Here is
the orginal letter from Rabbi Weissmandl:
May 15th, 1944 - In a cave near Lublin, Poland.
"Peace and Greetings.
"We send you this special message to inform you that yesterday the
Germans began the deportation of Jews from Hungary. It is the
beginning of deportation of all the Hungarian Jews.
"Every day, twelve thousand souls are being taken off. Four
deportations of forty-five such train-loads move daily out of
Hungary. Within twenty six days all that area will have been
deported.
"The deported ones go to Auschwitz to be put to death by cyanide
gas. A great number are dead on arrival. The Germans allow a few of
the strongest to stay alive. Those who are allowed to live are
branded with a number burned into their arm and the Star of David
burned into their chest.
"Most of these privileged ones die within a month. Others take their
place.
"Those who go directly from the train to the gas chambers to be
suffocated are not branded. They are completely consumed in the
ovens and leave no evidence behind. These are 95% of each transport.
"The dead bodies are burned in specially made ovens. Each oven burns
12 bodies an hour. In February there were 36 ovens burning. We have
learned that more have been built.
"Information supplied us by a few eyewitnesses reveals that in
February there were four disposal buildings. We have learned that
more have been built since then.
"Formerly, the Germans killed and burned the Jews in the Forest of
Birkenwald, near Auschwitz. Now the killing and burning take place
in the buildings shown on the enclosed map.
"In December, the Germans built special trains to transport the Jews
of Hungary to their extermination. This is the schedule of
Auschwitz, from yesterday to the end; twelve thousand Jews - men,
women and children, old men, infants, healthy and sick ones - are to
be suffocated daily and their bones and ashes are to be used to
fertilize the German fields.
"And you - our brothers in Palestine, in all the countries of
freedom, and you, ministers of all the kingdom - how do you keep
silent in the face of this great murder ? Silent while thousand on
thousands, reaching now to six million Jews, were murdered. And
silent now while tens of thousands are still being murdered and
waiting to be murdered? Their destroyed hearts cry to you for help
as they bewail your cruelty. Brutal you are and murderers too you
are, because of the cold-bloodedness of the silence in which you
watch.
"Because you sit with folded arms and you do nothing, though you
could stop or delay the murder of Jews at this very hour.
"In the name of the blood of the thousands on thousands who have
been murdered we beg, we plead, we cry out and demand that you take
action, that you do deeds now - at once!
"That the Ministers of Kingdoms and all the Lands raise a loud and
piercing outcry that must enter the ears of the world, the ears of
the German people, the ears of the Hungarian people. Let them cry
out a warning to the German murderers. Let them proclaim that they
know all that has been done in the past, and that which is still
being done. And the Pope, himself, should join in this cry of
outrage against the German murderers.
"Let this outcry be heard over all the radios and read in all the
newspapers of the world, that unless they stop at once the
deportations of Hungary's Jews - then will Germany be forever exiled
from civilization.
"We ask that the crematoria in Auschwitz be bombed from the air.
They are sharply visible, as shown on the enclosed map.
"Such bombing will delay the work of the German murderers.
"What is more important - to bomb persistently all the roads leading
from Eastern Hungary to Poland and to bomb persistently the bridges
in the neighborhood of Karpatarus. Drop all other business to get
this done. Remember that one day of your idleness kills twelve
thousand souls.
"You, our brothers, sons of Israel, are you insane? Don't you know
the Hell around us? For whom are you saving your money?
"How is it that all our pleadings affect you less than the
whimpering of a beggar standing in your doorway? Murderers! Madmen!
Who is it that gives charity? You who toss a few pennies from your
safe homes? Or we who give our blood in the depths of Hell?
"There is only one thing that may be said in your exoneration - that
you do not know the truth. This is possible. The villain does his
job so shrewdly that only a few guess the truth. We have told you
the truth several times. Is it possible that you believe our
murderers more than you believe us? May God open your eyes and give
you heart to rescue in these last hours the remainder.
"Most important is that which I write about the bombing of the
Auschwitz Crematoria and the bridges leading to them.
"Such bombing can vitally delay the evil work of our slaughterers.
And G-d who keeps alive the last remnant of Israel will show His
mercy for which I pray. I pray as I write out of the sea of tears of
the people of Israel. We await G-d's help.
"One from the Market who witnesses the woes of his people"
(Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandel, Exhibit of the Defence, no. 36,
State Attorney v. M. Grunwald, District Court, Jerusalem,
CC124/53)
After the
war, Rabbi Weissmandel expressed his frustration in "The Holocaust
Victims Accuse", a book by Rabbi Moshe Shonfeld (Neturei Karta, USA,
New York, 1977):
"Why didn't they try, from their place of freedom, to break through
to us and send us a secret messenger? This question becomes greater
when we see that the governments of Czechoslovakia and Poland, which
were in free lands, sent secret messengers daily to their loyal
people in the occupied countries. And therefore our amazement grows.
Why don't the great organizers of Jewry use these messengers if they
have no other way? And during all of the years since we developed
this method, those in the free countries did not once attempt to
send messengers to us - rather, WE had to send them and to pay for
them. How many did we send them only for the to return empty-handed
- because those over there did not have time to answer why?"
In answer to
this, Rabbi Shonfeld quotes the Zionist leader Yitzhak Greenbaum,
who, after the war, stated:
"When
they asked me, couldn't you give money out of the United Jewish
Appeal funds for the rescue of Jews in Europe, I said, 'NO!' and I
say again 'NO!' . . . one should resist this wave which pushes the
Zionist activities to secondary importance."
During the
Kasztner case, Menachem Bader of the Jewish Agency was asked
"Did you receive this letter from Rabbi Weissmandel?" He
answered: "Letters like this came to us every day".
This is no
ordinary letter - it is from a Rabbi who
was a first-hand witness of the holocaust. Note how Rabbi
Weissmandel asks that the crematoria in Auschwitz be bombed from the
air. How it is "sharply visible" - he clearly gave information that
he hoped would be passed on to help Allied air crews bomb the murder
camps. Rabbi Weissmandl also enclosed a map of the camps. Rabbi
Weissmandel knew the bombing would delay the work of the Nazis,
which is why he spefically asked for the Allies to bomb
"persistently" all the roads leading from Eastern Hungary to Poland
and the bridges in the neighborhood of Karpatarus.
He advised
the the Zionist leadership to "Drop all other business to get this
done . . . Remember that one day of your idleness kills twelve
thousand souls". Did they do this ? The
overwhelming evidence suggests that the Zionists ignored this - and
other pleas - to save the majority of Jews in Europe from the
Holocaust, insteading they pursued the policy of building the dream
of Zionism - the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.