By Hershel Rosenbluh – Anash.org
Today, Tes Tammuz, is the 25th Yahrtzeit of the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe, zt”l, Rav Yekusiel Yehuda Halberstam. His first wife and eleven children were murdered during the Holocaust. The Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe miraculously survived, and built a new family as well as many institutions of Torah and Chesed in the US and Eretz Yisroel. He maintained a close relationship with the Rebbe via his chossid Rabbi Binyomin Wulliger.
At the farbrengen of Yud-Beis Tammuz 5711/1951, the Rebbe sent the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe a bottle of mashke with many brachos, encouraging him in his holy work both in the US and in Eretz Yisroel, the latter of which was struggling and not yet off the ground.
When it came to “Mihu Yehudi” and Sheleimus Ha’aretz, he stood firmly by the Rebbe and said that those who spoke out against the Rebbe’s battle to rectify the law are full of chutzpah.
In this stirring video, the Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe tells his chassidim how he kept away from treif food while in Auschwitz, despite the great hunger he suffered and the danger involved therein. A fascinating account of mesiras nefesh during terrible times.
At the end of the clip there is footage of the visit of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, Commander of the Allied Forces in WWII, who came to the Feldafing DP camp to see the survivors. The Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe addressed the assembled and asked that the Allies help provide for the religious needs of the people in the camp.