Rabbi Leib Weiss from Tacovo

#7, Auschwitz Album Revisited

Oil Painting by Dr. Pat Mercer Hutchens

For a period of time, Jews in Hungary were better off than in some countries, but German high leadership invaded Hungary on March 19, 1944 and the annihilation of Hungarian Jewry came about almost immediately. Hitler’s own words were that “the Jewish parasites should be treated like harmful bacteria and annihilated.” Jews were ordered to wear a yellow star.

Later personal property was confiscated, but they were promised anti-Jewish directives would be in effect as long as the war lasted and Hungarian Jews evidently believed they would be spared the fate of neighboring countries. It was not to be so. Isolation into ghettos was started and then finally transports from Hungary to Auschwitz began in May of 1944. Rabbis, like Rabbi Leib Weiss from Tacovo, Hungary, were humiliated by cutting their beards and payot (side locks). Here Rabbi Weiss has withstood the long, suffocating ride on cattle trains and was immediately chosen for the line headed for the gas chamber. The star on his jacket spoke to me of an angel accompanying him, pointing the way forward.