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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ003108S
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00:26 Tokaj is a picturesque little town of old buildings, 00:29 nesting storks and wine cellars located in northeast Hungary. 00:34 In the 17th century the Jews of modern day Poland and Ukraine 00:39 were drawn to the region by trade in Tokaj. The therapy 00:46 and the tinted wine it was very popular at the courts of 00:49 Louis XIV of France and Peter the Great of Russia. Soon there 00:54 was a thriving Jewish community in the region whose life 00:58 centered around the synagogue in the center of town. Today 01:05 it's still the largest building in Tokaj, but it's empty and the 01:08 community that one thrived and worshiped here is gone. Their 01:13 memory and heritage is kept by a few remaining members who 01:18 faithfully open the prayer room on special occasions and 01:20 holy days 01:22 when they are joined by descendants of Tokaj Jews from 01:25 overseas. Sadly in Tokaj now the Torah is only read a few times a 01:31 year because there aren't enough Jews left to form a minyan, a 01:35 quorum of 10 men for a formal prayer service. Such is the 01:41 devastation that was meted out on this community. It's been 01:45 tragically decimated. You see in the dying days of World War 01:52 II the Nazis knew that they'd lost the war and were doomed 01:56 They showed their rage in one final horrific act of hatred and 02:02 brutality in Eastern Europe. The Jewish women, children and 02:06 elderly of Hungary were rounded up and sent to extermination 02:11 camps in German and German occupied Poland. All able-bodied 02:17 Jewish men had earlier been put into slave labor battalions and 02:22 now the final orders came through that, the men were to be 02:26 taken on a death march to the extermination camps in Germany 02:30 as well. The commanding officer of one such battalion was Zoltan 02:36 Xubinyl. He had to make an agonizing decision. He could 02:40 ensure his own safety and march the Jewish men under his 02:44 command to Germany and certain death in the gas chambers or 02:49 he could risk his own life and defy the order and lead these 02:54 men back to Hungary and freedom. That's the fatal choice that 02:59 confronted Zoltan Xubinyl. This is his story; a story of courage 03:05 defiance and honor. It's a story that will surprise you and 03:10 and inspire you. ♪ ♪ 03:29 Zoltan Xubinyl was Hungarian and he was an unlikely Nazi. For 03:35 one he was a soldier who refused to carry a gun. In the 03:40 heady days of 1936 idealistic young men from all over Europe 03:46 and from all over the world had flocked to Spain to fight the 03:49 rise of right-wing nationalism. General Francisco Franco, 03:54 supported by Hitler's Nazi Germany had started civil war 03:58 in Spain and the idealistic Zoltan went to Barcelona to 04:04 report on the war against fascism. Zoltan's life was 04:09 turned upside down during his time in Spain, but it wasn't 04:13 because of the war. Instead it was there in Barcelona he 04:18 met a man 04:20 called Strumel who introduced him to the Bible and the good 04:23 news about Jesus. Zoltan accepted Jesus, became a 04:29 Christian and was baptized. In 1942, Zoltan returned home to 04:34 Budapest, the capital of Hungary For a time he supported himself 04:39 by selling Christian books from door to door. After that he 04:44 worked in leadership in a church organization. In January 1943, 04:50 Zoltan married the love of his life in Budapest. Later that 04:54 a son was born. The recently married couple called him Martin 05:00 Martin was just six months old when his father was 05:05 called up into 05:06 the Hungarian army. Because of his qualifications Zoltan was 05:10 given the rank of warrant officer. Zoltan had no choice in 05:15 the issue of joining the Hungarian army. He was simply 05:19 conscripted. But the amazing thing is that the Hungarian army 05:24 was allied on the side of Adolph Hitler's Nazi Germany. The same 05:29 ideology that Zoltan had opposed in Spain seven years earlier. 