Bryan Mark Rigg - Rescued from the Reich [2004][A]

Book Description
Publication Date: October 11, 2004
When Hitler invaded Warsaw in the fall of 1939, hundreds of thousands of civilians—many of them Jewish—were trapped in the besieged city. The Rebbe Joseph Schneersohn, the leader of the ultra-orthodox Lubavitcher Jews, was among them. Followers throughout the world were filled with anguish, unable to confirm whether he was alive or dead. Working with officials in the United States government, a group of American Jews initiated what would ultimately become one of the strangest—and most miraculous—rescues of World War II.
The escape of Rebbe Schneersohn from Warsaw has been the subject of speculation for decades. Historian Bryan Mark Rigg has now uncovered the true story of the rescue, which was propelled by a secret collaboration between American officials and leaders of German military intelligence. Amid the fog of war, a small group of dedicated German soldiers located the Rebbe and protected him from suspicious Nazis as they fled the city together. During the course of the mission, the Rebbe learned the shocking truth about the leader of the rescue operation, the decorated Wehrmacht soldier Ernst Bloch: he was himself half-Jewish, and a victim of the rising tide of German antisemitism.
A harrowing story about identity and moral responsibility, Rescued from the Reich is also a riveting narrative history of one of the most extraordinary rescue missions of World War II.

Editorial Reviews
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.
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From Booklist
This book details the story of the rescue of Joseph Schneersohn, the leader (rebbe) of the Lubavitch Hasidic sect, his family, and his entourage from Warsaw, Poland, in March 1940. Ultimately a Swedish liner took them to New York. An unlikely combination of top officials in the U.S. government and Nazi soldiers and officials cooperated to implement the rescue. A key figure was Major Ernst Bloch, a Nazi officer who had a Jewish father but had been "Aryanized" by order of Hitler. The highest Nazi officer involved, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the German military intelligence service, was not of Jewish origin. His agreement to participate, Rigg believes, might be seen as an early sign of his later disaffection with Hitler. What appears to Rigg as most significant in the decision to go forward with the rescue was the concerted efforts of Lubavitch Jews themselves. They used every contact they and their supporters possessed to get their pleas heard. A moving and multidimensional picture of a daring rescue during the Holocaust. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“The pious will surely see in the Lubabitcher 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 tell - part 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.”—Michael Berenbaum, Professor of Theology The University of Judaism

From the Inside Flap
"A penetrating account of an unknown, fascinating tale of intrigue--the near impossible rescue of a great spiritual leader from Nazi-controlled Poland. The Rebbe’s Rescue is suspenseful, authoritative and well written."--David Kranzler, emeritus professor of history at the City University of New York and author of Thy Brother’s Blood: The Orthodox Jewish Response during the Holocaust

About the Author
Bryan Mark Rigg teaches history at American Military University and Southern Methodist University. His previous book, Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military won the prestigious Colby Award from the William E. Colby Military Writers’ Symposium. His work has been featured on programs including NBC Dateline and Fox News. Rigg served as a volunteer in the Israeli Army and as an officer in the U. S. Marine Corps, and he currently lives in Dallas, Texas.