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LOT 467:
Letter by the Gaon Rabbi Aviezer Zitzewitz
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Letter by the Gaon Rabbi Aviezer Zitzewitz
Handwritten and signed letter by the gaon Rabbi Aviezer Zitzewitz to Rabbi Chaim Heller. Elul 1937.
Among other things, the gaon writes about his daughter Haddassah who wanted to travel to the Land of Israel, but due to the difficulties obtaining a certificate, she remains in Berlin in the meantime to study at a gymnasium, and he concludes with blessing to be inscribed and sealed for the good.
The holy gaon Rabbi Aviezer Zitzewitz, rabbi of the Berlin community, managed to escape the Nazi claws and reached the Land of Israel, passing away in 1976. During the Holocaust, he refused to shave his beard, even when requested to do so by the members of his community due to the Nazi threat, yet he stood firm in his refusal. It is told that there were a number of failed attempts by the Nazis to catch him. The first time he was walking by himself in the streets of Berlin. Two SS soldiers accompanied him with a request that he go with them to the local police station. When a train car passed by, he jumped on it and escaped them. The second time, when he was with his wife traveling on the train, a German attacked him and wanted to strike him with his blows, and another German intervened and separated the two, saving his life. The third miracle in which the rabbi was saved from being deported to Poland was when the Nazis carried out a search for Polish subjects staying on German land. Every Jewish Polish citizen who was caught was immediately deported to Poland. One night, the Germans arrived at Pastoltzi Street, where Rabbi Zitzewitz lived. There was a sign on the door of his apartment announcing that "Rabbiner A. Zitzewitz" lived there; the rabbi refused to disguise his name and title. Knocks on doors and loud shouting could be heard all around. The deportees were forcibly removed from their homes and taken to Poland. Only one apartment was passed over by the Nazis with no explanation, that of Rabbi Zitzewitz. In Hash-m's lovingkindness, he managed to get out of Berlin together with his family and immigrate to the Land of Israel, where he lived until his passing in 1976.
[1] leaf 22x29 cm. Fold marks, tears in the fold marks, fine condition.