05:34 And the question for Zoltan was how would he face this challenge 05:39 when this was also contrary to his values. God's commandments 05:45 say, you shall not kill and so he wouldn't. He would go to war 05:51 but to save life, not to take it. So now Zoltan Xubinyl was 05:58 in the Nazi Allied Hungarian army and to continue his story 06:03 it's important to understand what was going on in Hungary 06:07 at the time. The nation of Hungary was allied with Germany 06:12 during World War II, however, in 1944 the Hungarian government 06:18 initiated secret negotiations with the Allies and when Germany 06:23 found out it occupied Hungary and established its own Nazi 06:26 backed puppet government. That happened in March 1944, two 06:33 months before Xubinyl had been conscripted into the Hungarian 06:36 army. In 1940, all the Hungarian Jewish men of military age were 06:43 taken away to forced labor battalions. The vast majority 06:46 of them never saw their families again. It was the fateful 06:53 encounter between one of these Jewish forced labor battalions 06:57 and warrant officer Zoltan Xubinyl in a Russian forest 07:01 that was to decide the fate of many lives. In the spring of 07:07 1944, the men were working the Briance Forest in Russia. Many 07:12 of the men had already died from malnutrition and the harsh 07:16 conditions. Deep in the forest some of the men from the labor 07:21 battalion made contact with the partisans. These Jewish 07:25 resistance fighters said to them Listen, why don't you just 07:29 overpower your guards, take their rifles and come and join 07:33 us. The men in the labor camp had a very heated discussion 07:38 about this idea. Many were in favor of it. Others argued, what 07:43 about the old and the sick men among us? Wouldn't we be 07:46 endangering them. Eventually they decided not to rise up 07:51 against the guards, but a few days later the men who drove the 07:56 wagons into town to get supplies never returned. The 08:00 following day another 20 men went missing from the work 08:04 detail that all ran away to join the partisans. The commanding 08:12 officer of the labor battalion decided that he had to do 08:15 something. So he decided to use decimation where they would line 08:20 the men up and kill every 10th man. When the commanding 08:24 officer told the men they naturally reacted with fear and 08:28 terror. The commanding officer decided that he needed 08:33 authorization for the decimation and that he would travel to 08:37 Gomel 300 kilometers west where the German headquarters were 08:41 to get official approval. Meanwhile the men were to be 08:45 locked up in the compound in the forest. The men waited in 08:50 fear for the commanding officer to return, not knowing who 08:53 would live and who would die. The commanding officer had gone 08:58 in a horse and wagon and along the road a truck had spooked the 09:02 horse which had bolted and hurled the wagon into a ditch. 09:06 The officer was thrown out and ended up with a broken leg. The 09:11 driver and the commanding officer's aid, young Jewish men 09:14 from the labor battalion took him to hospital but they didn't 09:18 mention the purpose of the injured commanding officer's 09:21 visit. The German command sent another Hungarian officer to 09:27 replace him. That officer was Zoltan Xubinyl. Now as soon as 09:33 Xubinyl arrived he gathered the Jewish men together and said to 09:36 them: 09:37 I can understand why you want to escape. But you have to 09:40 understand that I cannot protect you from the consequences if you 09:43 do that. If you will all stop trying to escape, I will try to 09:47 protect you as best as I can. Everyone agreed that they would 09:52 stop trying escape and trust Xubinyl to help them and from 09:56 that very first day, things got better. Morton Fuchs was one 10:01 of the men and a survivor of that forced labor battalion. 10:04 He said: 10:06 Xubinyl was very different from all the 10:08 commanding officers we had before him. The rest had been 10:11 cruel, treating us horribly. We stilled worked long, hard days 10:16 with little food but he was kind and respectful to us. 10:20 He protected us against the abusive German orders for 10:23 physical labor by negotiating on our behalf. He always saw to 10:27 it that we had humane lodging and enough food. 10:31 Every day was a struggle for survival but Xubinyl set about 10:37 creating a sense of community among the men. He was also 10:41 respectful of the men's religious practices and 10:44 encouraged them to keep their faith alive even when all 10:47 humanity appeared to be lost. The men had to work every day, 10:52 even on Yom Kippur, their most holy day, except that on that 10:56 day they all fasted. Xubinyl came out to the fields and 11:01 fasted with them and allowed them to pray during their breaks 11:04 He even arranged for an extra ration of food for the men that 11:10 evening. Another example of his kindness was how Xubinyl 11:13 treated one of the men in particular. His name was Isaac 11:17 Guttmann and he was a great scholar and also very well 11:21 educated in Judaism. Isaac was strictly Kosher and for years 11:26 he had only bread, jam and margarine. He was frail and weak 11:31 and found it difficult to do the heavy work that all the men had 11:34 to do. His life was in danger. So Xubinyl appointed him to be 11:41 the camp rabbi and then he didn't have to go out to work. 11:44 Instead once a week he had to deliver a sermon. He was the 11:49 camp clergyman and that was the extent of his duties. 