View source for Michael Dov Weissmandl

{{Short description|Hungarian rabbi (1903–1957)}}
{{Infobox Jewish leader
| honorific-prefix = Rabbi 
| name = Michael Dov Weissmandl{{efn|name=names}}
| honorific-suffix = 
| title = 
| image           =File:Michael Dov Weissmandl.jpg
| caption         = Weissmandl before the war
| synagogue =
| synagogueposition = 
| yeshiva = Nitra Yeshiva, [[Mount Kisco, New York]]
| yeshivaposition = [[Rosh Yeshiva]]
| organisation = 
| organisationposition = 
| began = 1946
| ended = 29 November 1957
| predecessor = 
| successor = 
| rabbi = 
| rebbe = 
| kohan = 
| hazzan = 
| rank = 
| other_post = 
<!---------- Personal details ---------->
| birth_name = 
| birth_date      = {{birth date|1903|10|25|df=y}}
| birth_place     = [[Debrecen]], [[Hungary]]
| death_date      = {{death date and age|1957|11|29|1903|10|25|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Mount Kisco, New York]]
| buried = 
| nationality = 
| denomination = [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]]
| residence = 
| dynasty = 
| parents = Yosef and Gella Weissmandl
| spouse = {{plainlist|
*Bracha Rachel Ungar 
*Leah Teitelbaum
}}
| children = 
| occupation = 
| profession = 
| alma_mater = 
| semicha = 
| signature =  
}}
{{blood for goods}}
'''Michael Dov Weissmandl'''{{efn|Also known as '''Michael Ber Weissmandl''', he took the forename '''Chaim''' after surviving the Holocaust. His surname is sometimes spelled '''Weissmandel''' or '''Weismandel'''.|name=names}} ({{langx|yi|מיכאל בער ווייסמאנדל}}; 25 October 1903{{spaced ndash}}29 November 1957) was an Orthodox [[rabbi]] of the [[Oberlander Jews]] of present-day western Slovakia.<ref>(September 26, 2019). [https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/rabbi-weissmandla-holocaust-hero-602967 Rabbi Weissmandl, a Holocaust hero], ''Jerusalem Post''.</ref> Along with [[Gisi Fleischmann]] he was the leader of the [[Bratislava Working Group]] which attempted to save European Jews from deportation to [[Nazi]] [[death camps]] during [[the Holocaust]] and was the first person to urge Allied powers to bomb  the railways leading to concentration camp gas chambers.<ref name=Forward>(September 2, 2021). [https://forward.com/fast-forward/475058/son-of-famed-rabbi-weissmandl-among-victims-of-new-york-flooding/ Son of famed rabbi among victims of New York flooding], ''Forward''</ref> Managing to escape from a sealed [[Holocaust trains|cattle car]] headed for [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] in 1944, he later emigrated to America where he established a yeshiva and self-sustaining agricultural community in New York known as the Yeshiva Farm Settlement. Accusing the Zionist Jewish Agency of having frustrated his rescue efforts during the Holocaust, he became a staunch opponent of Zionism after the war.<ref>[https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Weissmandel_Mikhael_Dov_Ber Weissmandel, Mikha’el Dov Ber],  YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.</ref>

==Early life==
Michael Ber was born in [[Debrecen]], [[Hungary]] on 25 October 1903 (4 ''[[Cheshvan]]'' 5664 on the [[Hebrew calendar]]) to Yosef Weissmandl, a [[shochet]]. A few years later his family moved to Tyrnau (now [[Trnava]], Slovakia). In 1931 he moved to [[Nitra]] to study under Rabbi [[Shmuel Dovid Ungar]], whose daughter, Bracha Rachel, he married in 1937.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oxfordchabad.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/1378317/jewish/A-Rabbi-from-the-Bodleian-Library-who-saved-Jews-from-the-Holocaust.htm |title=Rabbi Michael Weissmandl: A Rabbi from Oxford's Bodleian Library who saved Jews from the Holocaust |last=Brackman |first=Rabbi Eli |publisher=Oxford Chabad Society |year=2011 |access-date=7 May 2011}}</ref> He was thus an ''[[Oberlander Jews|oberlander]]'' (from the central highlands of Europe), a non-[[Hasidic]] Jew.

