“Unlikely Allies: The Shocking Nazi Mission to Rescue a Jewish Leader that Shook History”
According to Bryan Mark Rigg, author of the 2006 book Rescued from the Reich: How One of Hitler’s Soldiers Saved the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Admiral Canaris laid out Bloch’s improbable mission in stark terms:
“You’re going to go up to Warsaw and you’re going to find the most ultra-Jewish Rabbi in the world, Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchak Schneersohn, and you’re going to rescue him. You can’t miss him, he looks just like Moses.”
Despite his background, Bloch was a fully assimilated Christian and had little affinity towards the Jewish community. Yet he followed his orders dutifully and dispassionately. Along with two assistants, Unterfeldwebel or Sergeant Klaus Schenk and Grefreiter or PrivateJohannes Hamburger, he travelled to Warsaw and began searching the city’s enormous Jewish Ghetto for Rebbe Schneerson. According to Bryan Rigg, it proved a difficult task:
“He would go up to ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jews, wearing a Nazi uniform with swastikas, and say, ‘I’m looking for the Rebbe.’ And they’d say to him, ‘Yeah, and we want to shave off our beards and join the German army.’ Then they would walk away.”
In late October, Bloch was provided with the Rebbe’s last known address, Bonifraterska 29, only to discover that the building had been destroyed. This information was passed on to Max Rhoade back in New York City, who on November 14 sent a telegram to the International Red Cross in Geneva informing them that:
“German military officer detailed to locate Rabbi Joseph Issac Schneersohn … Schneersohn not apprised officer’s mission. Hope you can devise method of communicating information to Schneerson … detailing of German officer done at request of Schneersohn’s friends … urgent … take advantage opportunity.”
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