11:53 One morning as they were being marched to a new location, they 11:58 took a break by the side of the road and as was his custom 12:01 Xubinyl allowed the men to pray during their break and so the 12:07 men were in the middle of their prayers when suddenly they saw 12:11 a group of officers with soldiers coming toward them in 12:14 trucks. The men quickly stopped praying but Isaac Guttmann was so 12:19 devout that he just continued to pray. The men all urged him to 12:25 stop but he wasn't going to let anything interrupt his prayers. 12:31 So Xubinyl quickly put Isaac in his own place up front in the 12:34 wagon and covered him so that he could finish his prayers and 12:38 not be caught. They resumed marching with Xubinyl marching 12:43 in front of the wagon as the soldiers passed by. These are 12:48 just a few examples of the many ways that Zoltan continually 12:52 interceded and helped the men to make it easier for them to 12:56 survive. At the very end of the war, the Nazis could see that 13:03 they were going to lose and there was no more need for the 13:06 workers. Xubinyl received orders to march them into 13:11 Germany to a concentration camp where they were all to be killed 13:16 Instead of obeying orders, Xubinyl sabotaged them and at 13:22 risk of his own life decided to try to save the lives of his men 13:26 so he marched them in the opposite direction, back toward 13:31 Hungary. Along the way Xubinyl managed to hide the men in barns 13:36 and farmhouses. One day they were hiding in a farm near the 13:41 city of Mishkoltz in Hungary when suddenly the Hungarian 13:45 military police came and arrested them all under orders 13:49 from the Nazis. The military police then escorted them on a 13:53 forced march in the direction of Germany and the death camps. 13:57 During this time Xubinyl refused to abandon them and was 14:03 always by their side trying to help them and encourage them as 14:07 best he could. One night while the 140 men were all sleeping 14:12 in a barn they were woken by Xubinyl urgently whispering to 14:17 them, get up quickly and quietly We need to leave right away. 14:23 What had happened was that some of the battalion guards had 14:28 gotten the military policemen nice and drunk and when they 14:31 all finally had fallen fast asleep, Xubinyl had come to get 14:36 the men so that they could escape. So they crept out of the 14:40 barn and ran and marched as fast as they could the whole night in 14:45 the opposite direction towards Hungary. After two or three days 14:49 the men arrived in the large Hungarian city of Belashtamat 14:54 From there they could hear the booming of artillery and the 14:58 explosion of bombs. Xubinyl sheltered them in different 15:02 cellars in the city and hid them from danger. At night no one 15:07 could sleep. Everyone was scared because they could hear the 15:11 noises of the war coming closer and closer. At that time there 15:16 were still around 140 men in the Jewish labor battalion. One 15:22 morning the men awoke to an unusual calm. The noises of the 15:27 war had disappeared. Instead they heard the voices of 15:32 soldiers speaking but not in German or Hungarian. Instead 15:37 they were speaking in Russian. The men carefully peaked out and 15:42 slowly emerged from the cellar in which they'd been hiding. 15:46 They realized that the town was being liberated, the war was 15:52 finally over! When the Russians saw the men from the labor 15:57 battalion they knew immediately who they were from the yellow 16:01 arm bands with the labor camp numbers. So the Russians were 16:06 very friendly to them. Very soon the streets were filled with 16:11 people. Some of them were Hungarian soldiers who were 16:14 scurrying to quickly change out of the uniforms and into 16:18 civilian clothes and hide among the peasants. That way they 16:23 wouldn't be caught by the Russians. When they saw this 16:26 the men from the Jewish labor battalion went quickly to 16:32 find Xubinyl. They told him what was going on and encouraged 16:35 him to quickly change from his uniform and blend in with the 16:39 other people. But Xubinyl refused. They begged and pleaded 16:44 with him to do what they asked. But