Weissmandl was a scholar and an expert at deciphering ancient manuscripts. In order to carry out his research of these manuscripts, he traveled to the [[Bodleian Library]] in [[Oxford]], [[England]]. It is related that he was treated with great respect by the Chief Librarian of the Bodleian after an episode when he correctly identified the author of a manuscript that had been misattributed by the library's scholars.<ref name="biography">{{cite web |url=http://www.weissmandl.org/TheUnheededCry/UnheededCryText.htm |title=The Unheeded Cry, Chapter 1: A Biographical Sketch |last=Fuchs |first=Abraham |year=1984 |publisher=Mesorah Publications, Ltd.}}</ref>

==World War II and the Holocaust==
While at Oxford University, Weissmandl volunteered on 1 September 1939 to return to Slovakia as an agent of [[World Agudath Israel]]. When the Nazis gathered sixty rabbis from [[Burgenland]] and sent them to Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovakia refused them entry and Austria would not take them back. Weissmandl flew to England, where he was received by the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] and the Foreign Office. Explaining the tragic situation, he succeeded in obtaining entry visas to England for the sixty rabbis.<ref name="biography"/>

===The Working Group===
{{main |Bratislava Working Group}} 
When the Nazis, aided by members of the puppet Slovak government, began their moves against the Slovak Jews in 1942, members of the Slovak ''[[Judenrat]]'' formed an underground organization called the [[Bratislava Working Group]]. It was led by [[Gisi Fleischmann]] and  Weissmandl. The group's main activity was to help and save Jews as much as possible, in part through payment of bribes and ransom to German and Slovak officials. In 1942, the Working Group initiated high-level ransom negotiations with the Germans (ref. Fuchs and Kranzler books).{{page needed|date=July 2018}} The transportation of Slovak Jews was in fact halted for two years after they arranged a $50,000 (in 1952 dollars) ransom deal with the Nazi SS official [[Dieter Wisliceny]].<ref>Dr. Abraham Fuchs, ''The Unheeded Cry''</ref><ref>Dr. David Kranzler, ''Thy Brother's Blood''</ref>

Largely with the help of diplomats, [[Gisi Fleischmann]] and possibly also Weissmandl was able to smuggle letters or telegrams to people he hoped would help save the Jews of Europe, alerting them to the progressive Nazi destruction of European Jewry. He and Gisi Fleischmann managed to send letters to [[Winston Churchill]] and [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], and he entrusted a diplomat to deliver a letter to the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] for [[Pope Pius XII]]. He originated the proposal via Rabbi [[Solomon Schonfeld]] in London to [[Auschwitz bombing debate|bomb the rails]] leading to [[Auschwitz]], but this, along with subsequent suggestions from others, were ignored.

The Working Group helped distribute the [[Auschwitz Protocols]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205784.pdf|title=Yad Vashem}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/collections/the-museums-collections/collections-highlights/mantello-rescue-mission/auschwitz-protocol|title=The Auschwitz Protocol — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|website=www.ushmm.org}}</ref> [[Kasztner]] was the first to get it in April 1944 during his  Bratislava visit. The recipients didn't do anything meaningful with the report except [[Moshe Krausz]] in Budapest who sent it to [[George Mantello]] in Switzerland around 19 June 1944 via Romanian diplomat [[Florian Manilou]] who was Mantello's friend.  Mantello received the reports early 21 June 1944 and publicized its content right away. This immediately triggered large-scale grass roots demonstrations in Switzerland, sermons in Swiss churches about the barbarism, tragic plight of Jews and starting 24 June 1944 an extraordinary Swiss press campaign of about 400 articles in German, French, Italian protesting the atrocities against Jews.

