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#489 (s5767-28) 14 Nissan 5767 The Mauthausen Matza Bakery In his dream, his deceased father and he were visiting the Rebbe of Radomsk, the Shivchei Kohen. The Mauthausen Matza BakeryAvrohom
M. Alter
On the journey to Mauthausen, their train had lurched to a halt. The door slid open slightly and they saw an open car loaded with wheat kernels standing nearby. Within easy reach were hundreds of kernels. They scooped up several handfuls before the train began to move again. "It's exactly thirty days to Pesach," he told his fellow Jewish prisoners. "We ought to save these kernels - Who knows? Maybe we'll be liberated by Pesach, and we will use these for matzos mitzvah!" Now, it was two weeks before Pesach and they were still prisoners and the hunger was getting worse with each passing day. Krakowski was approached by three of his friends, Mendel Markus and the Rubenstein brothers. They wanted him to ask the Block Altester (Senior) and the Stuben Altester (Room Senior) for permission to bake matzos, since he was on good terms with them. His friends would take care of the time and place, using the washroom late at night so the SS would not find out. The only problem would be to heat the stove sufficiently so the baking could proceed quickly. Krakowski could not share in their excitement. They were in a prison camp, surrounded by SS on all sides. He could not see risking their lives further just to bake matzos. And then, what about the prisoners who sleep near the stove? Some were only "half-Jews" and "quarter-Jews." They were so crowded that they practically slept in a heap. They would never tolerate the overheated stove. What would they do if an SS officer would make a sudden appearance? And how would they beat the kernels into flour? The plan was simply too fraught with doubt and danger. They consulted with R' Avigdor Glanzer, a scholar whose words they all respected, and he agreed with Krakowski fully. The others, however, were not convinced. "But still . . ." one of his friends began. "Maybe they could still manage . . ." another one suggested. "After all, the grain - isn't it a sign from Heaven that G-d wants us to go ahead and bake matzos?" "Look here," Krakowski insisted, "no one ever thought of baking matzos until I said it - in that boxcar from Sachsenhausen. It was my idea, and now I say forget about it. As for G-d wanting us to eat matzos, His help can come in a flash, anyway. Let's just leave things to Him." His retort quieted them, but it did not put his mind at ease. That night he slept fitfully. In his dream, his deceased father and he were visiting the Rebbe of Radomsk, the Shivchei Kohen. They were standing at the Rebbe's table. Next to him stood his son-in-law, Reb Moshe. (He had known already that the Rebbe and his son-in-law had been killed by the SS in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942, together with their wives.) The Rebbe asked him, "What are you going to do about davening (praying) with a minyan (quorum)? It is written: Davar v'lo chatzi davar 'A whole thing, and not halfway.' " He answered: "If it is at all possible, when someone has to say Kadish on a Yahrzeit (the anniversary of the death of a parent) they get ten people together. They also manage an occasional abbreviated prayer service." Suddenly, his father was not there anymore. He realized while dreaming that his father was no longer in this world and he began begging the Rebbe to look into their situation, and that he should pray to G-d to help them. Then he told him the entire story of the grain. He told him about their discussion and his closing retort. He asked him what he thought about the matter. He answered: "I shall tell you. As a matter of principle you are right, but you should remember how your dear father labored to bake matzos. And it is written: V'chen TaAsu L'doros! 'And thus you shall do for all your generations.' " The dream was over. The next morning Abe Krakowski awoke full of hope that they would be freed. The words were echoing in his ears: V'chen TaAsu L'doros! "Thus you shall do for all your generations ... all your generations!" There would be more generations! He quickly ran to R' Avigdor Glanzer and all but shouted, "Glanzer, we'll bake matzos!" He stared at him, and asked, "What happened all of a sudden?" He told him the entire dream and the impression it had made on him. "If that is the case, I have no counsel to offer you and I am in agreement," he said, "- and very happy at that." He went to Markus and the Rubensteins, and also told them the story, and that they would indeed bake matzos. He was so convinced that liberation was at hand that no guns could scare him. Glanzer, one of the Rubensteins, and he approached Atze, the Block Senior, for permission to bake the matzos in the evening after lights out. He asked, "Where do you expect to do all that?" They told him that the preparation would be done in the washroom, but they would like to have the stove in the room well heated so the baking could be handled with speed. They assured him that the whole operation, from beginning to end, would take only a half hour. He went with them to Ernst Gottlieb, the Room Senior. Both realized that they were serious. They agreed, and added, "Please think of us, too." They quickly began the detailed planning on how to accomplish the task. They washed four towels and hung them to dry on the wall. After they had dried, they wrapped the grain kernels in the towels and took four hammers they had access to and beat the grain until late in the afternoon. They did this out in the yard. The guards were puzzled by these actions, but they were not permitted to talk to them nor they to them. But they could hear them asking each other: "What are they doing there?" As the grain became pulverized, they poured it into a piece of paper. After several hours of arm-aching work, they had collected about two hundred grams of flour, less than half a pound. During the course of the day they found a tin can which they heated through to make it kosher for Pesach use. By bedtime the stove was piping hot. When the light was turned off, some of those near the stove started to complain that it was too hot for them. Gottlieb raised his voice, "Krakowski is not to be disturbed in his work. Everyone quiet!" That was sufficient to silence the complaints. They quickly went into the washroom. They prepared the dough in a bowl they had previously heated and cleaned, and whispering, with tears they sang snatches from Hallel. The kneading and rolling took some ten minutes. They had a board for rolling out the dough, but they had to use an empty bottle as a rolling pin. Abe Krakowski stationed himself at the stove and every minute or so one of his co-workers brought him a matza from the washroom. The stove was so hot that it took barely two minutes for six matzos to be done. He would slide one matza on and take off another. They stuck to their schedule and the entire work was finished in less than eighteen minutes! They had baked sixteen matzos, each about the size of the palm of a hand. For the first time in years they went to bed happy. The next morning they began writing down the Haggada and its recounting of the Exodus from Egypt, piecing it together from whatever anyone could remember by heart. In the evening, the Seder began. Again, they slipped into the washroom. The previous evening they were six in the washroom; that night, they were fifteen! There were more who wanted to join, but there was not enough room and they were afraid that the SS might hear them. They started reciting the Haggada very quietly. Some could not contain themselves and broke into sobs. As for Abe Krakowski, he could not utter a single word! When he quieted down a little from his sobbing, he reminded the others not to forget where they really were and to try to be quick so as not to get caught and killed. After they recounted the Exodus from Egypt, they washed their hands and each one ate a piece of matza. Krakowski permitted himself to save a piece the size of a fingernail, as a segula (auspicious omen)." At the conclusion of the Seder, after the traditional "Next year in Jerusalem," they said in one voice, as if it were part of the text: "If G-d will only free us now, they we will have to make an even greater Haggada." ~~~~~~~~~~~ Biographical
note:
Yrachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed,
and editor of Ascent Quarterly and the AscentOfSafed.com and KabbalaOnline.org
websites. He has hundreds of published stories to his credit. |
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