instead he said: 16:49 No I won't. I haven't done anything wrong. I have nothing 16:52 to be ashamed of. I am proud to have saved the lives of you 16:56 men. I am an honorable member of the Hungarian army. Nothing 17:00 will happen to me. 17:02 He just stood his ground when the Russian soldiers came to 17:05 arrest him. The men tried to protect Zoltan like he had 17:09 protected them. They pleaded with the soldiers saying this is 17:13 a good man. He saved our lives. Don't take him. But the Russians 17:18 wouldn't listen and they took Zoltan Xubinyl away. The men in 17:23 the Jewish labor battalion were devastated. What could they do 17:27 to help their commanding officer now? Well they knew that 17:32 Xubinyl had a wife and child living in Budapest, so they 17:36 agreed to try to help him by helping his family. After the 17:40 war life was hard for everyone. So they took turns to send her 17:45 packages of food supplies every month. In response, the men 17:50 would always receive a thank you note from her. After about 17:54 a year she sent word not to send anymore because she had found 17:59 a good job and could not provide for herself and her son Martin. 18:03 She also told them that she had received word about her husband, 18:08 that he had died in Siberia where he'd been taken as a 18:12 prisoner of war. He had died from typhus in a labor camp 18:15 there and was buried in an unmarked grave. But Zoltan 18:22 Xubinyl's story doesn't end there. The reason why we know 18:28 Zoltan Xubinyl's name today is due to one of the prisoners in 18:32 Jewish labor battalion, Morton Fuchs and his daughter Marta 18:36 They just couldn't let Xubinyl's story end in an 18:41 unmarked grave in the frozen waste of Siberia. More than 40 18:46 years after these events Morton was embarrassed and ashamed to 18:50 admit that he had forgotten the name of the man who had rescued 18:54 him and so many others. So Morton made it his mission to 18:58 find out his rescuer's name. He didn't want his commanding 19:02 officer forgotten and Morton wanted to make sure that the man 19:07 who had saved his life and the lives of so many others was 19:12 honored at Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem is the world's Holocaust 19:17 Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. Here the righteous 19:21 among the nations are honored. These are gentiles, non-Jews, 19:25 who took great risks to save Jews during the holocaust. So 19:31 Fuchs started writing to as many of his labor battalion 19:35 friends as he 19:36 could find. Perhaps they could remember the name of the man who 19:41 had saved their lives. For though they all seemed to have 19:44 forgotten his name they all replied that they remembered the 19:48 man's goodness and compassion to them. Finally after many 19:54 Fuchs received a letter with the name he was looking for; 19:57 the name of Zolton Xubinyl. Next Fuchs prepared the 20:04 documentation to send to the World Holocaust Remembrance 20:08 Center. Because a second witness was required he obtained the 20:14 testimony from Isaac Guttmann. Remember him? The young man 20:17 who became the camp rabbi? Well Isaac wrote this: 20:21 The day before we were liberated Zoltan was looking for me to 20:25 make sure I had food to eat. He brought me some cooked potatoes 20:28 because he knew and respected that I, being a very religious 20:31 man, didn't eat from the regular food. He was a very religious 20:36 Seventh-day Adventist and many times we used to discuss 20:39 together passages from the Bible. 20:42 Morton Fuchs himself wrote the following words: 20:47 Zoltan Xubinyl was a true human being in the deepest sense of 20:52 the word during this catastrophic event when 20:56 civilized intelligent people were blinded with irrational 21:00 hatred and innocent people, mothers with babies in their 21:04 arms were slaughtered. He was a man. Risking his own life he 21:09 stood up for and defended the innocent persecuted people. The 21:14 memory of Zoltan Xubinyl deserves the highest honor 21:18 that a person can possibly deserve for his altruistic, 21:22 heroic and self-sacrificing activities. 