Shabbat in Auschwitz: The Klausenburg Rebbe’s Holy Tradition

Among the Jews imprisoned by the Nazis and taken to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp was the holy Klausenburg Rebbe.

The Rebbe suffered unimaginable loss during the Holocaust. His wife and eleven children were all murdered. Yet in Auschwitz, even while enduring the same cruel treatment as all the other prisoners, the Rebbe showed remarkable spiritual strength. He did everything he could to continue keeping mitzvot (Torah commandments), Jewish customs, and halachot (Jewish laws), no matter the risk or difficulty. Not once did he seek to ease things for himself.

Other survivors who had shared his barracks later told powerful, emotional stories of the Rebbe’s dedication to Torah and to serving Hashem. Even in that nightmare, he never gave up on living a life of holiness.

One Shabbat afternoon in Auschwitz, the Rebbe quietly went from person to person, asking in a soft, almost pleading voice if anyone had a small piece of onion. Why? Because in his family, it was a sacred tradition to eat egg with onion during the Shabbat afternoon meal. And even in Auschwitz, he wanted to keep that tradition, to hold on to a little light of what was, and what had always been.

Amazingly, a tiny sliver of onion was found in the camp kitchen and given to him. The Rebbe took it back to his corner, and with tears in his eyes, he quietly rejoiced. Amid the pain, the beatings, and the constant threat of death, a Jewish soul was lifted in joy for the chance to honor Shabbat the way his fathers had before him.

One of his fellow prisoners, R' Avraham Yaakov Kish, later recalled that during the third Shabbat meal known in Kabbalah as raava d’raavin, a time of deep spiritual connection, the Rebbe would softly speak words of Torah to himself. He did so with the same passion and happiness he had once shown while sitting in Klausenburg on his Rebbe’s chair, surrounded by thousands of chassidim. It was as if his soul could rise above Auschwitz and return, just for a few minutes, to a world of holiness.

After the war, the Rebbe learned the heartbreaking news that his wife and children had not survived. But even with all the pain he carried, he chose life. He moved to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), remarried, and had seven more children. With tremendous inner strength, he rebuilt the Klausenburg Chassidic community from the ashes.

He founded the Sanz-Klausenburg movement, the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood in Netanya, and opened a large yeshiva (Torah academy) that he personally led. He also built many schools and established the Shas publishing project. Most famously, he founded Laniado Hospital in Netanya, fulfilling a vow he had made during the Holocaust: that if he survived, he would dedicate his life to saving Jewish lives.