The events in Switzerland and possibly other considerations led to threats of retribution against Hungary's Regent [[Miklós Horthy]] by President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt]], [[Winston Churchill]] and others. This was one of the main factors which forced Horthy to order on 7 July 1944 stopping the death camp transports by Hungary, which until then took 
about 12,000 Hungarian Jews a day to Auschwitz.<ref>Jenő Lévai, ''Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry'' (''Fekete könyv a magyar zsidóság szenvedéseiről'', Budapest 1946 or 1948 [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/l-x00e9-vai-jen-x00f6][https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%94_%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%95%D7%90%D7%99][https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9vai_Jen%C5%91])</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The man who stopped the trains to Auschwitz: George Mantello, El Salvador, and Switzerland's finest hour|author=Kranzler, David|date=2000|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=0815628730|location=Syracuse, N.Y.|oclc=43662123}}</ref>

===Deportation===
In October 1944, Weissmandl and his family were rounded up and put on a train headed for [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]].<ref name=Paldiel>{{cite book | author = Mordecai Paldiel | title = Saving One's Own — Jewish Rescuers during the Holocaust | pages = 118–120 | publisher = University of Nebraska Press | year = 2017}}</ref> Weissmandl escaped from the sealed train by opening a hole with a saw he had secreted in a loaf of bread.<ref name=Paldiel/> He jumped from the moving train and made his way to [[Bratislava]].<ref name=Paldiel/> There he found shelter in a bunker in a storage room of a private house, along with 17 other Jews who included the [[Stropkov|Rebbe of Stropkov]] Menachem Mendel Halberstam.<ref name=Paldiel/>

[[Rezső Kasztner]] visited the bunker several times, once, to the consternation of the inhabitants, in the company of SS officer Max Grüson.<ref name=Paldiel/> In April 1945, Kasztner visited again, this time in the company of another SS officer who took the party to Switzerland in a truck with an escort of German soldiers.<ref name=Paldiel/> On arriving in Switzerland, Weissmandl suffered a major heart attack.<ref name=Paldiel/>

==Post-war America==

===Personal recovery===
After the war, Weissmandl arrived in the United States having lost his family and having been unable to save Slovak Jewry. At first, he was so distraught that he would pound the walls and cry bitterly on what had befallen his people.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/fv5769 |title=Claude Lanzmann Shoah Collection, Interview with Siegmunt Forst |access-date=2015-10-04 |publisher=Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum}}</ref> Later he remarried and had children, but he never forgot his family in Europe and suffered from depression his entire life because of the Holocaust.

His second marriage was to Leah Teitelbaum (1924/5&ndash;9 April 2009), a daughter of Rabbi Chaim Eliyahu Teitelbaum and a native of [[Berehove|Beregszász]], Hungary. With his second wife, Weissmandl had five children.<ref name="Hamodia">"Rebbetzin Leah Weissmandl, ''a"h''." [[Hamodia]], U.S. Community News, p. B20. 23-04-2009.</ref>

===Establishment of an American yeshiva===
:''See: [[Yeshiva of Nitra]]''
In November 1946, Weissmandl and his brother-in-law, Rabbi Sholom Moshe Ungar, re-established the Nitra Yeshiva in [[Somerville, New Jersey]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thejewishpress.com/displayContent_new.cfm?contentid=20133&mode=a&sectionid=20&contentname=My_Machberes&recnum=5&subid=20727 |title=Mishkoltzer Nitra Chasunah |last=Tannenbaum |first=Rabbi Gershon |access-date=2010-03-16 |date=2006-12-13 |publisher=[[The Jewish Press]] }}{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> gathering surviving students from the original Nitra Yeshiva. With the help of Rabbi [[Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz]], Weissmandl bought the Brewster estate in [[Mount Kisco]], in [[Westchester County]], [[New York (state)|New York]] and moved his Yeshiva there in 1949. There he established a self-sustaining agricultural community known as the "Yeshiva Farm Settlement". At first, this settlement was not welcome by its neighbors, but in a town hall meeting, [[Hanson W. Baldwin#Personal life|Helen Bruce Baldwin]] (1907–1994) of nearby [[Chappaqua]], wife of New York Times military correspondent and [[1943 Pulitzer Prize#Journalism awards|Pulitzer Prize winner]], [[Hanson W. Baldwin]], impressed by Weissmandl, defended its establishment and wrote a letter-to-the-editor to the New York Times regarding it. Weissmandl designed the community's yeshiva to conform with [[Talmud]]ic accounts of agricultural settlements, where a man would study [[Torah]] continuously until an age suitable for marriage, whereupon he would farm during the day and study in the evenings. While this novel approach was not fully realized, the yeshiva flourished. Currently, the settlement is known as the Nitra community.
(See also [[Kashau (Hasidic dynasty)]]).