21:29 And so it was that in February 1990 the name of Zoltan Xubinyl 21:36 was inscribed with the righteous among the nations at the Yad 21:39 Vashem in Jerusalem and in February 1994 Martin Xubinyl 21:46 received a certificate and medallion of honor on behalf of 21:50 his father from a Yad Vashem representative. Three months 21:55 later, Marta, the daughter of survivor Morton Fuchs stood 22:00 here on the second floor of the Synagogue in Tokaj the first 22:04 holocaust commemoration ever was being held in that town to 22:09 mark the 50th anniversary of the destruction of the Hungarian 22:13 Jewish community. Here Marta Fuchs, on behalf of her father, 22:19 told the story of how Zoltan Xubinyl had saved the lives of 22:24 some of the only Jewish men from this town to have survived 22:29 the war. As everyone present broke into spontaneous applause 22:33 Marta left the microphone and walked to the back of the hall 22:39 where Martin, Zoltan Xubinyl's son, was standing. He had never 22:44 had the chance to know his father. She looked into the 22:49 son's eyes that were now filled with tears and said: I want to 22:54 thank you for your father. I am here in this world because of 22:59 what he did in saving my father. Afterwards Marta asked him the 23:05 crucial question that had haunted her and her father for 23:09 years: Why didn't your father take off his uniform and save 23:14 himself as he had saved so many others. The son answered, I've 23:20 also often thought about why he didn't take off his uniform. 23:24 I think it was because he was such a religious man who was 23:29 always honest and never lied. To him it would have been a lie. 23:35 He hadn't done anything wrong. So why should he take the 23:39 uniform off. And that is the mystery at the 23:46 heart of Zoltan Xubinyl's story. Perhaps it's easy for us to say 23:51 well what Xubinyl did was irrational and even wrong and 23:56 foolish. He would have done nothing wrong by taking his 24:00 uniform off. He would not only have saved himself but he would 24:03 have saved his wife and son much sorrow and grief. But here's a 24:08 question to think about: Could the Zoltan Xubinyl who 24:12 courageously saved so many others without thought for 24:17 himself have been the same man who removed his uniform and 24:22 deceived others to hide among the peasants. At the heart of 24:26 Xubinyl's character there seems to have been an unshakeable 24:30 sense of integrity and honor. He was guided by moral and 24:34 religious principles. He held firm to principles that he 24:39 simply would not betray. Even though Xubinyl wore a military 24:45 uniform, he answered to a far higher commanding officer than 24:49 anyone in the Hungarian army. It was the Bible that taught him 24:53 that he ought to obey God rather than men. In one of the darkest 24:59 eras in which the world was plunged in the brutality and 25:03 horror, it was the Bible that kept Xubinyl firmly focused on 25:08 what was good and right. And I'm sure that Zoltan Xubinyl knew 25:15 verse from the Bible well. From John chapter 15 and verse 13: 25:28 Jesus was talking about how he would lay down his life for us 25:31 his friends. Xubinyl was prepared to lay down his life 25:36 because he had learned to love like Jesus. So let me ask you. 25:42 Where are you heading in your journey through life. Do you 25:46 need direction and purpose in your life. Have you experienced 25:51 the love of God? It was the love of God that transformed an 25:57 ordinary person like Zoltan Xubinyl into a hero and it will 26:01 do the same for you. Like Xubinyl you too can leave a mark 26:07 on this world for good. Yes you can make a difference. If that's 26:13 what you wish, why don't you join with me in this prayer: 26:17 Dear heavenly Father, we thank you for the life of Zoltan 26:22 Xubinyl. We're so thankful that his name and his memory can 26:26 be preserved. We know that you want us to leave a legacy of 26:29 love and kindness in this world. So Father pour your love into 26:39 Jesus' name, Amen. The story of Zoltan Xubinyl is 26:48 so inspiring. He certainly did do the right thing. He made the 26:53 right choice, but sometimes in our own lives we don't always 26:57 know just what the right thing is. Well if you'd like to be 27:02 able to perceive God's will for your life better and ensure you 27:06 make the right choices and do the right thing, then I'd like 27:10 to recommend a free gift we have for all our viewers today. It's 27:15 the popular reading guide, God's Plan For My Life. You'll 27:20 find it most helpful in guiding you regarding how to make right 27:24 choices. So please don't miss this wonderful opportunity to 27:29 receive the gift we have for you today. Here's the information 27:34 you need. Phone or text us at 0436333555 in Australia or 27:42 0204222042 in New Zealand or visit our website TiJ.tv to 27:50 request today's free offer and we'll send it to you totally 27:53 free of charge and with no obligation. Write to us at: 28:11 Don't delay. Call or text us now. 28:13 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2020-06-02