We are at lesson forty-eight in the chain of lineage - the life story of the Rebbe, part eight.
It is related here that in the year "5697 - he served as secretary to his father-in-law, (who stayed for a certain period in Paris)". We have documentation from that year: in the month of Shevat the Rebbe Rayatz traveled to Paris for medical treatment, and later that year, in the month of Adar, he traveled to a resort town near Vienna. From both of these periods there are, in the sefer Igros Kodesh of the Rebbe Rayatz, several letters signed "M. Sch." - the Rebbe's name. From this we see that for several weeks the Rebbe served as secretary to the previous Rebbe, and wrote for him all the letters that he had to write. This is what is hinted at here in a single line.
Here there is a skip over the entire period of 5698-5699, and there is no description of it, even though there are various stories from those years. From here we move directly to the year 5700, in the midst of the war: "Before the festival of Shavuos 5700 - they leave Paris (because of the Nazi occupation) and move to Vichy". In the month of Sivan 5700 the Nazis, may their name be erased, conquered Paris.
An interesting story from those days: immediately upon the conquest of Paris the Nazis issued an order to conduct a registration of all the residents, in which each person would state his exact details - to which religion and to which race he belonged. The census takers went from house to house and registered the residents, and when they reached the Rebbe's home the Rebbe was technically not at home. When they asked who lived in the house and reached the Rebbe's name, they asked what to write about him. They did not want to write "Jew", since they understood that it was a dangerous time, and on the other hand they did not want to write anything else, and therefore they wrote "Orthodox" - a general word that does not pinpoint exactly. When the Rebbe returned home and learned what had been said, he hurried to the Nazi registration office and asked to correct the entry and write "Jew", even though there was danger in this, so that, Heaven forbid, nothing unconnected to Judaism would appear.
Here it is written that a few days before the festival of Shavuos the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin left Paris. The Rebbetzin related that before his departure the Rebbe gathered the Jews who were there, encouraged them and strengthened in them their trust in Hashem. A senior general in the French army, who greatly esteemed the Rebbe, offered the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin a chateau that he had outside the city and said: "Hide there, I am prepared to give you the place". The Rebbe did not agree, and said that it was preferable that he travel to Vichy, as is written here.
The Rebbe and the Rebbetzin managed to board one of the last trains that left Paris. The Rebbetzin related that during the escape there was very heavy shelling in that area, and they entered a shelter, one of the shops. The Rebbetzin was full of fear, and the Rebbe calmed her and gave her confidence that she need not fear anything. "(There they arrived on the eve of the festival of Shavuos)" They arrived in Vichy before the eve of the festival of Shavuos, literally toward evening, close to the sunset marking the beginning of the festival. The Rebbe had a suitcase containing the sirtuk with the top hat and a few belongings; the Rebbe handed the suitcase to a non-Jewish wagon driver and asked him to bring it to one of the hotels in Vichy, while he himself walked with the Rebbetzin for several hours on foot, until they arrived at night at that hotel.
In the next passage it is written: "They stay there several months, and from there they continue to Nice". They arrived in Vichy on the eve of the festival of Shavuos 5700 and stayed there several months - Tammuz, Av and Elul - until the end of the summer, and from there they continued to the south of France, to the city of Nice. That place was then under Italian rule, and therefore it was far safer, and many Jews found refuge there. "In Nice they stay from the end of the summer of 5700 until the beginning of the summer of 5701" There the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin remained some eight or nine months, until the summer of 5701, when they set out to reach the United States, as will be related further on.
In Nice too, it is related, there was considerable danger, and people hurried very much when they went outside so as not to be seen. The Rebbe and the Rebbetzin did a great deal to assist people in those places as well, and there are stories that the Rebbetzin related over the years to those who were in her home.
She related an interesting thing: in those years the refugees looked for a place to lay their heads, and renting a room in a hotel was entirely out of the question, since everything was taken. What was being spoken of was renting a corridor in a hotel, some place to lay one's head, but even for that they would not agree to give a place unless the one asking showed that he had the financial ability to pay. And in order to prove this he had to show a bill of at least one hundred dollars, whose value was very great. The Rebbe had one such hundred dollar bill, and the Rebbe would go around every day and look for Jews who had landed in the city under pressure and had no place, and give them the bill: "Go into the hotel, and they will give you a corner". Thus the bill passed to Jews, and traveled every day from one to another, and thanks to it many Jews managed to be accepted into some corner, when it was seen that they had the means.
Another interesting story from that period, in Tishrei 5701: the Rebbe approached one of the rabbanim who were staying in Nice and clarified with him a halachic discussion - whether there is permission or an obligation to give up one's life for a mitzvah or for a hiddur mitzvah. They brought sources for both sides, and at the end of the conversation it appeared that the matter was not decided. After this discussion the Rebbe disappeared from the area for a few days, and toward the end he returned with two beautiful esrogim, and brought that rav an esrog as a gift. It turns out that the Rebbe had traveled to one of the orchards that were near the war lines by the Italian border, and obtained esrogim there so that he would have the possibility of fulfilling the mitzvah on the festival of Sukkos.
There are many stories about this, and here we will suffice with a brief account, which is enough at this point.