Editorials & Comments about Rescued From The Reich,
by Bryan Mark Rigg
From Publishers Weekly
The last decade has seen many
books recounting the actions of German Christians who helped Jews survive the
Holocaust. While this volume fits neatly into that genre, it's also remarkably
different, since it describes high-ranking Nazis who, in a complicated series of
actions, helped Rabbi Joseph Schneersohn, the esteemed head of the Hasidic
Lubavitcher movement, escape to American in 1940. This is great material—the
stuff of Hollywood films—and historian Rigg (Hitler's Jewish Solders)
makes the most of it. Writing in a clean, dramatic voice but with strict
historical accuracy and nuanced analysis, Rigg details how, at the instigation
of American Lubavitchers and some sympathetic officials in FDR's administration,
highly placed German military men—including Helmut Wohlthat, an anti-Semitic
aide to Göring who felt saving the rebbe would be a good public relations move,
and Maj. Ernst Bloch, who had a Jewish father—conspired to spirit the ailing
rebbe from Warsaw to Riga, and then Stockholm, where he sailed for New York.
Rigg's canvas is broader than a simple "great escape," including the birth of
the Hasidic movement in Europe, the entrenched anti-Semitism of many U.S.
officials and the rebbe's controversial messianic theology after his U.S.
arrival. This is a well-written and vital addition to the literature of
Holocaust survivor studies. 50 b&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.
“The pious will surely see in the
Lubavitcher Rebbe’s rescue the hand of God, and view the German emissaries who
rescued him, led by a man of mixed Jewish ancestry, as angels masquerading as
devils. But historian Bryan Rigg has a very different story to tell¾part
detective story, part mystery. It is a story of diplomacy and intelligence work,
suspicions and mortal danger, soldiers and civilians mobilized to rescue one
prominent Jew and his family from the heart of German-occupied Warsaw in the
midst
of the Holocaust.”
“Rigg shows how political lobbying, bureaucratic opportunism, and the vagaries of Nazi administrative and racial policies enabled the Rebbe's rescue from wartime Poland. A bizarre story, well told.”
“Well-researched, unfailingly interesting, and lucidly written. It is remarkable that someone from outside Chabad has been able to write an inside story of Lubavitch¾and to do it so well.”
Professor Henry L. Feingold, author of The Politics of Rescue: The Roosevelt Administration and the Holocaust, 1938-1945.
“Rigg's innovative research reveals astonishing inconsistencies in the conduct of American foreign policy, deepens the mysteries surrounding the incongruous behavior of Hitler's spymaster, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, and raises troubling questions about the subsequent reluctance of Jewish organizations, most notably Schneersohn and his Lubavitchers, to agitate for the rescue of their coreligionists in Hitler's Europe.”
Evan Bukey, author of Hitler’s Austria
“In Rescued from the Reich, Professor Rigg explains the miraculous rescue of one of the world's most dynamic and influential rabbis. Combining historical analysis and investigative journalism, Rigg explores the mechanics of the German, Russian, and American political intrigue during World War II. The extent of diplomacy, political machinations and cooperation between warring nations during one of the most calamitous periods of history¾in order to save the life of a rabbi¾is astounding.”
“Rescued from the Reich is a first-rate piece of detective work. Bryan Rigg recounts in vivid detail the moral complexity of Rebbe Schneersohn's rescue from the Nazis. An excellent book.”
Alexander B. Rossino, author of Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology and Atrocity
“Without Bryan Rigg's unfailing perseverance the entire story would have been lost.”
“A fascinating book which not only sheds light on a chapter of Lubavitch Hasidism but also adds to our knowledge of the tragic period of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Professor Rigg has proved again that he is an excellent historian and a skillful writer.”
Dr. Bernard Klein, Professor and Chairman Department of History, Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York.