===Later life===
During his later years, Weissmandl suffered from chronic [[heart disease]] and was frequently hospitalized. He suffered a severe heart attack in the early winter of 1957 and was hospitalized for several weeks. Upon his release, he attended the yeshiva's [[fundraising]] banquet, and then was readmitted to the hospital. His health deteriorated and he died on Friday, 29 November 1957 (6 [[Kislev]] 5718) at the age of 54.<ref name="biography" /> His second wife never remarried.<ref name="Hamodia" />

Weissmandl is buried in the Beth Israel Cemetery - also known as Woodbridge Memorial Gardens - in [[Woodbridge Township, New Jersey|Woodbridge New Jersey]], in the Khal Adas Yereim [[Vien (Hasidic community)|Vien]] section.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://kevarim.com/rabbi-chaim-michael-dov-weissmandl/|title=Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl &#124; kevarim.com|date=January 9, 2009}}</ref> On 1 September 2021, his son Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Weissmandl died aged 69 in floodwaters in [[Elmsford, New York]].<ref name=Forward/>

==Religious work==

===Books===
Two of Weissmandl's books were published posthumously.
* ''Toras Chemed'' (Mt. Kisco, 1958)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hebrewbooks.org/42028 |title=Toras Chemed, web copy |language=he |access-date=2010-04-28 |publisher=hebrewbooks.org}}</ref> is a book of religious writings that includes many commentaries and homilies, as well as hermeneutic material of a [[kabbalah|kabbalistic]] nature. Included in this book are the observations that led to what is called the [[Torah Code]]s.
* ''Min HaMeitzar'' (Jerusalem, 1960) is a book that describes Rabbi Weissmandl's war-time experiences. The title consists of the first two words of [[Psalms|Psalm]] 118:5, meaning "from the depths of despair", literally "From the Straits".<ref>{{Cite web |date=19 February 2025 |title=an excerpt from Sefer Min Hametzar |url=http://www.yhe.center/single-post/an-excerpt-from-sefer-min-hametzar |url-status=live |website=Yalkut Heshvati Etchem}}</ref>  This is the main publication in which Weissmandl's accusations against the [[Zionism|Zionist]] organizations appear.<ref name="nkusa.org">https://nkusa.org/excerpt-from-sefer-min-hametzar-by-rabbi-michael-dov-weissmandl/</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=11 February 2025 |title=TEN QUESTIONS TO THE ZIONISTS ! |url=http://www.yhe.center/single-post/ten-questions-to-the-zionists |url-status=live |website=Yalkut Heshvati Etchem}}</ref> In the book Rabbi Weissmandl quotes part of a letter sent to the [[Bratislava Working Group]] by [[Nathan Schwalb]] of the [[Jewish Agency]] "Pioneer" ([[Hehalutz]]) group. The letter essentially says that the Allies are shedding their blood on the battle field and after defeating the Nazis will divide Europe, as happened after World War I. The Jews of Europe too must shed their blood in order to have right to claim a post-war state: Israel. The letter then states that money is enclosed for the Bratislava Jewish leaders to go on an "outing" (escape to Palestine).<ref name="nkusa.org"/><ref>{{Cite web |date=10 February 2025 |title=The role of Zionism in the Holocaust |url=http://www.yhe.center/single-post/the-role-of-zionism-in-the-holocaust |url-status=live |website=Yalkut Heshvati Etchem}}</ref>

