Life for Hungarian Jews during the first years of the Holocaust was a life of a extreme paradox, more or less continuing as normal through 1944 for most of its Jews, yet with a sharp rise in antisemitism and the knowledge that the Nazi killing machines were slowly closing in on them.
A recent acquisition includes a publication from this era that tells us of the conflicted times and some of the emotions of the Jew who chose to print the book during this traumatic period.
The title is Rabbenu Bachya on the Torah, printed in two volumes in Grossvardin (Oradea), Hungary in 1942. The publisher, Rabbi Aron Hacohen Margolies (Perl), a resident of Debrecen, writes how the Rabbenu Bachya was nearly forgotten due to the unavailability of his writings, and he was thus eager to print it again to make it available for the seekers of knowledge. He writes of his hope to publish additional writings of Rabbenu Bachya as well as other sefarim.
His introduction, though, concludes with a very different tone, reflecting the horrors of the era:
“And now, I will raise my hands to the One in heaven, thank Him for all He has done and plead for the future, that He shall see our infliction, He shall see the spilled blood of the righteous and they shall atone as the blood of sacrifices. May He say to the angel of destruction, halt! And may the name of Israel rise again and may he redeem us a final redemption, rebuild the temple, where we will fulfill our obligations as commanded in the Holy Torah, Amen. May the merit of the author assist me that I shall be able to publish his remaining works and the works of the great leaders of our generations and their preachers, to enable the masses. May I merit to live my days in Torah and mitzvot through peace of mind, and raise my children in the way of the Torah and may I merit to see all our nation in our Holy Land. Signed Aron Hakohen Margolies”
R. Margolies was deported to Auschwitz along with the Jews of his hometown of Debrecen, where he was murdered by the Nazis. Of his seven children who lived to adulthood, three were killed: Yisroel Elimelech, Avraham Yitzchak and Mano Menachem Mendel. Four survived the Holocaust, three of them emigrating to Eretz Yisrael.
