Saving Rabbi Israel Lau

He never explained why he did what he did for the Jews. He saved them just the same. He never asked for anything in return. He was an enigma to the Jews of Piotrykow. During the Holocaust, he saved over 700 of them, including the young life of the future Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Israel Lau. His name was virtually unknown for decades after the war had ended.

His name was Reinhold Chrystman. He was the manager of the largest factory in Piotrykow-Trybunalski, Poland, the Kara-Hortensia Glass-works.

In 2015, I was privileged to read an unpublished autobiography of A.R. that had been released only after her passing. A.R. had been classified by Chrystman as an “essential worker” at Kara-Hortensia. She recounted in her Holocaust memoir an incredible story, how Reinhold Chrystman, an Evangelical Christian, had saved her, her family, and over 700 Jews.

My historian background, cynical about such grandiose stories, demanded I investigate. If A.R.’s memoir was true, I was reading about a potential unsung, unrecognized Righteous Among the Nations honoree.

The deeper I dug, the more credible the stories became. The story of Rabbi Israel Lau was glaring.

In the dark, distorted world of the Ghetto the Nazis created in Piotrykow, the certificate of life was a work permit. Among the 700, Chrystman had focused on issuing as many work permits to children, some very young, as he could. He even created a secret nursery in the factory, employing a young Jewish woman to look after 8-10 children. Chrystman could easily have been denounced by a disgruntled Pole or Jew seeking favor from the Nazis. The very young children in the nursery did not work. They lived, protected. One of those little children was 5 ½ year old Israel Lau.

The story was confirmed by Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Archives. Franka Berk was 16 years old, she recounted to Spielberg’s cameras; Israel Lau was one of her charges.  She shared, incredulously to her as she testified, that at the time she had no way of knowing, the tiny, thin child would grow up to become the Chief Rabbi of Israel.

I brought this story and other evidence supporting how Chrystman saved Jews, risking his and his family’s lives, to Yad Vashem for possible recognition as a Righteous Among the Nations.

Nothing happened. Time passed. Years passed. Or… time was deliberately stalled? Witnesses died.

Years later, I met Chrystman’s family in Boise, Idaho, where he was honored at the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial with a permanent stone and tree planting. He was an enigma to his own family, too. They remembered their grandfather as a quiet man. He always carried a bible.

Chrystman would be further recognized by the International Garden of the Righteous in Milan and a Holocaust Rescuer plaque in London. Nothing from Yad Vashem.

A few weeks ago, in Piotrykow, an extraordinary documentary was premiered. It was about Reinhold Chrystman. The film was done by noted Piotrykow documentarian, Tomasz Skibicki. He titled his documentary “Chose”, because Reinhold Chrystman chose to do what was right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsudEp8mJzA

Skibicki included in the documentary a letter from Lau’s mother, Rebbetzin Lau, to Chrystman. She deeply thanked Chrystman for what he had done for her and her children. The letter was discovered in the Piotrykow archives just a few months ago by researcher Dina Feldman.

On the surface, a letter of appreciation to Chrystman is a polite nicety. Rebbetzin Lau could not go into details because if the letter fell into the wrong hands, it could become very dangerous. A disgruntled Pole or Jew wishing to denounce Chrystman, to curry favor with the Gestapo, could have been a death sentence.

I had never known of the shocking letter. It prompted me to contact Yad Vashem.  The letter was shared a week ago. Acknowledgment of its receipt was sent with a promise to review it over the next weeks… The re-contact to Yad Vashem is to reopen consideration of the Chrystman application for recognition as a Righteous Among the Nations.

Will Chrystman get any acknowledgment? Don’t know. What is known? It is the obligation of every Jew to say thank you to anyone who saved a Jewish life, even if it was more than eighty years ago.