As I said much earlier, this debate , on the intricacies of the war and Kastner, by itself is a sterile and futile debate as no one really knew what went on. At best, it is of archival and historical relevance and , at worst, it is used as a club to make political points. Nonetheless, I will try to answer some of the more specific questions of Joseph.
Obviously, I do not have a list of rabbonim and rebbes who advocated remaining in Europe. Even less do I have written words or letters. So, if you don’t want to accept this news without more concrete evidence, you can rest easy. I, however, have spoken with many Holocaust survivors who told me that, when the various Rabbonim and rebbes were asked PRE-war, they certainly did not advocate leaving Europe. This happened in Poland and certainly in Hungary.
But Joseph, you miss my point. I will repeat, for the umpteenth time here, that I have never, ever accused or burdened any Rov, Godol, Rebbe with decisions made PRE-war. Decisions were made and advice given based on the facts known at the time. In short, many Jews realized that the Jews of Germay were persecuted and so were jews in Russia, Hungary, Romania and more. Everyone thought that this was in the category of another pogrom or ,at worst, like Girush Sefard or other exiles of the Middle Ages. NO ONE imagined the extent that the Nazis YM’S would go to exterminate our people. Based on this thought pattern, most rabbonim did indeed advice to ride out the “storm” and not panic and leave everything behind.
Unfortunately, something monstrous happened, something that occurred once in history- the systematic attempt to exterminate the Jewish people. (Other attempted genocides were never that systematic,well, Purim may be the other one). This just was not thought of, or ever imagined. And, although I think that many Hungarian jews did know about the many killings and the camps, there again, they hoped to ride out the storm. Remember,Hungary (and Romania) were Nazi allies but had their own governments. Unfortunately, Hungary was taken over by the nazis in 1944 and the Jews deported. Right next door, Romania, another early ally of Germany, did not give over their administration to the Nazis and, indeed, the Romanian jews were not deported. There were other atrocities (work camps,for ex.)and only on the East side of Romania, occupied by the germans early in 1941, did mass killings occur. Romania switched sides and its jews were not delivered into the clutches of the Nazis.
I am given you this short history to show that the advice of rabbonim and rebbes PRE-war and even during the war had a certain basis of logic. Where I differ from you is in affirming that their advice was the right one and should never be questioned. The fact is that this advice ultimately was not the right one in those CHANGED circumstances. Do I condemn those Rabbonim and gedolim? Absolutely not! But neither do I accept their word as “halocho lemoshe misinai”. Even the greatest of our leaders make mistakes and are fallible. This , by the way, is how this whole debate (on Rav belsky) started.
Where you and I differ is in evaluating the advice or the opinions of various gedolim. You accept these words as the ultimate truth and hence, you cannot accept that advice given during the war years were wrong. I, on the other hand, do not have this ’emunas chachomim”. I freely admit it(leave the debate on that for another day)and I can accept that the biggest Gedolim make mistakes. Hence, I can say that their advice during the Holocaust was not the right one. In my eyes, this does not take anything away from their “gadlus” but I do not have to accept their word as the ultimate truth.
This is why I, personally, do not accept their view on Eretz Yisroel or the geulah or other matters of the Klal. History is the only real arbiter of earlier opinions. The Holocaust , sadly, proved their earlier advice as being erroneous. THIS DOES NOT DIMINISH THEIR GREATNESS because,very simply, they do not always have to be right.As far as Eretz Yisroel and yes, Zionism, goes, history wil tell.For now, I am pretty satisfied with the early returns.