Amongst the many historical artifacts that the Kleinman Holocaust Education Center possesses, there is a small gold and diamond pin. While most of our artifacts are well-worn with age and use, this particular item may be old, but it was never used.
The pin belonged to the legendary rescue figure Recha Sternbuch a”h. She received it from a government official in her hometown of Montreux, Switzerland, in recognition of her accomplishments. However, she never wore it. As her family explains, Mrs. Sternbuch was an unpretentious woman who almost never wore jewelry. Worldly possessions and kavod meant little to her.
Indeed, in the thousands of papers, telegrams, and letters that are part of the KHEC Sternbuch Collection, Mrs. Sternbuch’s name is rarely seen in any official documents pertaining to rescue. This is not because she did little – her achievements in successfully rescuing and aiding thousands of Jews during and after the Holocaust are world renowned. Rather, it was a sign of her modesty, in that she had her equally exceptional husband, Reb Yitzchok z”l, serve as the public figure while she operated behind the scenes.
It is important to recognize that her efforts on behalf of rescue weren’t always lauded. In 1938, she worked covertly with a Swiss police captain, Paul Grüninger, to smuggle over eight hundred refugees into Switzerland. Someone informed the authorities and Mrs. Sternbuch was arrested and jailed. Eventually, she was acquitted and continued to endanger her life negotiating with Nazis in a quest to save others.
One Shabbos in 1942, the Sternbuchs were celebrating their only son’s bar mitzvah. Prayer services in shul had barely begun when they received word that three Jewish refugees from Occupied France had been arrested by the Swiss police. These fugitives were to be deported across the border to the Nazi Gestapo and sure death! Mr. and Mrs. Sternbuch immediately left the festivities and were mechallel Shabbos, contacting any official they felt could help. Ultimately they were successful in having those Jews released, but, by then, the bar mitzvah ceremony was long over. This was their bar mitzvah present to their son; a gift of saving lives.
The Sternbuch Collection also contains Mrs. Sternbuch’s passport. If one peruses the book, one sees pages filled with stamps of the countries she traveled to – even after the war – in order to assist her brethren. A devoted mother, Mrs. Sternbuch knew she had to provide not only for her biological children but for the entire family of the Jewish nation. She was truly a “soldier” operating on the front lines.
On Yom Kippur, every person’s “passport in life” is reviewed for stamps of good deeds and accomplishments. Recha Sternbuch’s passport testifies to a lifetime and legacy of mitzvos. It as a passport we must all strive for in our lives; each of us, in our own individual ways.
