Rescued from the Reich

October 18, 2004
The last decade has seen many books recounting the actions of German Christians who helped Jews survive the Holocaust. While this volume fits neatly into that genre, it's also remarkably different, since it describes high-ranking Nazis who, in a complicated series of actions, helped Rabbi Joseph Schneersohn, the esteemed head of the Hasidic Lubavitcher movement, escape to American in 1940. This is great material—the stuff of Hollywood films—and historian Rigg (Hitler's Jewish Solders
) makes the most of it. Writing in a clean, dramatic voice but with strict historical accuracy and nuanced analysis, Rigg details how, at the instigation of American Lubavitchers and some sympathetic officials in FDR's administration, highly placed German military men—including Helmut Wohlthat, an anti-Semitic aide to Göring who felt saving the rebbe would be a good public relations move, and Maj. Ernst Bloch, who had a Jewish father—conspired to spirit the ailing rebbe from Warsaw to Riga, and then Stockholm, where he sailed for New York. Rigg's canvas is broader than a simple "great escape," including the birth of the Hasidic movement in Europe, the entrenched anti-Semitism of many U.S. officials and the rebbe's controversial messianic theology after his U.S. arrival. This is a well-written and vital addition to the literature of Holocaust survivor studies. 50 b&w photos. Agent, Rob McQuilkin.

November 15, 2004
Rigg (history, American Military Univ./ Southern Methodist Univ.) examines one of the most bizarre yet fascinating rescue operations during the Holocaust. In 1940, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe (Joseph Schneerson), leader of one of the world's largest Hasidic sects, was spirited out of occupied Poland and brought to the United States. This feat was accomplished because the U.S. State Department, not known for its sympathy to Jewish refugees, conspired with the Abwehr (German military intelligence), which sent a mischling (a part Jewish) German soldier to escort the Rebbe from Warsaw to Riga. Rigg adroitly captures the political pressures and the advantages that motivated the State Department to save a few prominent Jewish "spiritual" leaders while doing little for other refugees. He also provides intriguing speculation into the motivations of the Abwehr. Rigg does not discuss the internal politics of the American Jewish community until the last chapters, information that helps explain some of the controversial issues raised during the rescue itself. He does, however, make this story accessible to a wide readership by placing it in the context of both the Holocaust and Schneerson's significance to world Jewry. Recommended for all libraries.-Frederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2004
This book details the story of the rescue of Joseph Schneersohn, the leader (rebbe) of the Lubavitch Hasidic sect, his family, and his entourage from Warsaw, Poland, in March 1940. Ultimately a Swedish liner took them to New York. An unlikely combination of top officials in the U.S. government and Nazi soldiers and officials cooperated to implement the rescue. A key figure was Major Ernst Bloch, a Nazi officer who had a Jewish father but had been "Aryanized" by order of Hitler. The highest Nazi officer involved, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the German military intelligence service, was not of Jewish origin. His agreement to participate, Rigg believes, might be seen as an early sign of his later disaffection with Hitler. What appears to Rigg as most significant in the decision to go forward with the rescue was the concerted efforts of Lubavitch Jews themselves. They used every contact they and their supporters possessed to get their pleas heard. A moving and multidimensional picture of a daring rescue during the Holocaust.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)