Lengthy letter (2 pages) from some followers of Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum who survived the Holocaust and returned to Satmar, requesting the Rebbe, now settled in the United States, to help them leave post-war Europe. Satmar, [8 Cheshvan], 1947.
At the beginning of their letter, the followers, Holocaust survivors in Satmar, tell how they had sent the Rebbe a lengthy letter "on a life-threatening situation… to make efforts to save us" a few months earlier, but did not receive a response for a long time. They write that they now learned that the Rebbe did in fact send them a kindhearted response, but it had reached the city leaders who withheld the letter: "the work of Satan succeeded, in that the letter reached one of the city leaders, and immediately all the wealthy leaders conspired together…".
The Chassidim go on to describe their difficult state and ask the Rebbe to help them leave Europe: "We, his faithful students who spent days and nights… in his house, and still pray in his Beit Midrash and conduct ourselves in accordance with his decrees… and our family members wear Chassidic attire… request the Rebbe to be so good as to work to save us and have pity on us to bring us to his holy presence, or at least somewhat closer to him… For to whom can we turn if not to our teacher and rabbi who is a father to us? And it is a father's way to have mercy on his son, and it is impossible to describe in writing how terrible our condition is, as the entire city is destroyed… The leaders are leaving the city every day in various ways, but we are left full of fright… And we hope the Rebbe will recognize who has the truth on their side and do a favor for us, and of course it will be our responsibility to send the necessary expenses. And we await his response as soon as possible in order to revive our souls. – His faithful disciples who eagerly drink up his holy words and bow before him and kiss his holy hands".
The letter is signed by seven followers of Rebbe Yoel of Satmar (who sign with their names and their mothers' names, and mention their family members with various requests for recovery and success): R. Yaakov son of Miriam Schwartz and family, the shochet R. Chananya Yom Tov Lipa son of Buna Schwartz and family, R. Aharon son of Dinah Schwartz and family, R. Yitzchak Moshe son of Sarah Schwartz and family, R. Moshe Hillel son of Hitzel Sarah Kahn and family, R. Avraham Yitzchak son of Blima Sandel and family, R. Tzvi (Hershel) son of R. Natan Neta Kaufman and family.
[2] leaves (written on one side). Approx. 30 cm. Good condition. Folds. Light wear.
On the reverse of the first leaf is a lengthy handwritten inscription (in pencil) in Yiddish (possibly the Rebbe's attendant's inscription of the Rebbe's reply to the letter).
