a former talmid of the Mir who was learning in the Kovno Kollel, was faced with a serious problem. He had visas for himself and his wife, but not for his baby daughter. They were already resigned to the fact that they were to stay in Kovno, because the Japanese consulate was already closed. When Reb Moshe heard about this, he said to Ray Shaya, “Let’s go to the consulate together and see what we can do.”

Arriving at the consulate to find the place empty and all packed up, Rav Shaya didn’t think there was anything that could be done. Reb Moshe was not ready to give up and said that he will go inside and see what he can do. Rav Shaya said to him, “Mach zich nisht nurish. There’s nothing left to do.” Reb Moshe insisted, “I know the place I am going in to see.”

Rummaging through the drawers of Sugihara’s office, he found ten blank visas containing the Dutch Curacao stamp on them. He filled them out and stamped them all with the proper stamps which he also found in that drawer. One of those visas was used for Rav Shaya’s baby, and eight more were subsequently used to save other desperate Yidden. This story was related to the Zupnik family by the Shimanowitzes at the shivah. This was yet another example of how he never publicized his gallant actions.

Despite all this, these Japanese transit visas and the Curacao stamp were as of yet totally worthless, because the Russians wouldn’t let anyone leave. It would be three more months before something happened. The Soviets, for some unfathomable reason, announced that any foreign citizen who had a visa something that was illegal until then can leave.

The audacity of the Russians was such that the fee for the journey such that the fee for the journey on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, which would take them across the entire USSR to the east coast (near Japan), had to be paid for in American dollars, which were also illegal to possess. One had to purchase tickets from the corresponding government agency, since the railroad was constructed by the Soviets, ostensibly for tourists. So by going to the agency to buy tickets, they would, in effect, be registering their emigration with the government The fact that they had to do so with illegal money made them suspicious.

With the help of Rav Avrohom Kalmanowitz zt”l, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l, Reb Shraga Feivel Mendelevitch a”h, and Mr. Irving Bunim a”h, money was sent from America. The tickets were purchased!

The bochurim were in constant fear that the entire trip was some diabolical trick or trap by the Russians.

Once in Vladivostock, they managed, with difficulty, to secure ships to Japan. In Kobe, Japan, they found adequate lodgings and even a bais medrash, with the help of a tiny Sefardic community, some twenty-five years old, and they stayed there for the next eight months. Early on, they found out that they weren’t going to Curacao after all. The governor had no intention of letting in Jews.

The Japanese, not knowing what to do with them, then sent them to the international section of the city of Shanghai, China, which was right across the strait.

It wasn’t until after the war that people were fully able to appreciate what had transpired. At that point, all began to acknowledge the great neis of the Sugihara- Curacao visas, and Reb Moshe’s role in that. This is evident from the following encounter that Rav Menachem Zupnik had with Rav Chatzkel in Eretz Yisroel in 1969. After asking him his name, Rav Chatzkel looked at him and said, “Du vaist, mir zenen em alleh shuldig. “(You should know, all of us are indebted to Reb Moshe.)

The author is indebted to a family member of Reb Moshe and an article appearing in a 2010 Yated article. Shortly after arriving in America in San Francisco aboard the General M C Meigs on July 18, 1946,  Reb Moshe married his aishes chayil, Chana Meyer. He studied in Beis HaTalmud and afterward went into business. She was his life partner and made it possible for him to lead the Torahdike life that he chose. He became a naturalized US citizen on March 10^th, 1953.

The levaya in America was held in his Yeshiva, Bais Hatalmud and in Eretz Yisroel at the Mir in Yerushalayim. Yehei zichro Boruch!

The author can be reached at [email protected]