The Officer on the Train

The Rebbe and his son sat facing each other on the train. At Kalvaria a German police officer came aboard and noticed Naftali. “Jude,” he called out. Naftali kept his eyes away from his father so as not to draw suspicion. The officer began to question him: where he was from, where he was going and who his parents were.

Seeing his son in danger, the Rebbe rose quickly and stepped between them. He announced that he was the boy's father. The officer stared and asked whether he, too, was a Jew, remarking that he did not look like one. The Rebbe was dressed in ordinary clothes and wore a green cap with a feather. He answered that he was a Hungarian Jew and showed his papers. The air in the compartment was thick with tension, and once more they faced the threat of death.

The officer laughed and said that he knew those papers from Bochnia and that they were forged. In a proud tone, not knowing that his words would break the Rebbe's heart, he told how on the previous night he had caught three women from Bochnia who were heading for the border with their children, and had locked them up in the Gestapo headquarters in Krakow. The Rebbe had no doubt who those women were. They were his mother-in-law, his mother and his wife, and his heart froze as he pictured their suffering.

The officer said that he would do the same to the Rebbe. Struggling to stay calm, the Rebbe answered that he had already been held by the Gestapo in Neumark, which had decided to send him back to Bochnia, and he handed over the commander's letter to the SS in Bochnia.

The officer examined the paper, and suddenly he stood to attention. He recognized the signature: it belonged to a superior of his own commander. He announced that the signer was the chief commander. He offered no apology, because a German never apologized to a Jew. Without another word he swung around and walked away, leaving the Rebbe and Naftali in peace.