1940-1953: Between Hitler and Stalin
Burying loved ones and breaking free
World War II and the Holocaust rained destruction upon the Jews of the Soviet Union. Having borne attacks on their spiritual life for years, the Jews now faced the Germans from the West, who came to annihilate them physically.
Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidim suffered the same fate as their neighbors and friends, with many being exterminated in the cities and towns of Ukraine and White Russia. At the same time, many Soviet Jews managed to escape eastward. A large number of Chabad Chassidim reconstituted themselves in Soviet Uzbekistan, where amidst the privation and death of war they and their fellow refugees were able to resurrect a Jewish community.
In 1946, after the war’s end, the refugee communities in Uzbekistan learned of a limited opportunity to escape the Soviet Union via Polish repatriation. During that year, 1,200 members of the Chabad Chassidic community escaped the USSR using false Polish identity papers in the Great Escape. But the end was nowhere in sight. The years until Stalin’s sudden 1953 death would be among Soviet Jewry’s darkest.
Burying loved ones and breaking free
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A firsthand glimpse of the literary yield of the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Chabad Rebbe
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After a childhood in Stalin’s USSR, he stayed devout and worked to fulfill the American dream
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Kramer’s grandfather, father and uncles played vital roles in helping Chabad take root in America and in rescuing the sixth Rebbe from Russians and Nazis
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Video | 6:32
20 Menachem Av, 5745 • August 7, 1985
My father gave his life helping to preserve Judaism in communist Russia; thus his Yahrzeit has great significance for all Jews – especially when we see the fruits of his self-sacrifice continuing to bear fruit today, with countless Jews from the Soviet Union observing Torah and Mitzvos.
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I quickly came up with a story. I told him I had served as a nurse in the Red Army . . .
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Video | 8:07
Learning from R’ Levi Yitzchok Schneerson’s Self-Sacrifice in Soviet Russia
The Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Schneerson, whose passing is marked on the 20th of Av, was imprisoned and exiled to Kazakhstan for his stance against Soviet efforts to uproot Jewish learning and practice.
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Video | 8:55
Farbrengen, 6 Tishrei, 5742 • October 4, 1981
After the passing of his mother, Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, in 1964, the Rebbe began holding a farbrengen, chassidic gathering and public address, on the date of her yahrzeit. This gathering would be dedicated to her legacy, and to the mission of the Jewish woman.
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World War II had finally come to an end. My family was back from Siberia, where we had spent most of the war years . . .
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Betsheva's father had taken all possible precautions to hide the illegal factory, covering its entrance with large planks of wood. But the approaching footsteps sounded like they knew where they were headed...
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Zaidy embraced the Torah for the last time and gently laid it, in its wooden case, under a tree. He lifted his young child in his arms and journeyed on through the forest
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"The group is leaving on the train tonight." He spoke in a whisper, although they were alone in the privacy of their home. Spies and informers could be hidden in any corner, and it was said that the walls themselves had ears...
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Just before the siege, Yaakov met his sister, Ita Sosonkin at the outskirts of Leningrad. With tears in their eyes, they promised each other that whoever stays alive will take care of the other's children.
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Even though Basia was occupied with supporting her family, three times a week she would make the long trip to visit her husband.
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What does a top-secret post-war memo to Stalin’s MGB boss tell us about the Soviet campaign against Chabad?
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