According to [[Yehuda Bauer]], the book reflects Weissmandl's ideological biases and was edited by Weissmandl's relatives after his death, limiting the historical reliability of the book. For example, it does not mention the last two transports from Slovakia in October 1942, which contradict Weissmandl's belief that the Working Group's bribes were responsible for the cessation of deportation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bauer |first1=Yehuda |author-link=Yehuda Bauer |title=Jews for Sale?: Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945 |date=1994 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-05913-7 |language=en |location=New Haven |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/jewsforsalenazij00baue|quote=Weissmandel not only has his dates mixed up; he also ignores the  two last trains completely. Most of the historians who have commented on this affair until now, including myself, have fallen into the trap of believing  Weissmandel. One reason may lie in the peculiarities of Weissmandel's book. It was put together after his death by his brother and his pupils, and it is impossible to say what part is Weissmandel and what was added or changed by his fanatical heirs. Also, Weissmandel himself was a bitter man, who had lost his wife and his children at Auschwitz and who vented his fury on those with whom he had ideological differences.  He, and his colleagues in Slovakia, had fought the good fight, and World Jewry, because it had abandoned religion and tradition, was the traitor.}}</ref>

In 1958{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}}, Rabbi Weissmandl republished the [[masterpiece|magnum opus]] of Rabbi [[Jonah Teomim-Frankel]], ''Kikayon D'Yonah'' with his own footnotes and glosses. In the introduction to this volume, Rabbi Weissmandl gives an emotional history lesson.

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
* Fuchs, Dr. Abraham (1984). ''The Unheeded Cry'' (also in Hebrew as ''Karati V'ein Oneh''). Mesorah Publications.
* Hecht, Ben. ''Perfidy'' (also in Hebrew as ''Kachas'')
* Kranzler, Dr. David. ''Thy Brother's Blood''
* {{cite journal |last=Kranzler |first=David |title=Three who tried to stop the Holocaust |journal=Judaica Book News |volume=18 |issue=1 |year=1991 |pages=14–16, 70–76 }} On Rabbi [[Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl|Michael-Ber Weissmandl]], [[Recha Sternbuch]] and [[George Mandel-Mantello|George Mantello]]
* Kranzler, Dr. David. ''Holocaust Hero: Solomon Shoenfeld - The Untold Story of an Extraordinary British Rabbi who Rescued 4000 during the Holocaust''
* Fatran, Gila. ''The "Working Group", [[Holocaust and Genocide Studies]]'', 8:2 (1994:Fall) 164–201; also see correspondence in issue 9:2 (1995:Fall) 269–276
* [[Jeffrey Satinover|Satinover, Jeffrey]] (1997). ''Cracking the Bible Code''. William Morrow. {{ISBN|0-688-15463-8}} <!--Please do not move this to the next section, as this book contains a whole chapter or two on RMDW's history and work (on the codes, but to save Jews, his yeshiva, etc.) However as a history book it is useless, as comparison with Fuchs shows easily. -->

==External links==
* [http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/communities/bratislava/working_group.asp?WT.mc_id=wiki The Working Group], The Story of the Jewish Community in Bratislava, [[Yad Vashem]]. Retrieved 22 December 2013
* [http://www.weissmandl.org The Holocaust Rescue efforts of Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061231002558/http://www.torah.org/learning/pirkei-avos/chapter3-23b.html "Torah vs. the Computer" (Rabbi Weissmandl's work on gematria)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110525072148/http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com/archives5763/NSO63features.htm "A Cry from the Pages"]
* [http://www.nkusa.org/Historical_Documents/tenquestions.cfm Ten questions to the Zionists by Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandl]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weissmandl, Chaim Michael Dov}}
[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1957 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Debrecen]]
[[Category:20th-century American rabbis]]
[[Category:Slovak Orthodox rabbis]]
[[Category:Haredi rabbis in Europe]]
[[Category:American Haredi rabbis]]
[[Category:Rosh yeshivas]]
[[Category:Holocaust survivors]]
[[Category:Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust]]
[[Category:Blood for goods]]
[[Category:Bratislava Working Group members]]
[[Category:Anti-Zionist Haredi rabbis]]
[[Category:Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Czechoslovak rabbis]]